Improving Software Delivery Process by Shifting the Balance Between Security and Speed

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering March 24, 2022

Software Delivery with DevSecOps

Few things are more important to software delivery with DevSecOps than finding the balance between security processes and speed. When security measures are shifted to better catch problems early in the development process, the process moves along faster, and application speed becomes more efficient.

Companies are slowing down the development of their applications due to intricate security measures implemented at the wrong time. While this is expected on a certain level, it’s challenging to find the balance. In the world of development and security operations, it’s a constant tug of war regarding which aspect of the application should trump another.

For most businesses, risk management and security measures for their data and sensitive customer information always come first, but what can they do when security is drastically slowing down the performance of their systems, thwarting new customers, and frustrating existing ones? Making a choice here is challenging, primarily because you know the right one.

It’s crucial to know how other businesses implement their security processes when you’re trying to correctly employ security features into your development operations (DevOps). Knowing the standard approaches for DevSecOps can help you decide the path you’d like to take on the subject and assist you in figuring out what will work best for your business.

The Components of DevSecOps

DevSecOps has quite a few components that should be identified when learning how to balance security and speed. Areas such as design and people management are just as important as quick application response time and state-of-the-art security measures.

No single approach will work across the board when it comes to DevSecOps and automated security testing. Every company has different goals and application requirements, and it’s best to determine what you need before you begin hashing out a thorough development plan. A solid understanding of your organization and your goals as a business will encourage you to move forward.

Of course, DevSecOps and the delicate balance between speed and functionality don’t come without challenges. To address those difficulties head-on, you should know the problems that your own company faces, both current and projected.

Shifting security means doing more security upfront as the development lifecycle of your software unfolds. One of the main points behind software delivery DevSecOps is to acquire assurance without friction while utilizing more automation.

Know Your Level of Risk Management

When discussing software delivery with DevSecOps, experts and industry enthusiasts will always address the topic of risk management. Businesses must realize that risks look different for every organization, and you have got to have some idea regarding the level of security risk your company faces each day.

For organizations that are just beginning their journey to balance security and speed through the proper implementation of DevSecOps, you’ll likely notice there is a tad more wiggle room when it comes to the tolerance presented for security risks. As your business grows and your development and security operations become more concrete and evolved, risk tolerance goes way down.

Not only do you have less room for risk as your software implementation develops, but you’ll also catch possible risks earlier on in the development process. In the gating process, also known as the beginning of DevSecOps employment, you’ll gauge your risk tolerance level and aim to lower it.

In general, most companies face risks that are unbeknownst to them. Unfortunately, it’s one factor that comes into play when running a company. Begin by setting achievable goals and fully understanding that you’re absolutely going to discover new risks along the way.

It will all be worth it in the end. Not only will you increase the speed of your applications, but you’ll put security measures in place that you would have never otherwise known you needed.

The DevOps Tools Needed for Development Operations

A few tools are needed to support development and operations so that weaving security into the mix is possible. Continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) are necessary to integrate application and data structure changes as they come and to deploy all changes to the testing and production teams.

CI/CD are the components of DevOps that work undeniably well together, and they’re needed to avoid integration challenges in development and production. Before you dig into the nitty-gritty of DevSecOps, you must have the correct tools in place within your DevOps program.

Understanding DevSecOps

Now you know the fundamental aspects that make up DevOps and DevSecOps, but do you fully grasp the difference between the two? What exactly is DevSecOps, and how can you make it work for your company?

DevSecOps (or Development Security Operations) is the process of integrating security into the DevOps cycle. It’s all about making security easier for development teams. If you can figure out how to make things easier for them, you can be confident that security and development will become (somewhat) flawlessly intertwined.

A good company-wide understanding of security and software delivery with DevSecOps is indeed necessary to succeed in DevSecOps overall, but you’ve got to decide what that means to you. DevSecOps means a few things for most businesses, including building a security culture, shifting security, automating testing and assurance through digital modernization, and governance of the operation to establish what works.

While all of these aspects are incredibly important, we’re going to discuss shifting the security balance left to gain better application speed while maintaining safety levels. Let’s get into it.

Shifting Security Left

Hearing the phrase “shift security left” can be highly confusing for many development teams and business owners, but it doesn’t have to be. Shifting testing to the left means that you have to do more testing early in the development process to avoid running into issues later on. A shift in security can save money while moving along with application development.

Shifting security left doesn’t apply only to testing but focuses on security requirements as well. If you’re going to move your security to catch problems in the beginning phases of development, then you’ve got to change security all around.

When it comes to testing, DevSecOps teams should focus on the following:

Soft gates are what you’ll want to utilize at the beginning of the development process when risks can be assessed and mitigated. At the same time, the team moves forward with their primary focus, which is (obviously) software and application development.

Hard gates come later down the line, where you’re less likely to survive significant security risks, and if discovered, production should halt until it’s rectified. As a tech leader, you’ll set the criteria for your soft gates and hard gates, determining where the team should move forward and where they have to stop due to the risk level.

Set the risk levels to where they’re acceptable for your business, and go from there. The idea behind evaluating and implementing risk levels is to increase development and speed regarding development. Shift security left, and automating the process as much as possible, will allow you to make decisions in real-time.

Transform Your Security Culture

One of the most critical parts of establishing a security-first attitude and increasing development speed is to focus on the people. You have to build a security culture within your business by nurturing security skills and knowledge and eradicating a lack of understanding.

When security is emphasized at every production level, it becomes difficult to ignore the potential security issues that pop up because that’s where the team remains focused. Security is definitely a niche all on its own, and it can be challenging for people to grasp every intricate detail.

The only way to truly combat a lack of knowledge is to develop a training program that touches on every aspect you need to cover to catch your team up to date. Hands-on training is the best way to teach security within development teams. You should know your team quite well, which will put you way ahead of the game regarding how to help them learn.

Security scalability focuses on spreading the knowledge of a handful of people to various teams within a company. You can scale security knowledge to your development teams by using outside tools (such as learning applications) and developing incentives for skills gained.

It seems silly from a professional perspective, but giving your team a goal to work toward, even if it’s a teaching program, can raise morale and stress the importance of grasping the importance of security throughout the development process.

Security and then Speed

If you’re unsure where you stand regarding security and speed, you’ll want to restructure your IT strategy to put security first. Gone are the days when placing security before development slows down the process significantly, especially if you shift your security and focus on it at all times.

By harboring a “security-first” workplace culture, you’ll find that employees from every team will catch issues and flag them as the process moves along at an acceptable, agile pace. Also, you won’t have to halt production before your application launches, which most business owners can agree is ideal.

Quantum Computing is Nearly Here: Are You Ready?

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering March 21, 2022

Quantum Computing

There’s no question that quantum computing is making its way into the limelight at what could be a record-breaking pace. In somewhat simple terms, quantum computing encompasses the study of how humans can use the phenomena of quantum physics to create new ways of computing.

Unlike a standard computer bit, quantum computing consists of qubits. Qubits can be either a zero or a one or a superposition of both. By harnessing the collective properties of quantum states, such as entanglement, superposition, and interference, Its is making great strides toward successful calculations.

Quantum computers possess the potential ability to process far more information (correctly) than non-quantum computers. By performing calculations based on the probability of an object’s state before it’s measured without relying on only zeros and ones, the data storage of quantum computing is exponential.

Utilizing Quantum Computing

As quantum technology accelerates toward commercial visibility, technology buffs (and the general public) have begun questioning the intended use of quantum technology as a whole. The internet is alive with searches that contemplate whether or not it’s even real, and major corporations, like IBM, are here to tell us that quantum computing is more than real.

In fact, quantum computing is solving problems that our supercomputers cannot. Very recently, a research center in Japan announced its success with entangling qubits, which could improve the potential for error correction in quantum computers. This discovery alone makes it entirely possible to develop large-scale quantum computers, but for what?

Ending Our Reliance on Supercomputers

For decades, we’ve relied on supercomputers to solve major technological issues, but there are some problems that supercomputers cannot resolve. Unfortunately, time has revealed that in some instances, supercomputers aren’t that effective and do not have the working memory to sort the myriad of combinations that come with real-world problems.

Also, it’s crucial to consider that humans built supercomputers to analyze each combination, one after another, which can take an excruciatingly long amount of time. To help paint a clearer picture, here are a few examples:

Pharmaceutical companies simulate molecules to understand drug interactions better
Investment companies balancing the risks of their current portfolios
Logistics companies, delivering nationwide, require the best route combinations to save on fuel costs

While a supercomputer could technically determine these results, quantum computers have the capacity and understanding to deliver faster and more accurate results over a much shorter time. From reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere to implementing quantum battery technology, quantum computers solve major problems where supercomputers fall short

The Development of Quantum Technology

Breakthroughs regarding quantum technology are growing at exponential rates, and investment dollars are pouring in just as quickly. Quantum computer start-ups are beginning to increase, and larger-scale tech companies are also getting in on the quantum computing action. From Amazon and Google to Microsoft and IBM, cloud-based commercial quantum communication is here.

It’s important to note that the number of companies utilizing and building themselves upon quantum computing does not necessarily equate to commercial success. Quantum computers show a ton of promise regarding the ability to help businesses solve problems at exponential rates, but the application is in its somewhat early experimental phases.

In most cases, experts are still attempting to determine the best topics for the field to test a hypothesis. Harnessing the power to make business-related decisions (that would take a conventional computer more than a week to make) in less than a second is desirable. Still, we must understand where and when to apply it safely.

The Benefits of Quantum Computing

It’s possible that the leaps and bounds made in the field of quantum computing could change the world. However, it’s the responsibility of technology leaders to realize that not every aspect of quantum computing is beneficial and educate ourselves as much and as often as possible on the reality and capabilities of these machines and the extent of artificial intelligence presented.

The Risk of Quantum Computing

One of the most significant risks that we face concerning cyber security and the overall risk of access to sensitive information. In reality, quantum computers will possess the ability to break into the public access key widely used by companies globally to protect consumer data.

In short, this unprecedented hacking possibility presented by quantum computers means that data that’s secure now may not be in the future. Figuring out how to combat this is key in utilizing, and we should encourage investments into quantum-resistant security measures.

Debates Within the Field of Quantum Computing

While experts continue to debate over very fundamental aspects of quantum computing, it’s becoming more and more crucial that we begin to prepare for the quantum era. Technology and business leaders should be in the process of formulating their versions of quantum computing, primarily in industries that will likely be the most affected, such as big pharma, in preparation to reap early benefits.

The change will come more quickly than most of us have ever imagined, with commercial services making public debuts as soon as 2030. Reports on have been developed to help leaders better prepare and find balance in an ever-emerging quantum ecosystem.

Equipping for the Era of Quantum Computing

If your company hasn’t begun dipping its toes into the quantum computing pool, the time is now. Companies and their technology leaders and teams must prepare for the quantum boom because it’s nearly here, and the evolution is moving quickly.

Commercial uses for quantum computing in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, automotive, and finance are imminent. The sooner our teams can figure out how to implement this unprecedented technology safely, the better the outcomes.

Preparing for the quantum era means fully accepting that these machines will heavily impact the world, possibly advancing technology in ways we might not fully understand. While this message can feel scary, taking quantum development seriously every step of the way will be essential to skirting misuse.

As calls for ethical guidelines become louder, we must support the movement. Education is power, and we should ensure that businesses, governments, and the public are fully educated on the possibilities that come with quantum computers.

Five Steps to Modernize Your Data Using Azure

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering, Modernization March 15, 2022

Data modernization with Microsoft Azure

In recent years, it’s become evident that the modernization of data and cloud migration is essential to the survival of businesses. Microsoft azure It’s not to say that legacy systems have to fall by the wayside altogether. Still, it’s crucial to establish a new way to distribute and provide access to company data for both your customers and employees/teams.

Companies that provide on-premises software will best understand the need to modernize existing applications and how it’s necessary when moving to a SaaS model. Updating your environment as a whole can help you make a move more flexibly and efficiently.

What is Microsoft Azure?

Modernizing data is essential to moving to a SaaS model, but it’s one of the first steps you should take in the migration. Other than improving communications between teams and automating redundant business functions, the whole point of modernizing and moving to a cloud platform is to enhance the user experience for your customers greatly.

Microsoft Azure is cloud engineering that continues to make the process of switching to the cloud easier for businesses across the board. Azure is a multi-cloud platform designed to help companies manage data applications. Microsoft Azure can store your data and transform it, depending on how you utilize the services.

Essentially a massive collection of networking hardware and servers tasked with running complex distributed applications, Microsoft Azure is compelling because of the way its servers are orchestrated. Azure is fantastic in the way that you can successfully add cloud services to your existing technology and legacy systems, which can make change easier for some.

Suppose you don’t want to add cloud technology to your current systems. In that case, you can use Azure as a Saas service, entrusting them with all of your network and computing needs. You can start using Azure for free, making it incredibly appealing for companies across the board, ranging from start-ups to established corporations.

Knowing if You’re Ready to Move to SaaS

It doesn’t take long to use up resources when operating within the software business. Building usable software isn’t easy, and there is a fair share of distractions, ranging from troubleshooting customer issues to sales. The cycle is relatively nonstop, and you’ll probably find that you’re spending quite a bit of time just maintaining operations without leaving anything left to dedicate to modernizing your operating systems.

By pulling your technology into the future, you can streamline your operations and reduce the time spent on tedious and repetitive tasks. This provides the opportunity to broaden your customer base and deliver new data.

If your business is based on an on-premises approach, it’s time to take a look at what Microsoft Azure can do for you. Your application services likely expect plenty of requirements from your customers and clients.

From scalability to security, you have essential application components that you have to deliver on to build the solutions you desire. To support millions of users worldwide, you have to find a way to draw them in and impress them in new ways. This becomes near impossible when you’re operating on old legacy systems that no longer make sense to your business model.

In short, if you’re ready to go big with data modernization, eliminating repetition, and enhancing the customer experience, you’re ready to move to a SaaS platform. Microsoft Azure can help.

Choosing a Cloud Program that Works

There’s no question that customers today demand a flawless experience intricately interlaced with fantastic customer service and state-of-the-art technology. It has become increasingly more challenging to meet the demands of the public. Modernizing your data through an efficient cloud program can help, but where do you begin?

Knowing that you need to meet customer expectations but not having the technology to do so can put plenty of pressure on your development teams and operation as a whole. To choose the right cloud program for you and determine whether you can entrust the cloud with your current systems, you’ll have to ask yourself a few questions.

Avoid Downtime

The cloud program you choose should help you avoid downtime at all costs, whether planned or unplanned. You want to avoid poor interactions with customers at all costs. While systems are expected to go down now and then, is your platform of choice able to help you deal with that?

Unexpected Spikes

Will your cloud platform of choice be able to help you handle unexpected spikes in traffic? Most cloud platforms, Azure included, are set up to help avoid customer complaints regarding poor working performance. You need a platform that will not require you to pay for a large amount of storage that you might not need in the long run, and Microsoft Azure is very customizable.

Expansion

The cloud platform you work with should assist you in expanding to regions beyond your average reach. With modernization and growth, new business should come, and your new platform must assist in that expansion. Azure will also give you access to the legacy systems that you’ve come to know and depend on, which is comforting to business owners of all sizes.

Secure Data

Regardless of your business type, you have got to keep your customer data (as well as your own) as secure as possible. Your cloud platform should go above and beyond to ensure that your data stays clear of jeopardy and Microsoft Azure is well respected in terms of security.

Azure: A Deeply Trusted Cloud Platform

Microsoft Azure is a cloud platform that more than 90% of fortune 500 companies rely on to monitor, upgrade, and secure their data. Azure was constructed from a cloud-first standpoint, which means that the platform knows how to deliver exceptional value to your customers regardless of where you live in the world.

Azure gives business owners on a global scale the comfort of knowing they no longer have to worry about performance or capacity. The platform allows you to scale up and down whenever needed without jumping through various hoops and financial commitments.

Your development team can easily tailor Azure to your operational needs, alerting you to performance issues and configuring your applications to scale up and down on their own, according to demand. When you use Azure, your customers will have consistent app availability, as the platform uses built-in automatic patching and backup and security and monitoring.

Azure is available in more than 140 countries, allowing you to put your data where your clientele resides. Overall, the platform has become essential to helping various businesses see sustainable and substantial growth quickly. The availability of Microsoft Azure is unparalleled, and if you’re considering a data modernization (and you should be), it’s time to seriously look into your options with Azure.

The Importance of Modernization with Azure

Moving your data to a cloud platform with the capabilities of Azure is sure to streamline your business processes over time. Of course, the modernization of data takes time, and it’s crucial to maintain a line of open communication with your team. When substantial changes take place, communication is vital to avoid confusion.

Data modernization can take your company to the next level, skyrocketing you to levels of growth you may never see otherwise. Now is the time to take advantage of the fantastic possibilities Azure has to offer.

The Hybrid MultiCloud is Here: What Can You Build?

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering February 28, 2022

Hybrid Multicloud

You can’t turn around without coming into contact with the term “hybrid” today. Hybrid models are everywhere, ranging from vehicles to work environments. The word “hybrid” refers to something made by combining two elements or a mixture. If something is composed of mixed parts, it’s referred to as a hybrid.

For example, a hybrid vehicle is a mixture of a car that runs off gasoline and electricity, while a hybrid employee works both at home and in the office. Leave it to technology to take hybrids to the next level, introducing the Hybrid Multicloud.

Another Level of Cloud Engineering

In the current world of technology, it can be challenging to maintain the constantly thrown around terms and ever-evolving. Lately, you’ve likely heard of the hybrid MultiCloud, but what does it mean for you and your company?

If you’ve been wondering what the hybrid MultiCloud can do for you, you might want to begin by breaking down the term. We’ve already discussed what hybrid means, which is something that is a mixture of other things, or heterogeneous if you will. The term “MultiCloud” refers to more than one cloud computing system.

Therefore, combining the terms “hybrid” and “MultiCloud” means you’re looking at an IT infrastructure that uses a mixture of private, public, or on-premises cloud technology from multiple providers. So, you can see where the term hybrid MultiCloud comes from.

This approach makes complete sense for numerous organizations, but it’s up to you to determine if that pertains to your company or business. However, the hybrid MultiCloud allows you to benefit from and maintain the systems you’ve spent much of your time building. You’ll want to scale those cloud services wherever it makes sense to do so and pair them with the current practices you have in place for reducing your overall costs.

Utilizing the Hybrid MultiCloud Approach

If you’ve been in business for quite some time, you probably know that it’s impossible to rely on only one single technology or system to resolve issues on every project. Technology is all about troubleshooting and figuring out what will work for you and what will not.

In general, it’s unlikely that your business will move every piece of data that you’ve ever created to cloud technology; it’s ill-advised. So, in reality, you’re always technically working on a hybrid model in one way or another. Moving every computing system your development team has ever built to the cloud could potentially do more harm than good. Still, companies of all sizes are finding flexibility within the cloud infrastructure that can power the IT of a business forward.

When you use the hybrid MultiCloud approach in your company, you can easily tailor the approaches that will enhance the way your organization runs. The MultiCloud allows businesses to break things down piece by piece, focusing on specific components, tasks, and projects that need your current attention.

An abundance of your existing platforms is rich in history. Instead of dismantling that history, why not integrate them with new cloud technology capabilities and techniques whenever it makes sense. It would help if you always focused on utilizing the available technology for the current task at hand.

Understanding the Components Behind the MultiCloud

If you’re running a large enterprise, the mainframe will be a vital component of your hybrid MultiCloud structure. Your mainframe is likely what drives your workload.

Because mainframes house so much data, it only makes sense that a massive percentage of your transactions take place (at least partially) on the mainframe, no matter what those might look like. Without question, you’ve got to take this essential part of your business operations and consider it thoroughly when implementing the hybrid MultiCloud.

The Benefits of the Hybrid MultiCloud

There are plenty of benefits of MultiCloud. Knowing the benefits can help you understand how it might make your business easier to manage.

Finding the Best MultiCloud Providers

A hybrid cloud model results in administrators understanding the best technology to assign to each task. Multiple options offer a higher level of agility, meaning you can match your business with the technology that best aligns with different parts of your business.

Agility

It’s not easy to plan a MultiCloud strategy, especially when most companies looking to move to cloud technology are struggling with outdated legacy systems. Don’t bother stressing yourself out by refusing to hire a competent provider who will help you move to a hybrid MultiCloud platform. You’ll find complete agility with your workload and switching between systems from the proper implementation.

Security

The hybrid MultiCloud offers robust security. Cloud service providers are responsible for their security, so your company will benefit from those security systems in place through the protection of your data. However, it’s still essential for your team to assess your security level over time and make changes if necessary.

Drive Innovation Through Automation

The hybrid MultiCloud encourages companies to automate and adequately distribute workloads among teams, integrating development operations and leaving room for innovation. Automation ensures orchestration across multiple cloud environments. It expands deployment capabilities and connects applications with workload processes to deliver your business services quickly.

The Challenges that Come with Change

It’s undeniable that challenges come with integrating any kind and implementing MultiCloud technology is no exception. The goal behind utilizing MultiCloud is to bring control and order to your business without interrupting business transactions. It’s all about building resilience.

Data protection and security will add to the challenges that change, as it will be a huge part of working within the hybrid MultiCloud. In reality, your clients and customers don’t care so much about what type of technology you’re using, but they do care that their data will remain protected in the event of an attempted breach.

When you manage systems on a MultiCloud platform, it can be challenging to deal with separate configuration and security protocols and development techniques. The requirements when utilizing different cloud providers means understanding the deployment techniques of each and monitoring them in different ways.

Building your management solutions is crucial. Not only are you working with separate cloud providers, but you are also employing different technologies within those providers. Knowing how to access and execute these systems requires a lot of internal learning and change. Planning can be the difference between failure and success.

Planning execution is nothing new in the world of business and technology. To build something great and truly harness the capabilities of the hybrid MultiCloud, you have to understand data modernization and cloud engineering as a whole. There isn’t a single developer or development team in history that started from the top to build and execute new technologies.

Success with Modern Technology

Modern technology can be frustrating for many business owners. However, embracing it is necessary to move forward successfully without falling behind the competition. Integrating your old technology with the new is the premise of successfully adopting hybrid MultiCloud technology. Without question, change will deliver copious amounts of value to your company.

Effects of Application Modernization on Digitization

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering February 10, 2022

Application Modernization

Nothing in modern times has tested the agility of businesses quite like the events of the last two years. Business applications that work well are essential to survival, and day by day, customers continue to drive the demand for such a change.

Because digitization can be a daunting and time-consuming process, even significant, established companies are operating on outdated legacy systems. Not only does this affect the customer experience overall, but it also hinders progression.

Application modernization is essential for efficiency. The time to invest in technology is now, as legacy modernization is unavoidable if you want to remain relevant.

Meeting Industry Needs

Regardless of the industry in which your business resides, whether technical or retail, your digital operations are integral to the way you do business. Adopting new technology is part of building a company with an online presence and serves its customers well.

Moving to online platforms and services enables you to make the most of the available digital technologies. The technology you choose to modernize your applications is entirely up to you but should work with your revolutionized, digitized business model.

Companies typically go about application modernization by utilizing big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and moving application systems to the cloud. So, how does meeting industry needs through application modernization affect digitization? First, we should briefly discuss the purpose of digitalization as a whole.

The Overall Purpose of Digitization

Without question, digitization changes a business model, becoming necessary over the past two years. It can create avenues for new revenue while increasing the quality of your company data. Digitization is all about working smarter, and even though the road to revitalizing your company through digitization is a long one, it’s always well worth it in the end.

The new technologies that come with digitalization make it possible to offer more value to your customer base. You’ll successfully be able to manage distribution, promotions, and building awareness for your brand. You become more profitable, efficient, and productive when you modernize applications

What is Application Modernization?

Application modernization is the process of updating your legacy applications to cloud app environments using technology stacks. When your company modernizes its legacy apps, you will meet user expectations as they evolve continually. By implementing the application modernization process, you can take advantage of the tech available to you.

Many companies hire a professional team to assist in application modernization, as it involves the re-development of ideas and software. Much of application modernization occurs in the cloud, and you’ll find that repurposing, consolidating, and reprogramming your legacy applications or software code to better align with your business values and customer requirements.

It’s not about ridding yourself of the legacy systems that have served you well over the years. Instead, app modernization brings them into the now. It makes them readily changeable for the future, integrating new functionality into existing apps and bringing around the possibility of building new ones.

Consumer-Driven Digitization

Without question, the main driving force behind digitization is consumerism. Consumers lead companies to improve the customer experience because your product, service, and brand reputation are at risk without it.

One of the best ways to enhance the journey of your current customer, whether your brand implements a traditional sales funnel or the marketing flywheel, is through digitization. Bring your brand forward and create a seamless experience by updating existing business applications and making new ones.

You cannot move into the future of the business while relying on your original legacy systems. The need for app modernization services is rising, and companies globally are refusing to fall behind competitors and lose customers based on a poor experience that proper digitization can fix

Application Modernization Fuels Digitization

While consumers absolutely encourage companies to embrace digitization, application modernization does the same. Without the apparent application modernization trends, the need for businesses to become more efficient to remain competitive would be nonexistent. Relevancy and ease of doing business on both the end of the consumer and then company are paramount to success.

For many businesses, the need to modernize business applications across the board jumpstarts the digitization process. Even when digitization isn’t embraced as a whole, application updates force a small step into the future. However, shortcuts regarding digitization are never recommended, but it’s clear, even with minor updates, to see the distinct connection between application modernization and digitization.

Modernization Trends

Business owners need to understand the trends that come along with application modernization to identify better what needs to happen to succeed in digitization. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a ton of pressure on enterprises concerning the need to digitize internally and externally.

If you’re looking to move your company toward digitalization, these are the current trends that you’ll want to follow:

Lifting and Shifting

The lift and shift is the least intensive approach to digitalization, but it definitely isn’t the best way to get every benefit available from what the cloud offers. The lift and shift method means moving legacy systems without applying significant changes to the underlying code and architecture. While the lift and shift can be considered an integral part of the application modernization process, it’s not optimal.

Refactoring or Restructuring

You’ll often hear these phrases used interchangeably, along with rewriting. With refactoring, you’ll adopt restructuring the base code of your legacy applications. Your development team, or the company you’ve chosen for your app modernization services, will utilize microservices to boost the benefits native to the cloud infrastructure. It’s all about getting the best out of the cloud.

Replatforming

Replatforming is a middle ground between restructuring and the lift and shift method of application modernization. Replatforming does not ask for major code changes while embracing modern updates that allow the legacy system or application to access the benefits of the cloud platform.

There are plenty of technologies available, most of which are crucial, that assist in moving along the application modernization process. These tech advances are part of the way application modernization trends, and they include:

Containers for operational portability, efficiency, and scalability
Cloud computing or the process of migrating legacy applications to a cloud environment
Microservices, to decouple components into smaller pieces so you can update them independently
Automation for the correct management of security teams and operations by development during scaling
Orchestration to coordinate the automation of these varying operational tasks

Hiring a development team is crucial for modernizing applications, and you’ll see immediate effects on how your business moves toward digitization. The two are undeniably related.

The Benefits of Application Modernization

Application modernization has many benefits when executed correctly, typically by a professional development team. It’s essential to have all the working parts in place, and an expert can make sure this happens.

Application Modernization’s Positive Effect on Digitization

It’s estimated that most tech applications have a life of around five years of relevancy. Therefore, modernizing your applications and the digitization of your company, as a result, is inevitable. Outdated technology dramatically affects how a company works, both internally and externally.

Application modernization is cost-effective, and it cuts down costs related to internal technology while improving company flexibility, consumer experience, and internal collaboration. In short, application modernization is the fuel that keeps company digitization up and running.

Level-Up Your Business Process with Microsoft Azure

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering, Modernization January 31, 2022

Cloud Transformation

There’s no question that cloud computing is on the rise, with more than 81% of companies running at least one application on cloud technology. The needs of any business are constantly changing, regardless of size or industry.

Microsoft Azure is cloud technology that has been a cornerstone in supporting those changes by processing large amounts of data and letting companies create dynamic and innovative ways of working. Without Microsoft Azure, many businesses would have been unable to work remotely throughout the peak of the pandemic.

Most larger-scale companies are successfully operating via cloud technology. While mid-size and smaller businesses are playing catch up, they’re struggling to harness the total value of what the cloud has to offer by moving applications without a complete digital transformation.

The Purpose of Cloud Transformation

Cloud technology is a big part of data modernization. When companies store something in the cloud, using developments like Microsoft Azure, they’re storing information on secure internet servers instead of computer hard drives.

The cloud is convenient, reliable and allows companies to expand their presence and workforce globally. When explained to those unfamiliar with the cloud, a great example is their email account.

Anyone who has utilized Gmail has used cloud technology, as all of that information is stored on internet servers instead of private computers. When you have to access your email, you can do it from any connected device, which means you do not have to be at home.

Cloud usage is skyrocketing because it provides businesses the means necessary to add to their remote teams and provide instant access to information employees need. There is no question that the cloud is vital to business modernization, notoriously making it easier to perform everyday company tasks such as:

File Storage

Companies can store various information using Microsoft Azure, from client files and employee email accounts.

File Sharing

Cloud-based services make it easy to share files with multiple people at one time. If you’ve ever used Google Documents or a photography website like Unsplash or Flickr, then you’ve taken part in file sharing on the cloud.

Data Backup

One of the most popular reasons companies begin to shift their applications to a cloud-based server is backing up crucial company data. Microsoft Azure can not only back up your files but provide ample protection for them as well.

As cloud transformation becomes more and more necessary, many companies are falling into the trap of moving IT systems to the cloud without executing the transformational strategy needed to harbor every app modernization aspect the cloud can provide.

Operating the cloud isn’t only about company connection and easy data storage. Instead, it’s about a complete and total company-wide digital conversion.

More than Moving a Legacy System to the Cloud

For many businesses, it seems only natural to move old and outdated systems to the cloud and call it a day. Unfortunately, this quick “lift and shift” makes for an overall ineffective usage of the cloud and may even make daily operations more complex.

Using the cloud is less about moving your legacy system and more about a complete and total legacy transformation. Yes, you need these systems because they are critical to the way you run your business, but instead of moving them, revitalize them.

The only way to get the most out of moving your current systems to the Microsoft Azure platform is to consider design deeply. Without the proper attention from a holistic viewpoint and embracing a complete digital transformation, companies place sensitive information on the cloud and face invasions from skilled attackers while lacking innovation and the agility needed to operate totally on the cloud.

So, what’s a company to do to successfully switch to Microsoft Azure?

Start with an Open API Model

Before you jump in and begin shifting your IT systems to a cloud server, step back and evaluate what this switch means to your company. It should represent so much more than easy access to applications and necessary files for your employees.

Successfully applying the use of cloud solutions requires a renovated company outlook. An open API model gives a way to standardize and automate your IT environment. Turning to the cloud to host your applications means adopting a modern security posture and working within an established yet agile operating model.

The cloud can seamlessly help you drive innovative business solutions and leverage new capabilities all-around. Still, before you implement, you have to take these new business stances and enforce them all around. You do not have to recondition your strategic outlook, but it is the only way to get the best performance possible from cloud-based solutions like Microsoft Azure.

When companies see cloud capabilities for what it truly is, the door opens to create a next-generation IT capable of enabling business growth and innovation within a rapidly evolving digital era.

Reaping the Most Value from Microsoft Azure

By now, we’ve established it’s no secret that some companies reap the full benefit of the cloud while others are creating a more complex operating system and wondering where they went wrong. The main difference is that companies that treat their employment of the cloud as a business-technology transformation were undeniably more successful than those that view the cloud as a quick fix.

Your company can successfully gain every drop of value that Microsoft Azure offers, including networking, analytics, and storage capabilities. Before you begin your Azure transformation, you’ll want to ensure that your focus is in the right place.

The Complexity of Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is not easy, and if it were, every small to large scale company across the globe would employ it overnight. The sheer volume of work that it takes to enforce digital transformation is staggering and involves significant changes in company economics, processes, and skills, along with organizational modifications.

So often, a digital transformation fails, even with an incredible tool like Azure, simply because the infrastructure change is seemingly impossible to manage. Before you throw in the towel, school yourself on the most common failures of attempted cloud transformation, and take the necessary steps to stop them.

Avoid Transformation Chaos with Azure

A digital transformation is often complex. Ancient organizational structures, authoritarian leadership, and inefficient workflows can hinder a successful digital transformation, but these are also reasons to enforce one. In 2020, companies of all sizes struggled to convert to a remote-based model, and for the most part, lack of time to plan and the inability to accept change were the culprits.

Digital transformation isn’t something that should happen overnight. This change is a massive undertaking and requires careful planning and the construction of a whole new way of working and communicating.

Azure is a fantastic choice digitally, as it provides a broad range of hybrid connections and plenty of security and reliability. With more data centers and delivery points than any other cloud service, Azure is the perfect foundation for your digital transformation rebuild.

DevSecOps: How to Make Security Everyone’s Job

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering January 17, 2022

DevSecOps

There’s no question that technological security DevSecOps within any company is crucial to keeping vital information safe. While security seems like an upper-level IT responsibility, it’s essential for every person within the company, every employee who goes through the onboarding process, to understand the company security measures.

DevSecOps, which stands for Development, Security, Operations, is an approach to business culture that insists on integrating security as a shared responsibility on all levels. From board members to interns, employees must consider safety in every piece of work and every decision made.

The Role of Company Security

In the past, the role of company security rested heavily on one team, specifically in the final stages of program development. Security must be integrated into the company mindset just as development and operations are now. DevSecOps means streamlining the development process and asking every employee to prioritize security in every decision made.

Every person within a company should be liable regarding security measures, even if they are not on a designated security team. Bringing security forward into the software development life cycle will improve planning, test code and keep everyone accountable.

Not to mention, leaving security at the end of the development cycle often makes the development stage longer than intended. Security throughout is the key.

Security and Apps and Data

Security, as it pertains to applications and data, is an integral part of the life cycle of an application and all of its updates. Think of it this way; DevSecOps is all about security measures built into the application instead of surrounding the perimeter. With DevSecOps automation, the security comes from the inside.

To help your developers write code with security in mind, they require a security mindset. By instilling the belief that security reigns during the onboarding process, you create a company that revolves around the importance of security in every application development stage.

To develop an outstanding DevSecOps strategy revolving around data and app security, your team has to start with determining the risk tolerance in every stage of development and carry out a risk/benefit analysis.

Fully consider what security measures and controls are necessary within the new app you’re in the process of developing. DevSecOps automation is essential here because running a manual security check at every stage of development is time-consuming.

Work Environment Regarding Data Security

Security starts at the bottom. To effectively make app development safety and security part of your company at every level, you’ve got to create an environment that focuses on that security. A few things can help you create a security mindset, asking employees to behave and think differently. Eventually, security will become a natural part of their day-to-day work.

Automate the Work Environment

When the work environment is automated, it minimizes the number of hands in the development pool. A massive part of adequate security is creating awareness while minimizing unauthorized access or connections.

Encrypting Data Between Applications and Services

Without question, integrated security services minimize the possibility of unauthorized access. By taking measures at every level, the chances of a data or security breach are lower.

Making Security Company-Wide While Implementing DevSecOps

It can seem counterintuitive to implement DevSecOps while asking everyone working within the company to focus on security measures. However, even though the concept and enforcement of DevSecOps architecture focus on automating work environments to eliminate the number of people that have their hands in the development process, it’s crucial for all teams to thoroughly understand security to protect development at every level.

A security-based frame of mind doesn’t mean giving all team members and employees access to vital security aspects of applications in the development stage. Instead, it encourages them to think about the security measures necessary while they’re doing their part.

Company-wide security mindsets serve to provide insight where there once was none, and it can absolutely work alongside DevSecOps. The embedding of security into every move of all teams involved in your company makes for a secure end-product, without question.

Allowing these two philosophies to work in conjunction gives your team the chance to strengthen, and therefore, turn out products and applications that work with security built from the inside out.

A Security-Centric Environment Works

There’s no question that an environment that focuses on security works regarding every stage of development. A stronger product is the end-game, and it’s a very likely result when a security-centric mindset combines with DevSecOps architecture, automation, and implementation.

If your company hasn’t started making security a priority at every stage, it’s not too late to start. It will take a while for your current employees to fall into the rhythm, but including it as part of the onboarding process will bring about fast changes for the better.

Kickstart Application Modernization: When Your Business Needs an Agile Scalable and Flexible System

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering, Modernization January 5, 2022

Application Modernization

Businesses need to upgrade their systems and operations regularly to provide customers with an optimal experience. Moreover, technological advancement has compelled businesses and organizations to quickly adjust to the fluctuating trends and minimize time spent marketing and selling products.

Application modernization, combined with cloud-based platforms, serves as an economical way for businesses to stay ahead of the trends. In addition, this modernization empowers firms to add efficiency to their processes and move towards a more resourceful digital future.

However, modernization can prove costly for businesses that haven’t invested in a methodological approach. If you plan to move forward with this initiative, you can implement strategically-targeted transformation projects that encourage broader modernization.

What Is Application Modernization?

Application modernization is an approach to upgrading previous software programs to meet the new demands and introduce novel computing approaches. This could include integrating new features, updated languages, frameworks, and infrastructure platforms.

Also known as legacy modernization, the approach allows firms to update their existing systems to improve efficiency and streamline operations. By taking this initiative, organizations can avoid investing in new solutions by leveraging technology to increase the lifespan of their existing applications.

The Processes Involved In Application Modernization

Application modernization is an approach that allows you to re-engineer a current application to attain a cloud-native architecture that best meets the organization’s existing needs.

In most cases of application modernization, businesses fail to maintain feature parity with the older versions of the application, which prevents them from attaining optimal results. Additionally, when the process of legacy migration is not proficiently planned, businesses can miss out on the chance to eliminate features of the application that have not been frequently used in the past. This can hike up expenses and keep the application from running optimally.

Therefore, the reengineering and redesign phases of application modernization must analyze and identify the components that are no longer required. This initiative allows organizations to create a proper plan for integrating new features while reimagining applications.

If your organization is undergoing the application modernization process, you need to create a detailed action plan. To start, identify what your users need and compare those requirements with the business goals and metrics. Essentially, you can then implement the modernization process to ensure complete optimization in your business practices.

That said, legacy modernization emphasizes a single application or specifically clarified applications. The process can be implemented in one of four ways:

Replatforming

Legacy modernization also includes re-platforming to the cloud. With this approach, minimal changes are implemented to ensure that the program can run in the cloud. For instance, re-platforming can be the ideal choice for businesses that can optimize their operation by using a cloud-based deployment model. However, re-platforming would become essential if the firm’s existing software lacks the required architecture that enables cloud compatibility.

Refactoring

Refactoring occurs when the business requires product evolution, but its current application needs restructuring to cater to that request. For instance, your business can go for refactoring if you wish to add an API layer to a legacy application to reveal its core assets.

Rearchitecting

If you have a high-value legacy application that experiences fluctuations, re-architecting it would be the right thing to do. This process ensures that the application undergoes a cloud-native rewrite, which further paves the way for product evolution and new feature development.

Additionally, you can also take on this approach to disengage the core business capabilities to optimize application stability. Or you could use it to move to cohesive, protractile application architecture.

Retiring

Software applications, or their feature sets, are retired with the objective to cut down application complexity, identify technical perforations, and eliminate any component that does not offer value to the business or its application.

Why is Application Modernization Ideal for Low-Budget Businesses?

Implementing application modernization is ideal for businesses looking for a cost-effective solution. The process can be segmented to provide partial modernization that creates a foundation for a broader, enterprise-wide modernization that you can execute in the long run.

All in all, modernization on a small scale sets a stepping stone for full-scale legacy modernization. By starting small, you can make the necessary improvements in the workflow in a unified application and continue to bring value to your business.

When you are initiating your modernization strategy, you can:

Try out different approaches and features without investing a large number of resources
Assess the results of modernization by examining the positive outcome following its implementation. This can encourage your business to plan for long-term modernization
Add efficiency to operations that require the most updates. It can help improve responsiveness, agility, and speed in your organization’s applications

Benefits of Application Modernization

Legacy modernization provides businesses with several advantages. Let’s look at how your organization can benefit from this approach:

More Effective IT Agility

Research shows that 76% of organizations with successful modernization saw improvements in IT agility. Undergoing this process also empowered businesses to reduce their time-to-market by 10.3%.

That said, implementing modernization further assists businesses in increasing developer efficiency. This is because the applications are liberated from legacy monoliths, and the application is shifted or re-architectured to a new cloud platform. This process streamlines the process for further development.

Essentially, when applications are detached from legacy interdependencies and are moved to a flexible cloud platform, your developers can use advanced tools and practices to improve the associated workflows. As a result, developer efficiency is guaranteed.

Implementing this process also allows your team to experiment better and create new integration much faster. You can also remove or upload applications without any hindrances and minimize the application’s time-to-market.

Improved Flexibility

Since the process decreases the time to market, you can add agility to your business model. Moreover, the application modernization process has a segmented nature, which makes it easier for your developers to make the necessary changes.

As a result, you can easily cater to the changes in the market by swiftly adjusting your services instantly. For instance, if a customer demand or market force fluctuates, your business can stay ahead with legacy modernization.

Additionally, you can also make use of a development process for these applications, which can assist in identifying various ideas, including the likes of continuous delivery and platform thinking. Finally, you can defend the need for an all-enterprise modernization using these outcomes.

Inviting Talented Resources

Undergoing the process of application modernization can equip your team with experienced and talented resources. This is because in-demand engineers and developers gravitate towards organizations that streamline their operations and use their expertise to refine work processes using cloud tools and cloud-native methods. Additionally, the process builds your organization’s reputation and helps you train recruits more effectively.

How to Effectively Carry Out Application Modernization

App modernization needs to be thoroughly planned to provide benefits to your organization. Let’s explore a few ways you can plan this process:

Identify Apps With High ROI

It is essential for businesses with a limited budget to create a quick returns strategy. This is why you need to identify the applications that yield a high ROI after they are modernized. With this approach, you can explore the following:

Your business’s foundational capability?
The technical criteria. This may include legacy applications, the complexity of code, code hygiene, cost optimization opportunities, and coupling

You can then amalgamate the preceding information to create a foundation for your modernization approach.

Identify Your Business Needs

Essentially, application modernization must serve a purpose. This is why it is imperative to identify and write down your business’s short and long-term needs. This step will help you create objectives for modernization, which will influence the refactoring, re-architecturing, and re-platforming stages.

Pave the way for Future Modernization

Application modernization should be an ever-changing process. Therefore, you need to create a plan that allows your business applications the flexibility to evolve with the market’s fluctuating needs over time. Consequently, you must consider the evolutionary architecture methods, platform thinking and plan deep continuous delivery to ensure your business remains ahead in digital advancement.

The Bottom Line

The current digital atmosphere has made it imperative for businesses to integrate the latest technology to improve operations and delivery. Your organization can reap several advantages from undergoing application modernization. However, it is essential to make sure that you start the process by prioritizing high returns at the initial stage.

This will give you more reasons to implement future modernization. In addition, creating a strategic approach to modernization will certify that your engineering team includes talented resources, which can quickly perfect the applications over time. Finally, undergoing calculated modernization will enable you to maximize value from cloud migration, benefit from a high ROI, and collaborate with a cloud-native firm.

QA Trends to Watch Out For in 2022

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering December 10, 2021

A rapidly evolving world has caused customers’ expectations also to expand rapidly. Meeting these needs mandates that companies cannot stick to strict and old-fashioned methods and change their tools, technologies, and business processes.

Software testing and quality control is no exception to this need. According to Gartner, over 88% of leaders feel that their current quality assurance practices are ineffective and do not match their customers’ expectations.

Here are some of the emerging QA trends that are helping organizations transform their quality assurance practice from being a bottleneck and becoming a disruptor that increases customer satisfaction by creating exceptional end-user experiences.

Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning:

Automation has already been established as a part of large-scale testing, but it is still a part of the trend due to the difference AI&ML can bring to test automation.

AI can quickly create and update automated unit tests performed as a part of the CI/CD pipeline.
AI can use image recognition techniques and create automated UI tests.
One of the problems with automated API testing is the need for testers to analyze and modify tests manually. AI eliminates this issue by studying patterns, grouping APIs by scenario, and updating or creating new tests according to the scenario.
AI also helps with generating test data and validating automation tests.
With artificial intelligence still in its developmental stages, we can expect more maturity in automation testing in the coming years.

Scriptless Test Automation:

Deploying AI&ML in automation testing may not be feasible for every organization, but writing and optimizing code constantly for automated test cases is a big challenge. Organizations struggle to find skilled resources to write and maintain the scripts for test automation. This gap between manually writing and maintaining automation test codes and AI&ML is what scriptless test automation fills.

Scriptless test automation employs a flexible framework where instead of writing codes to create test cases, it is enough to write the steps, and the framework converts them into test cases. This reduces the time to deploy automated tests. It also reduces the cost of running test automation because it doesn’t require resources with automation test expertise. Anyone can write down the test cases and run them from manual testers to product owners and business experts.

This way, scriptless test automation can be used even by non-technical persons to perform much exploratory testing.

With many tools available in the market that can enable scriptless testing, this is a testing trend that is definitely on the rise.

QAOps & Continuous Testing

QAOps takes the already successful DevOps framework of CI/CD and builds on it. QAOps is all about fostering collaboration between development and testing teams from the beginning of the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) and accelerating delivery timelines.

Continuously testing and fixing bugs from the early stages of development prevents many issue logs in the last stage of development and automatically makes the QA function’s activity preventative instead of reactive. This also eliminates delays, improves quality, and saves time.

Since QAOps creates overall value for the development & testing teams, company, and customers, it is only a matter of time before every quality-focused organization implements QAOps as its standard testing strategy.

Performance engineering:

We have been talking about meeting customers’ expectations from the beginning. What better way to satisfy customers than creating a seamless user experience, right?

Traditionally, organizations have conducted performance testing to ensure that their software satisfies the pre-determined response time, load, and stability criteria. If issues are found, the code is fixed to meet the requirements.

Performance engineering goes several steps above mere performance testing and tries to figure out why there is inadequate performance, identifies where it occurs during the development process, and addresses the issue from its root.

In short, performance engineering has taken the performance testing process and transformed it from an issue fixing module to a culture of preventing the issues and creating excellent value for the end-user.

What’s in Store for Quality Assurance in the Future?

There are several other trends in quality assurance such as:

Leveraging IoT to divide the workload and test different combinations across multiple devices and operating systems
Using big data to drive decisions about testing strategies
Performing highly secure tests through the use of Blockchain technology

In short, there’s no dearth of new technologies, tools, or strategies in software testing. It is now up to the organizations to revisit their goals and make Modern Quality Assurance a part of their success strategy.

Wondering where to begin your Quality Assurance Revamp?

Start here with this whitepaper.

How Infrastructure as Code Powers Your DevOps and Cloud Journey

Alex Thompson Digital Engineering December 10, 2021

Over the last decade or so, infrastructure management has changed fundamentally.

In the past, it involved manual management and configuration of systems and full-time administration to ensure smooth workflows and stable functions.

Today, the rise of DevOps culture and modernization of cloud infrastructure has revolutionized and improved the way organizations design, develop, and maintain their IT infrastructure.

One of the critical components at the centre of these trends is Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

In this post, we discuss this topic at length, its role in accelerating DevOps and cloud transformation, and how you can implement DevOps Infrastructure as Code in your organization

The Fundamentals of Infrastructure as Code

As the name suggests, Infrastructure as Code implies the codification of the underlying Infrastructure as software. Rather than manually configuring discrete hardware devices, the operations infrastructure is managed using the same rules and strictures that govern code development.

With IaC, infrastructure resources & configuration parameters are treated as programmable objects controllable via code.

This also means that time-tested software development practices should be applied to Infrastructure. With Infrastructure’s configuration written as a code file, it can go through the same version control to track code changes, automated testing to check for errors and oversights, and various other steps of a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline that are applied for application code.

IaC is More than Just Automation

Infrastructure as code services is different from simple infrastructure automation, which involves replicating a series of static steps several times and reproducing them on multiple servers. IaC as a concept extends beyond that.

IaC Approaches & Methods

Infrastructure as code tools can vary in terms of the specifics of how they function, but we can generally divide them into two essential categories related to programming language paradigms:

Declarative approach: This approach focuses on declaring the desired outcome – instead of explicitly outlining the sequence of steps the Infrastructure needs to reach the final result.

SQL is a popular declarative programming language. AWS CloudFormation templates, among others, are based on the declarative style.

Imperative approach: The imperative method focuses on defining a sequence of commands/instructions so the Infrastructure can reach the desired outcome.

Object-oriented languages, such as C++ and Java, are commonly used for imperative programming. A tool like Chef can be used declaratively and imperatively as necessary.

In both these approaches, Infrastructure as code in DevOps is configured on a template. Templates use a simple, human-readable format and are simple text files, where the user specifies the resources needed for each server in the Infrastructure.

Role of IaC in DevOps & Cloud Computing

There are several benefits to conducting operations based on DevOps Infrastructure as code. Here’s why IaC is essential to your DevOps and cloud practices.

1. Stronger interdepartmental relationships: With Infrastructure as code, the knowledge of server provisioning, configuration management, and deployment is no longer limited to the sysadmins.

IaC is typically written in a high-level language. JSON, for example, is a lightweight and text-based language that allows IT operations admins to write infrastructure code alongside the development team. This helps to strengthen relationships between different teams that DevOps demands.

2. End-to-end automation: Infrastructure as code companies help eliminate manual processes not just in production environments but also backward across a CI/CD pipeline – right from development and QA testing to deployment and management.

Teams can carefully control code versions, test iterations, and limit deployment until the software is approved for production. This helps easier error-tracking, meaning solutions can also be offered with a more rapid turnaround.

3. Easier management of cloud infrastructure: The scale and scope of cloud computing demand a high level of automation and governance to manage the cloud’s wide range of services, applications, and functions.

Infrastructure as code services plays a vital role in automating resource and application configuration and deployment on cloud environments – whether public or private clouds. Organizations that opt for hybrid cloud benefit even more, as templated configurations and resources lend themselves to be applied across multiple cloud environments and ensure robust governance.

Sys admins can use a predefined set of instructions to:

· Provision resources

· Configure the instance

· Configure and deploy a workload

· Link all associated services

· Ensure continuous monitoring and management of the deployment over time

CloudFormation is AWS’ central mechanism for automating cloud resources. It enables teams to specify templates representing software stacks and automatically deploy them to cloud environments. Similarly, Azure uses Azure Resource Manager (ARM) to manage and deploy cloud resources.

4. Access to immutable Infrastructure: Immutable Infrastructure refers to the practice of assembling and setting components and resources to create a full service or application. If any change is needed in an individual component, they are not reconfigured – instead, they are all updated and redeployed in an instance.

It is handy for cloud and microservices environments, which involve several interdependent components and services. Any manual updates performed at various occasions over time in such environments can introduce the risk of configuration drift — a situation where different servers develop different configurations and software versions.

5. Robust security: Infrastructure’s codification is especially useful for replicating a network configuration for different projects, such as cloning a production network for test and development. Cloud-agnostic tools like Terraform allow IT admins to easily replicate the same configurations across various cloud providers, thereby reducing complexity in hybrid or multi-cloud environments.

Infrastructure as code services also helps introduce code-level security practices essential for a multilevel security strategy.

Implementing IaC in Your Organization

When implementing Infrastructure as code in your organization, keeping the following points in mind is crucial.

Infrastructure as code in DevOps and cloud transformation initiatives are crucial in helping software development and infrastructure management teams to work together efficiently and provide predictable, repeatable, and reliable software delivery services.

However, coming up with the right IaC solution for your unique IT architecture isn’t something that should be approached lightly or without proper guidance. Once you’ve set up your Infrastructure as code environment the right way, you can start expecting quick results.

Category Archive

Improving Software Delivery Process by Shifting the Balance Between Security and Speed

Software Delivery with DevSecOps

Quantum Computing is Nearly Here: Are You Ready?

Quantum Computing

Data modernization with Microsoft Azure

Effects of Application Modernization on Digitization

Cloud Transformation

The Purpose of Cloud Transformation

More than Moving a Legacy System to the Cloud

Start with an Open API Model

The Complexity of Digital Transformation

Avoid Transformation Chaos with Azure

DevSecOps: How to Make Security Everyone’s Job

DevSecOps

The Role of Company Security

Security and Apps and Data

Work Environment Regarding Data Security

Making Security Company-Wide While Implementing DevSecOps

A Security-Centric Environment Works

QA Trends to Watch Out For in 2022

Improving Manufacturing Quality with Closed-Loop Systems

Enhancing Productivity Through Smart Work Instructions

Emphasizing Human-Centric Approaches in Manufacturing

Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance in Manufacturing

Smart Tech in Just-In-Time Auto Supply Chains

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta