DEV Community: DevopsCurry

Exploring Distributed Databases in 2024 !

DevopsCurry — Wed, 01 May 2024 07:50:45 +0000

What is a Distributed Database?

As the name suggests Distributed means circulate in several sites and not particular for only one site or system. For example, it circulates on many computers. Many issues are easily handled by Distributed Database from utilizing single databases and single machines such as latency, scalability, mistake understanding and many more. Numerous nodes we’re used by Distributed Database and this node furnishes additional power on the computer. Some parts of the distributed database are conserved in some different portions in physical locations. On the several database nodes, the necessity of processing is allocated among processors.

The data which is stocked in the physical location where regulated the distributed data by (DDBMS) distributed database management system. It consists of the data in several locations, sometimes the data have to be stored in the same places and sometimes have to be stored in several geographical locations. Its database hardware is operated by several devices in several locations but it is worked in a single database system.

Two processes confirm that the distributed database is recent or up-to-date which means duplication and replication.

Distributed Database Types

There are two types of distributed database and that is Homogenous and Heterogeneous. Firstly we will understand these two separately then we will do there differentiation.

Homogenous Distributed Database:

Image credit: https://phoenixnap.com/kb/distributed-database

As the name suggest homo means similar, so these whole term homogenous distributed database means a system in a network where all nodes and sites are in a same architecture or in a same plate (hardware and software architecture). In the other words you can also says that DBMS i.e. (database management system) is operating in every particular nodes that is same and there is a consistency in terms of getting the information of language, some program covering all the nodes. Here all the nodes in the distributed system are utilized in the similar Database and Management System (DBMS).

Heterogeneous Distributed Database:

Image Credit: https://phoenixnap.com/kb/distributed-database

As the name suggest heterogeneous means different, so these whole term heterogeneous distributed database means a system in a network where all nodes and sites are in a different architecture or in a different plate (hardware and software architecture). Different nodes are utilizing different operating systems and database management systems. One of the main features of this distributed database is it has the multiple data models as well specialized functionality.

Difference Between Homogenous and Heterogeneous

Advantage of Distributed Database

Some advantages of distributed databases are discussed below on points.

Performance is Enhanced: A numerous query is solved in several sites and this query is divided into several sub-queries, so by this, the performance of the distributed database is improved.
The Growth is simpler: In the environment of distributing the data, the growth will be simple on adding more data, increasing the size of the database, and adding more processors becomes very easy.
Some other advantage is:

Building a network of systems is very reasonable that consists of a part of data.
The database works as normal even when the nodes are offline.
It’s not difficult to add a system and the database is circulated in several systems.

Examples of Distributed database are as follow :

1.Aerospike
Cassandra
Clusterpoint
ClustrixDB
Couchbase
Druid (open-source data store)
FoundationDB
NuoDB
Riak
OrientDB
AmazonSimpleDB
FoundationDB

Conclusion: As we know the technology is very advances and the latest technology or innovations is going to shape the future of data management, these term distributed database is stands as a testament to our collective pursuit of resilience and efficiency.

10 reasons to add Kubernetes in your Devops Toolchain 2021

DevopsCurry — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 05:59:48 +0000

Why include Kubernetes in your DevOps toolchain in 2021

Since last few years, Kubernetes has taken the container world by storm and has become the de-facto standard for container orchestration.Today with the growing demand, every company is moving towards Kubernetes as the most preferred container orchestration tool.

It has introduced the concept of automation of extensive services into many small microservices to increase the system’s efficiency, performance, and agility. Adopting Kubernetes to your DevOps pipeline will help you optimize the resources and enhance your application’s uptime.

After the introduction of containers, the need arises for how we can manage these containers and how we can orchestrate them within the different infrastructures. Kubernetes comes as a solution for container orchestration that helps push the images to the docker repository and handle the deployment. You do not have to worry about the type of cloud provider you are using. You can easily use it on-premises, cloud, or hybrid cloud solutions.

With Kubernetes, you can easily migrate to the cloud from your traditional virtual machines. It helps in reducing the cost and increases service quality. In this article, we will discuss the reasons to choose Kubernetes over another orchestration tool.

Ten reasons to use Kubernetes

Portability

With Kubernetes, you can leverage the benefit of hybrid cloud computing, which provides the benefit of both public and private cloud. It allows you to match the job’s workload and toggle between both of them as per your business requirement. It ensures the flexible growth of the capacity without investing much in time, energy, and infrastructure. But the main point is to migrate the workload from one cloud to another whenever required or when the business requirement changes.

Once you have an extensive infrastructure from deploying the CPU, storage, containerization, and other features will increase portability risk. As Kubernetes works on containers running on virtual machines and keeping the complete infrastructure on the cloud, creating an agnostic and portable environment. By implementing Kubernetes, you can manage many services along with enhanced agility and flexibility throughout your container lifecycle. You can choose any platform and cloud vendor to implement Kubernetes.

Saves time and effort

The main concept of using containers is to save the IT teams time by creating an extensive code and allowing them to create a bundle for your application along with their dependencies to deploy them in the environment. This is the reason why containerization has gained more popularity than the traditional way of deploying applications. With Kubernetes, you do not have to worry about the underlying platform as it supports all platforms to deploy the code. A container will include files that are required for the software deployment to avoid the large overhead time. But handling a large number of containers within the enterprise may increase the complexity and needs time to manage.

Kubernetes allows you to handle these containers efficiently with the help of cloud providers that will handle the infrastructure and will save your time in deploying cycles. It will help the developers to focus more on development instead of deploying applications.

Stability and security

The traditional way allows you to deploy many applications within the same operating system instance, which is considered to be a very common practice. But, whenever you update or upgrade your operating system for stability and security issues, the underlying software dependencies will also get updated. It may lead to stability and security issues to handle many software changes at once. Changing such settings may impact the working of many applications running on the server or create critical endpoints for your application to crash. This causes to increase the efforts of the IT team to monitor continuously for OS stability.

But with the containerized applications, you can easily handle the OS update or upgrade as the applications are bundled separately and do not depend on the underlying OS. You can easily patch or update your operating system without impacting the containerized applications, and you will get a stable OS. Also, you can update the application within the container to fix issues or to add new features.

Kubernetes allows you to orchestrate different container versions if you want the earlier version to be deployed in the production, enhancing security and stability across cloud environments.

Architectural advantages

Kubernetes allows you to reduce the sysadmin cost and improves service quality. It ensures complete system transparency as each container has a particular task. Each component is interlinked and has its dependency mapped to a configuration file. You can store containers in different versions in the container repository that allows you to version the infrastructure.

Vendor agnostic

Kubernetes not only supports the public cloud services but is efficient in handling on-premise application container orchestration. It comes with a great feature of being vendor-agnostic as it allows them to build, manage, and deploy multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud platforms quickly. It also ensures no risk of vendor lock-in by providing specific services bound to a particular cloud provider. Kubernetes also reduces the operational team’s effort to understand cloud platform strategies.

Elasticity and scalability

Working on cloud platforms comes with the benefit of autoscaling that allows you to handle an intense workload within the cloud environment. Kubernetes allows you to automate and build the container platform that enhances the system’s reliability for their end-users. You can use various auto scaler tools of Kubernetes to increase or decrease the number of applications within your infrastructure. In such a way, you can handle the increasing traffic and maintain the application’s performance even in peak time. Kubernetes ensures that your system will work efficiently and consistently without any outage and shortage of resources.

Resilience

Implementing Kubernetes enhances the system resiliency by providing better error-handling strategies. You can use various tools that allow you to deploy counter codes to get the system’s state back to normal even after any failure. It helps the developers save their time and effort by automating the process to keep some of the pods available and running.

User-focused

Irrespective of the underlying infrastructure, Kubernetes is user-focused as it allows us to build applications that can run for any organization without worrying about the environment. Kubernetes provides several tools that help the users to get started with Kubernetes quickly by providing cross-platform support. You are allowed to choose any environment for your business and can change it later as per your changing business requirement.

Provide a base for cloud-native applications

Among other orchestration tools, Kubernetes has gained popularity as it allows the teams to keep pace with modern software development requirements. Without Kubernetes, you have to write scripts for every task from deployment, scaling to update that will require large IT teams at your disposal. Kubernetes allows teams to leverage the maximum benefits of containers and cloud-native applications. You can efficiently run these applications on any platform without worrying about the cloud-specific requirements.

Modularity

With containers, you can divide your large applications into small parts that can be set up and run separately and with their dependencies bundled in a package. This modular approach helps you develop applications efficiently in smaller parts and dedicate specific teams to each container. Kubernetes helps manage these containers within an environment with the help of pods, which are controlled as a single application.

Conclusion

So we have seen in this post that Kubernetes eases the burden of configuring, deploying, managing, and monitoring the large-scale containerized applications. Since Kubernetes does offer so many benefits, the organizations globally should consider leveraging Kubernetes to take advantage of these benefits.

Also it gives you complete control over container orchestration, enabling you to deploy, maintain and scale application containers across a cluster of hosts.

Even though learning and implementing Kubernetes within your organisation might not be a simple task, but it is definitely worth the time, money and manpower invested. With Kubernetes as the central technology and using DevOps approach to software delivery, the organisation can accelerate application development, manage its workflows more efficiently and get to the market faster.

How to pick the best Cloud Partner for your business in 2021

DevopsCurry — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 07:37:29 +0000

Best Practices to follow when choosing Cloud Vendor
Introduction

The introduction of cloud technology has benefited many companies with fewer expenses and improving operational performance. Implementing a cloud approach and strategies helps the business to deliver digital innovation that has become the influencing factor for the business.

Though many cloud services and providers are offering different features for different sizes and areas of business. But the key concern is How you can choose the right cloud vendor?, that can help you to leverage all its benefits within your budget and meets your business needs.

The absence of a common standard framework or process for assessing Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), combined with the fact that no two CSPs are the same, also complicates the process of selecting the one that’s right for you.

Also the field has a lot of competitors in it, including the big three — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) — not to forget the local and niche players.

Cloud Trends Across the Globe

Below data has been taken from Flexera 2020 State of the Cloud Report

Increase in Public Cloud Adoption : we do see an increase in public cloud adoption YoY, with more and more enterprises trying to get on Cloud or even Multi-cloud models.

Public Cloud Adoption trends

Image Source: https://www.flexera.com/blog/industry-trends/trend-of-cloud-computing-2020/

Enterprises are growing their Public Cloud expenditure: Cloud-first policies and cloud migration are at the top of mind for senior IT leaders, particularly in enterprise environments. As a result, enterprises are rapidly increasing their public cloud spend and also workload volumes.

Public Cloud Spend

How to choose the right Cloud vendor for your workloads?

The base for choosing the right cloud vendor may vary from organisation to organisation, as each organization has it pwn unique business requirements and needs for the cloud. So firstly, you have to understand the need of your organisation, why you want to go for the cloud, and what type of cloud service you want to avail.

Below we are sharing some of the key points that you might consider while evaluating the cloud vendors for your business needs.

Business requirement
First, you need to understand your business requirement in detail. Then you should look for the list of providers offering that business needs. Each vendor has their set of specifications that they will provide and you can choose the plans accordingly. In this way, you can easily shortlist the providers within your operational cost.

Cloud Vendor Cost
If you are already leveraging cloud services and want to migrate to another cloud platform that can be costly. So choosing the right plan at the start is important. Before opting for any service, check for your infrastructure budget and compare it to the vendor’s pricing plans.

Data Security
Before integrating with any cloud service you have to check how secure is the cloud and understand its data security policy. If you are dealing with crucial data then security is a must and needs to be ensured. If you have a massive amount of data, then the location of the server(DC) also plays an important role to avoid the overhead for uploading and downloading the data.

Technology Advancements
Check whether the cloud provider offers you the latest technology or the technology that is compatible with your business needs. If you want to enroll in the latest technology then you have to make sure that your company has the in-house team well-dipped and trained on that technology.

Support
With the huge amount of data on the cloud, there can be many cases where you might need assistance from the cloud providers regarding any issue. It is better to have a vendor that provides 24X7 support. Cases like migration and deployment required professional assistance or a third-party that can provide you assistance.

Reliability
Before you go for any particular cloud provider you should check its reliability from the past trends. You must be aware of how the cloud vendor can handle unexpected downtime and data recovery during a disaster.

Certifications & Standards
Vendors that comply with recognised global standards and quality frameworks demonstrate an adherence to industry best practices and standards. While standards may not determine which service provider you choose, they can be very helpful in shortlisting potential suppliers.
Factors to help you choose the right Cloud service provider

Many factors drive your choice for choosing the right cloud vendor. But the one who can customize its services as per your business needs is the one to approach. Below are some reasons that will help you in choosing the right provider.

Services offered- As clouds are now offering on-demand services and costing for those services only. Cloud services are not limited just to store your data but also provides you computing solutions for infrastructure and IT networking. It provides hosting different applications on different platforms. So make sure what services you are looking for that will help you in selecting the right cloud provider.

Ensures faster software updates- If you are going for any cloud vendor, they provide you with easy and instant software updates. If any latest update is available for the services or applications that you have opted for will get an update in a few clicks. With cloud services, you will always be up-to-date in terms of the software version.

App performance- Before you choose any cloud provider, make sure that your application will be able to run on that cloud properly. As applications may work differently in some environments and are suitable for a particular architecture. If an organization goes for a third-party, it will surely help in avoiding common mistakes sharing the workload.

Consulting engagements- The consulting services may vary from vendor to vendor. Some cloud vendors ensure that they provide the best-consulting arrangement for their clients. It is one of the most important factors that allows the organization to choose their vendors. It can be a crucial factor for organizations if they lack in-house expertise for providing consulting support for your applications. Having a third-party at your disposal can help you bridge the knowledge gap.

Disaster recovery- With a lot of data and workload, it may be possible that cloud services may hinder and lead to disaster situations. Thus organizations want their cloud service provider to provide real-time disaster recovery solutions. Organizations should focus on this factor and investigate the process in action offered by the providers during data and resource recovery.

Multi-Cloud facility- With the advancement in technology and the need for different platforms to host applications that require different infrastructure requirements for various cloud vendors. It allows the organization to migrate easily from one environment to another with great ease. In those cases, incorporating a multi-cloud solution to your business can be the best fit and provides you with a lot of various features.

Service levels- If you are opting for a cloud service provider then you must look into the SLA they are providing. You must have a clear contractual relationship with your cloud service provider. You should consider the security of your data being hosted whether it has GDPR policies in place or not. You must have a legal contract that will back you up in case of any mismanagement.

Easy manageability- before choosing your cloud provider, you have to make sure that it allows you for easy management and integration of services and applications you have at your end. As different providers support different tools and can integrate with different services. Also, you have to focus on how much time and efforts are required by your team to manage large scale applications on the cloud infrastructure. This can be an important deciding factor for your organization.

Scalability- for any organization, the data and demand for the resources may vary from time to time. There may be situations when the company will no longer require particular resources from the cloud provider. Then the cloud provider will be able to de-provision those resources and ensure easy scalability during the changing company demands. Also, in case of rising storage or resource demand, the cloud provider will be able to allocate those features at that instant.

Easy workload- it is a good option to choose a cloud service provider that will handle everything from the network, infrastructure to handling applications within a cloud infrastructure. It is more efficient than to have a team at your end and get it managed from a third party without posing a workload on your team. So look for all these facilities before choosing the cloud provider.

Conclusion

While the above points, might not give you all the information you need, but they can help you build a solid analytical framework to use when you are determining which Cloud vendor you should trust with your data and applications. You can even add granularity by doing a thorough analysis of your organization’s needs and requirements to discover additional factors that will help you make an informed decision.

Also we should think about long-term to avoid lock-in – avoidance of proprietary technologies and a clearly defined exit strategy to avoid a lot of headaches down the line.

Adopting Open-source in 2021 for Devops success

DevopsCurry — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 06:49:48 +0000

How DevOps can benefit from the Open source

Around 2009, the term DevOps introduced an approach that enhances the collaboration between developers and operations groups. It came as a successor to the Agile method and ensured improvement to the Application Lifecycle Management process. You can consider DevOps as a strategy or principle that every company should implement within their delivery pipeline.

To implement DevOps, you should have the right tools and processes at your disposal to make it work efficiently. There are a variety of open-source DevOps tools that help in streamlining the development and deployment process. These open-source tools are built with enhanced collaboration that improves performance and allows you to handle different market needs.

Why do DevOps need Open-source?

Well, many companies across the globe have started adopting the DevOps approach for effective and faster delivery. However most companies still shy away from implementing open-source software within their organizations to enhance the DevOps approach. Also, companies restrain their developers from contributing to open source libraries, so they miss a huge opportunity for success.

We are sharing some key reasons why a company should focus on the Open-source adoption for Devops implementation.

♠ Open-source is Free or low-cost

Open-source means it is available freely or at a lower cost than other closed-source systems.

♠ Based on open standards

With open-source, you can find each tool, source code, and related troubleshooting documents easily. If you are still using traditional proprietary software, it will be difficult for your organization to evolve.

♠ Open-source is self customizable

Open-source offers customizability where you can use tools and products that are way more efficient and light-weight than other available closed-source options. You can freely choose your framework and easily migrate and automate processes with open-source tools and frameworks.

♠ The open-source community is expanding

The open-source community is now expanding, with millions of contributors and developers writing open code and development. Now companies are even supporting its exposure to their DevOps process. By joining open-source, you will become part of the most dynamic group that provides a better solution for every problem.

♠ No Vendor monopoly or Vendor lock-in

Since open-source tools are free from any proprietorship or licensing from any vendor, there is definitely no pressure of monopoly or being vendor locked-in. Whenever you feel to opt out of the open-source tool, you can move out without any restrictions.

♠ Abundance of Talent pool

Since open source software and tools are free and easily available, the number of people with an expertise on popular open source solution is more as compared to licensed tools( because fo the cost involved). So when looking for available expert talent pool in the market for your Devops toolchain, you have higher chances of success with open-source solutions.

How DevOps success aligns with Open-source

There is no doubt that opting for open-source as a part of your DevOps process is beneficial to your organization. But if you are still using highly-proprietary and old traditional IT solutions, you may not achieve the success you are working for. Open source has opened the gate for DevOps to work efficiently. Below are the reasons why DevOps success aligns with the Open-source system, tools, and practices.

DevOps groups should go for open-source because the tools and techniques available in the open-source community are either off the shelf or built at some other organization. This will eventually save you time and cost of developing the required tools at your end.
If you avail open-source, then you can choose any of the open-source frameworks to work on. You can easily migrate your project from one framework to another without any proprietary lock-in or vendor secrets. It allows your software delivery agile, which is essential in the DevOps process.
DevOps mainly focuses on the visibility of the project or application progress within the team members. If you add the open-source within the DevOps process, it ensures the visibility is maintained even to the code level of all the tools you use.
Suppose we get any problem during continuous delivery. In that case, there is no time that you contact proprietary vendors to resolve the issue as proprietary tools require expertise to look into the troubleshooting process. But if you go with open-source, you can resolve the issue by yourself as most of the problems are documented publicly for reference.
With closed systems, you cannot leverage various tools you are using by integrating them and making the system entirely automated. But with an open-source system, integration and automation are pretty efficient and straightforward.

Common Open-source DevOps tools

You can accelerate an existing system by using open-source tools within your DevOps. Below is the list of the open-source DevOps tools.

Ansible

This tool offers software-related services like application deployment, configuration, etc. It allows you to automate IT tasks. You can easily integrate it with other DevOps tools. You can find its free version on GitHub, where Red Hat offers three different paid versions of Ansible.

Watir

It is a web application based open-source testing tool. This tool is the most flexible and reliable Ruby library tool that allows you to automate web browsers. It enables you to communicate with web browsers while performing various web functions.

Supergiant

A supergiant is an open-source tool for container management that is built on top of Kubernetes. It enables Kubernetes deployment on multiple clouds within no time. Also, it helps in streamlining the production deployment. It helps in lowering the hardware costs due to the packing algorithm of the Supergiant.

Nagios

This open-source tool provides a solution to infrastructure monitoring. This tool has a well-established base in the monitoring area and is highly efficient due to the broad community creating plugins for its support. You can choose this tool over others if you want to represent your result in various visual forms.

SaltStack

SaltStack is an enterprise paid version of Salt, which is highly flexible and intelligent open-source software for event-driven orchestration, remote execution, and configuration automation. This tool orchestrates the significant movement of the code into production and ensures optimal application delivery. It allows you to deploy and configure dynamic applications.

Chef

If you want to handle both traditional and cloud environments using a single tool, Chef is the right choice. This tool comes with the development kit that allows you to deploy and test the automation code locally before deploying it to production.

Docker

Docker offers portability due to its containerization technology that transforms IT environments. It packages libraries, tools, runtime everything required for an application to run irrespective of the deployment location.

Git

This open-source tool helps to maintain the source code and to host open-source projects. Git stands out of other tools due to its ability to handle merging and branching. This tool is used by many developers and has become popular in recent years. It offers plugins to integrate it with Jenkins for supporting deployment and integration.

Bitbucket

Similar to GitHub, BitBucket is another tool that helps manage project code throughout the SDLC cycle. While the core functionality of BitBucket resembles that of GitHub, features such as easy integration with Jira and Trello, inbuilt CI/CD functionality tend to give this tool by Atlassian an edge.

Puppet

With Puppet, you can follow a standard way of managing and delivering software. Puppet enhances audibility, reliability, and agility. It offers continuous automation and delivery during complete SDLC. With the introduction of various new features, it allows you to handle dynamic systems with great ease.

Prometheus

It is an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit.It comes with a dimensional data model, flexible query language, efficient time series database and modern alerting approach

These tools will help to bridge the gap between the development and production environment. You can choose any tool that suits your business requirement.

Terraform

Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code software tool that lets you safely and predictably create, change, and improve infrastructure.Users define and provision data-center infrastructure using a declarative configuration language known as HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), or optionally JSON.

Conclusion

Open source is slowly becoming integral to DevOps success, both as a source of innovative tools and also forming the culture that DevOps requires to succeed.If modern day enterprises are looking to build DevOps toolchain, they should consider open source DevOps tools in addition to commercial tools, we have already seen the benefits of using the open-source tools above.

Looking for an alternative to Docker? Podman could be your solution !

DevopsCurry — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 08:06:01 +0000

Podman: A Daemonless Docker Alternative

Containerization has become one of the most popular technology in the last few years. Today companies focus on designing cloud-native applications that can be run within containers as microservices. It improves the scalability of the applications to run on any platform irrespective of the underlying system. One of the commonly used container engines is Docker which is preferred to run Kubernetes to orchestrate their applications.

A whole new revolution of containerization started with Docker containers ,where the daemon process manages the whole bunch of things and soon it became one of the most popular and widely used container management systems.

But recently Podman has emerged as a strong competitor for Docker. With Docker, you depend on daemons while with Podman you can run directly using runC runtime containers. There is more to Podman which we will discuss below.

What is Podman?

Podman is a daemon-less container engine for developing, managing, and running OCI Containers on your Linux machines. Containers can either be run as root or in rootless mode.

Podman was developed by Red Hat in 2018. Podman is an open-source container management tool that allows you to build, manage, and to run OCI containers. Podman is also a containerization engine that works on a completely different approach than Docker. Podman does not depend on daemon to work, unlike Docker that uses both Docker CLI and Docker Daemon to work with images and registries. The main drawback of Docker using daemon is that it has to depend on a single process, which also leads to a single point of failure creating all the dependent child processes that will also get failed or orphaned. This failure limits Docker’s flexibility as a containerization engine.

Podman is designed according to OCI standards that allow Podman to interact directly with the kernel, containers, and images. Podman is more secure than Docker as it does not require root access.

Features of Podman

Podman images are created according to OCI standards so that they can be easily pushed to other container management tools and registries.
You can run Podman without having the root access and privileges.
Podman allows you to manage one or more containers to operate them together and perform various actions on pods.
Currently, Podman is available for Linux-based systems only and does not have a wrapper available for Windows and MacOS.
Unlike Docker compose, the feature for Podman is under progress due to which Podman will not be able to manage multiple containers locally.
Podman is mature enough to deploy applications and microservices in containers.
To manage images and builds for your podman instance you can use Buildah.
Podman ensures security in a holistic way making the entire ecosystem safe.
Podman allows you to access resources that will create a highly available network for your application provided by CNI which is great for developers.
With the help of Podman, you can easily scan OCI images without downloading them. Also, you can move them from one repository to another.
It uses the Buildah tool to manipulate or create images within a running container.
Podman runs containers with Systemd enabled by default.
Podman uses UID separation using namespaces that adds up an extra isolation layer while running the containers.

The Podman approach is simply to directly interact with the image registry, with the container and image storage, and with the Linux kernel through the runC container runtime process (not a daemon)

Image Source: https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2019/02/21/podman-and-buildah-for-docker-users/

Podman vs Docker

Below are some differences mentioned between Podman and Docker.

The main and the topmost difference is the Daemonless feature of Podman. On one hand, Docker runs each task using
Docker daemon while on the other hand, Podman is light-weight and does not require a continuous running instance to run the containers.
The other main difference is that Podman is rootless which means Podman can run either as a root or non-root. In whatever way you run the Podman containers it will be compliant without compromising the security.
Podman supports running pods which means a collection of containers that can be run close to each other. Podman supports running multiple containers together.
Podman allows you to store images and containers in different places while Docker stores images locally.
Podman works on the traditional fork-exec model while Docker works on the client-server architecture of the containers.

Conclusion

Now without a daemon to worry about, you can easily create and manage complex containers while maintaining security and keeping the ecosystem efficient with the help of Podman as your containerization engine.

That being said Podman is still a new technology which is evolving and it might be better to be in a wait and watch situation, before we start seeing community adoption for Podman and it becomes a more matured and stable tool. You can definitely try it on your local machines and explore it more, but taking it to your production environment might still need some time.

What are your thoughts on Podman and this post, please do share with us in comments.

PS: this post was originally published at : https://devopscurry.com/looking-for-an-alternative-to-docker-podman-could-be-your-solution/

DevOps 2021: Paving your way into SRE

DevopsCurry — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 14:01:15 +0000

To be or Not to be: Exploring SRE as a Career in 2021

Ever considered becoming an SRE, if you’re looking forward to playing a challenging yet in-demand role in the DevOps space. SRE or Site Reliability Engineering was a term coined first at Google in 2003 by Benjamin Treynor Sloss, VP of engineering at Google, way before the DevOps. Site Reliability Engineering creates a bridge between development & operations by applying a software engineering mindset to system administration topics.

Eventually, SRE has became a full-fledged IT profile, which aims at building automated solutions for operations team such as on-call monitoring, performance and capacity planning, and backup and disaster recovery plan. However at its core, SRE is an implementation of the DevOps paradigm.

So in this post we have tried outlining What is SRE, its key benefits, and also what is the current demand and potential future for the SRE role.

SRE and DevOps

If we consider the traditional definition of DevOps – it is an environment where the development (devs) and operation (ops) work altogether intending to be able to release software faster at great stability.

Whereas SRE aims at developing automated solutions for operational performance, capacity planning & disaster response. Hence, SRE complements other core DevOps practices like continuous delivery & infrastructure automation.

“Site reliability engineers create a bridge between development and operations by applying a software engineering mindset to system administration topics.”

Picture Courtsey: Alice Goldfuss from https://blog.alicegoldfuss.com/how-to-get-into-sre/

SRE as a career- What does a Site Reliability Engineer do?

A Site Reliability Engineer works with operation along with developing systems & software that help to increase site reliability & performance.

So, the ultimate goal of SRE is to automate their way out of a job, as per Google. Google gives a lot of emphasis on SREs to not spend more than 50% of their time on operations & consider any violation of this rule as a sign of system ill-health. As long as you have a strong foundation in software or system engineering, you can consider becoming an SRE.

It is also essential to have a strong incentive for improving & automation. System engineers who want to improve their programming skills & software engineers who want to learn how to manage large-scale systems are perfect candidates for the role of an SRE. This role will allow you to gain a system-wide view.

The role of the SRE can be fun & exciting when the application architecture & technology decisions allow for scalable stateless solutions. Moreover, you can be updated with the latest trends in the DevOps world. It’s a great way to expand your knowledge & skills in high-demand areas like continuous delivery, infrastructure automation & release engineering. This role is extremely creative, stimulating & technically challenging.

How has the SRE role evolved in the last few years?

Twenty years ago, we did not have multiple regions, each containing hundreds of thousands of physical as well as virtual machines. There were no thousands of microservices creating complex software. No service dependency chains were working on a reliable network & hardware working with third-party providers, APIs & vendors.

Now, we need a way to manage these complexities at a faster pace. Google was the first company to really start operating at an internal scale. They created the concept of a new type of engineering to help manage this complexity & ensure reliability. This engineer is called an SRE. But SREs certainly have existed for decades in many different forms. For example, disaster recovery and production testers.

The demand for SREs grew as companies went on to try cloud-native. SREs were required to work in production & operations, with a focus on automation & observability. As the systems became distributed, this role has evolved with time. The role of an SRE evolved from just shoring up uptime to a relationship broker who has viewed into the organization, wide systems & problem-solving. As the demand grows, SREs become those people who can work across the company.

An SRE is someone good at communication as well as prioritization. Site Reliability Engineering is an offshoot of the DevOps culture. SRE is focused on the external value the company can reliably offer customers. While DevOps is more about internally increasing velocity. In conclusion, SRE has been around since forever, but certainly, it’s growing and in-demand. Any size organization can benefit from a good SRE and service level objectives.

The current demand for SRE

An SRE is expected to juggle between networking, security, system administration, hardware & anything else that could possibly make your infrastructure unstable. Hence a SRE can also be called DevOps specialist.

A SRE should know about both software development & system infrastructure. They are in charge of making sure that the website & applications are loading, which is highly critical.

That is why SREs are among the highest-paid in the industry. They also rank among the ones with the most coding experience and it takes hard work & time to get there. SREs job satisfaction is among the highest in the industry, as they have an interesting job with high pay.

SREs rank in the top three of the ones NOT actively looking for a job. SRE professionals are among the most wanted in the tech industry. 33% of IT leaders are having a hard time hiring a good SRE. SREs are 30 times more likely to be men than women. But there are more women than men in this field.

SREs are typically found at high-performing tech companies that have large data centers & complex technical challenges. Their roles can be inspiring from both a financial & workplace culture perspective. SREs are ruling the tech world & more of them are highly in demand.

Future Growth of SRE

Site Reliability Engineers have a great & promising future. SRE is one of the most buzzed skills in the IT industry. With automation & observability becoming a key feature for more efficient & rapid deployment, an SRE job profile will be one of the most demanding in the coming years.

The post-pandemic environment has resulted in a major shift in where SREs will be located. 50% of SREs will be working remotely post covid-19, as compared to only 19% before the pandemic. Moreover, the SRE concept has been embraced by major internet companies like DropBox, Netflix & Airbnb.

The SRE community now even has its conference called SREcon. While we await the milestone, it’s not too soon to consider the implications of the SRE discipline in each & every organization.

Benefits of SRE (Site Reliability Engineering)  

Fills the gap between developers and operations
SRE encourages DevOps culture. Hence, SRE fits perfectly in the gap between developers & sysadmins. The entire engineering team is equally responsible for facilitating a reliable and quick CI/CD pipeline.
SRE can draw attention to the areas for improvement in the release pipeline. Meantime, it also creates rules around the culture of on-call availability & incident response that encourages everyone to be more accountable.
Focus on Error-budget and SLOs
The main focus of the SRE approach is the SLO for the application or service that is being run by the SRE team. The product manager has to choose an appropriate SLO that gives enough margin of possible downtime to cover unforeseen problems. The SLO approach also drives the adoption of synthetic transaction monitoring, which is great practice for customer-facing systems.
If the product manager working with an SRE team is unhappy with the restrictions. On deploying new features, he/she can either redefine the SLO or put more effort into operational aspects of the software.
Remove Bugs before they hurt end-users
Bugs and issues can often go unnoticed when the complete focus is on development speed. If the operation team does not notice them, it may cause significant delays and downtime. Eventually, this will leave the end-users unsatisfied.
SRE works proactively to notice and solve the errors as soon as possible.their performance metrics, combined with their high-level perspective, enable them to find & fix issues during production with a great degree of accuracy. This is a quite effective approach than traditional operations. SRE will also ensure that there are practices for tasks like incident responses, cross-departmental collaboration, and many more to make sure other teams can support them effectively.
Improved Metrics reporting
One of the most prominent benefits of SRE is clarity. SRE utilizes pertinent metrics of bugs, productivity, efficiency, etc. they can also translate these measurements in terms of their impact on more tangible elements.
SRE highlights areas of improvement at multiple stages of a development & operations pipeline with a high level of clarity it offers. SRE expert will also observe the relationship between different teams, departments & services for the sake of increasing communication & collaboration.
Creates Observability into service health
SRE teams spend their time dabbling in a multitude of different areas of an organization’s systems. SRE experts have the greatest understanding of how everything in the system is connected.
Hence, they know the best way to track logs and traces across disparate services & depict a holistic approach to system health. If any incident happens, the observability is already there so on-call responders can find the context they need.

Conclusion

So you too can make a career shift into an SRE role, regardless of your background in software engineering, as long as you have solid foundations in it and a strong passion for improving and automating the systems around you.

If you are a Systems engineer and want to work on your programming skills, or if you are a Software guy and want to learn about working with large-scale systems, this SRE profile is apt for you. Deepening your knowledge in both areas will give you a competitive edge and more flexibility for the future.

Are you missing out on these 7 key Business Benefits of DevOps ?

DevopsCurry — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 13:51:36 +0000

How DevOps Can Boost Your Business in 2021

The DevOps revolution has been gaining steam in the recent years. More and more organisations across the globe are considering to implement changes that break the traditional Dev+Ops silos and prioritize Development and Operations collaboration to utilize Agile business strategies. In fact, DevOps is quickly becoming a de-facto standard across Startups as well as large enterprises.

Sharing some insights on the Devops future market, source: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/devops-market

Now like any new idea, technology, or innovation should benefit a business case, and so DevOps is no different. It’s a good idea to dive deeper into the ocean of DevOps. Let’s talk about what DevOps is and how it can boost your business.

So, according to Wikipedia, DevOps is a set of practices that help combine software Development (Dev) & IT operations (Ops).

DevOps aims to shorten the SDLC (software development life cycle) & provide continuous delivery with high software quality. Key components of DevOps are continuous delivery of software components, rather than the episodic release of applications.

DevOps at the moment is heavily rooted in global IT industry, but what’s usually not talked about are the numerous benefits it contributes to the overall business. Here are some of the most prominent business benefits of DevOps.

1. Faster Delivery & Deployment

DevOps is all about automation, continuous delivery, and quick feedbacks which aims to make software development and deployment process faster as well as efficient. Businesses can deploy new processes, systems, and applications much faster using DevOps strategies. Because of DevOps, you will be able to deliver results faster.

The whole process of development & deployment will take significantly less time for employees to complete when they work together. DevOps utilizes automation to ensure a smooth flow of SDLC. In conclusion, it is one of the best business benefits of DevOps.

2. Improved Customer Experience

When your business develops the solutions faster, it is better able to serve business customers. Eventually, DevOps will help you improve customer service for your business. It is believed that with DevOps, organizations can improve their deployment frequency by 200X, recovery time by 24X & lower change failure rates by 3X. In recent studies based on DevOps’ business benefits, over 70% of businesses reported customer experience improvements with DevOps implements.

By automating the delivery pipeline, it becomes possible to ensure the reliability and stability of an application after every new release. This way, you can improve the customer experience which will only help to improve revenue and profits.

3. Encourages Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is one of the most essential contributions to a company’s success. If employees are not satisfied, productive, and consistent with their work, the final output and general results of the company are going to suffer. DevOps will help you overcome this issue with a high-performance and functional work environment. Such work environments will improve plenty of employee experiences.

This movement higher employee engagement & productivity, but also improve brand loyalty. When the employees are happy, it bodes well for retention rates & encourages new talents to join the organization.

4. Continuous Release & Deployment

Software development practices require teams to continuously deliver quality software. Continuous deployment is also a continuous delivery pipeline but without any manual gates in between. DevOps enables continuous release & deployment through automation. Automated CI/CD pipelines allow the Dev and Ops teams to develop and integrate code almost instantly.
Further, when the QA is automated & embedded, it takes care of the quality part of the code. Hence, overall DevOps promote better efficiency and faster & continuous release along with higher quality.

5. Faster Problem-Solving Capability

When you implement DevOps in your business, it allows you to solve the problem faster. And yes, there are huge benefits when you solve business problems faster. If it takes a longer time to fix a problem, it can cost the business a lot of money.

The longer it takes to fix a problem, the more money is bled from your company. If you want to improve problem-solving capabilities at your organization, this is one of the business benefits of DevOps that can not be ignored.

6. Higher-Quality Applications & Products

DevOps culture naturally encourages consistent and optimal production which will result in improved applications and products. In software development, the idea is to cut down on the number of defects or bugs that might appear in a product.

The CA technologies study surveyed respondents that track product defects as a means to measure application quality and 72% indicated doing so. Out of those that do track defects, there was a 41%improvement in defect rates for organizations that adopted DevOps.

7. IT Development & Operational cost savings

All of the above improvements & optimizations help in lowering the IT & operating costs. Improved productivity & output result in higher revenues, lower operational costs, and higher customer satisfaction ratings. This will boost revenue even more.
Hence, DevOps clearly fasters a perpetual cycle of improvement & growth. Organizations noticed a 38% decrease in IT-related costs after adopting DevOps. It proves the fact that no matter how the strategies are applied, cost improvements abound.
Conclusion

So DevOps is definitely here to stay for long and it is becoming essential and kind of mandatory for teams if they’re not working in the DevOps space. While testing is often ignored when it comes to DevOps, it may actually prove to be a major blow to your dream of achieving true success in your business.

So to summarize fostering a strong DevOps culture isn’t easy, but it’s necessary and need of the hour. At its core, DevOps is all about collaboration and communication — so the companies that treat each team as separate units risk siloing their employees and creating a closed information channels that are difficult to break through during a crisis.

PS: This post was originally published at: https://devopscurry.com/7-key-business-benefits-of-devops-in-2021/

Roles and Responsibilities of a DevOps Professional

DevopsCurry — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 12:54:16 +0000

DevOps is the talk of the town, there has been a lot of curiosity, discussions, brainstorming going in the software industry about it. There is also a lot of literature available online about DevOps, but still many fail to understand what exactly it is. Is it technology? Is it a process?

DevOps is a set of practices that combines both sides of the software world, Development (Dev) and IT operations(Ops). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality.

Who is a DevOps Engineer?

The DevOps process is still evolving and making progress every day. As the process is still advancing and making a breakthrough, so is the role of DevOps Engineer. It is often difficult to comprehend the role as it is not confined to a single defined entity. But, to put it into the simplest terms the DevOps Engineer is a cross-functional role, the person works with the developers and Operations team to facilitate the code release in alignment with the CI/CD pipeline.

We frequently encounter this common query as “What does a DevOps engineer do?”, “What is the role of a Devops enigneer”,” What responsibilties does Devops team handle” etc.
So to answer that there is no fixed set of defined roles and resposibilities for a Devops professional, but their roles keep on changing from one organisation to another based on the requirement. However as a part of this post we have tried to cover some of the general expectations from Devops person, which again change on a need basis.

Roles and Responsibilities in the team

The DevOps process is an amalgamation of people of different roles coming together to work on a project as a team. So, the role requires a person who has knowledge of diverse fields. Lets have a look at the responsibilities of a DevOps Engineer:

1. A Software specialist
Oversee the latest technology trends and processes currently in the market. Also, analyze,reserach and implement the new requirements and develops a plan for improvement according to the market trends and customer needs. Someone who had good understanding and experience with the different SDLC phases.

2. Cloud Architect
A Devops engineer also needs to work in a cloud environment, hence experience with public clouds like AWS, Azure,GCP is required.A lso with more and more organizations following the Hybrid cloud and Multi-cloud approaches, the Devops person is supposed to have worked with different public cloud and should be able to architect Multi-cloud solutions.

3. Team Management
Involved in analyzing the issues, prioritizing and delegating the tasks to the team members. The DevOps Engineer should have thorough knowledge and experience of all stages of the product lifecycle. He should be a good team player and also a good leader so that can lead and manage the team in future.

4. Agile expertise
The DevOps role requires a thorough understanding of the software development lifecycle especially Agile Methodology. The DevOps is an extension of agile, so the inside out knowledge of that helps in implementing the DevOps lifecycle efficiently.

5.Technology Enthusiast (Tech Evangelist)
The DevOps is still growing and evolving every day with new technologies and tools.So the team requires a person who can keep a tab on changing trends in the market. Also he should have a keen interest in technology and able to adapt to technology, as and when needed.

6. Automation Expert
Automate the process end-to-end is also one the of DevOps practices. The role requires the DevOps Engineer to learn the required tools which are commonly used in the DevOps practice. Some of the popular tools are Jenkins, Git, Selenium, Docker, Ansible,Terraform.

7. A Handy Programmer
Ability to write and develop applications using coding languages. The DevOps Engineer should possess strong logical skills as the team might need assistance from development to quick fixes in the code. It is good and advisable for a Devops engineer to have familiarity with at least one of the programming languages like Python, Golang,Java etc.

8.Testing/QA skills
The DevOps Engineer role requires the person to have a good understanding of quality assurance. The role might require to occasionally performing some QA activities involving the framework. Understanding of the QA tools is a big plus as it helps to mitigate the problems faced by the QA team.

9. Deployment strategist
The DevOps Engineer should possess a strong knowledge of continuous integration practice. In simpler terms, the aspiring DevOps Engineer should have excellent knowledge of the deployment process. Some of the tasks involved in the deployment process are server configuration, maintenance, fixing integration issues.

10. Support and Maintenance
The DevOps Engineer is not limited to production deployment. To monitor the issues on the live server requires maximum attention. And to make sure that the application is glitch-free, the DevOps Engineer requires excellent troubleshooting skills.

11. Customer Centric approach
The DevOps Engineer at times are also involved in directly interacting with the end-customers and getting requirements from them.Hence a good Devops candidate should have the ability to handle and deal with global customers and get more business and revenue for the company when needed.

12.Security knowledge
Last but definitely not the least it is to ensure that the application and infrastructure is protected from any malicious attack from outside. And for that DevOps security comes into the picture also known as DevSecOps. Several parameters need to be taken into account to build a robust software application. The DevOps Engineer needs to have a stronghold on software infrastructure, cloud security, and other DevSecOps best practices.

The role demands the aspiring Devops to be a Master of All. The DevOps is a promising field but requires an in-depth understanding of the software lifecycle, related tools, and the best practices in the market. The field is evolving and can be a great career option.

PS: This post was originally published at:
https://devopscurry.com/understanding-the-role-of-devops-professional-in-2020/

Key DevOps Principles to focus in 2021

DevopsCurry — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 05:49:37 +0000

Changes call for innovation, and innovation leads to progress. This is the tried and tested method and the key to building a successful organization. Time and again the software industry is hit by a wave of challenging demands to match the market standards. And to keep up with the changing trends, organizations have started adopting new processes. One such methodology is DevOps.

What is DevOps?
The principal idea behind DevOps is to bring the two loosely connected ends i.e. the Development and Operations team together. The methodology focuses on adopting novel practices, philosophies, and tools over the conventional process of software development. This results in faster delivery, better end product, and great user satisfaction.

The benefits of DevOps are innumerable in comparison to ongoing practices in the market. However, the main challenge is to make the transition from the existing process to adopting a DevOps approach.

Here is a list of key points that the organization needs to keep in mind in order to make a smooth and effective shift.

1. Customer First
Customer always comes first is the motto of DevOps and the organizations need to take the necessary measures to ensure the same. The organizations need to innovate and transform continuously if they go wrong with a plan of action.The team should not only rely on data and market parameters but also need to keep a keen eye on user requirements. The team must strive to achieve the right balance between the changing market trends and customer demands.

2. Inculcate the We factor
Prior to onset of DevOps, the Dev team and QA team used to work in silos, and the fully working code would then be handed over to the Operations. The perfectly running code of developers on the dev server would mostly go haywire as soon as pushed on the real-time server. The blame game would then start as the respective teams try to be defensive and prove that there is no blunder from their side. This tug of war would ultimately result in the poor quality product and in turn, adversely affects the organizations reputation.The teams in the traditional sense are considered two ends which hardly meet. But the practice of DevOps works in collaboration right from the start and focuses on bringing the team to work as a unit.

3. Cultivate the concept of Cradle to Grave
The second most important factor of DevOps methodology is to take ownership of the product as a team. All the teams are involved from the pilot to deployment and post that providing the services and maintenance. The involvement of the teams from the beginning brings the sense of working in the same unit.

4. Effective Decision making
The team members should not only have sound technical expertise but also try to make the decisions in their purview. The team management takes the business-related decisions, but a good DevOps practice highly encourages the team to take localized decisions. This method avoids the congestion in the whole process.

5. Learn and Evolve
One of the most important pillars of DevOps is continuous improvement. The software market is quite dynamic and to keep up with the pace, the organizations need to learn and evolve. Just by changing the culture or adopting the process won’t help, but embracing the new market trends, adapting the technology and customer needs is the need of the hour.

6. End-to-end automation
Conventionally, the automation process would come in the picture only during the testing phase. The QA team would automate the test cases to check the code functionality and the Ops team would manually configure the server requirements. That was pretty much the case, but DevOps employs automation right from the time the code gets checked in. The code builds, running the test cases, and finally releasing the code for release happens automatically. That is how the entire lifecycle of DevOps is automated.

7. Right Set of Tools
One of the fundamental pillars of DevOps is automation. To enable automation and get the maximum benefit out of it one requires the right toolchain. Let us take look at the most popular DevOps tools:

Jenkins: It is an open-source CI/CD automation server. Helps to build, test, and deploy in a single tool.
Git: The version control system repository makes code readily available across the team.
Selenium: Enables QAs to test the web application and write test scripts.
Docker: Open source container technology. Packages the application in such a way that it can be used on any platform.
Nagios: It is an open-source monitoring tool.
Kubernetes: currently the most in-demand Devops tool in the market. Kubernetes is open-source cluster-orchestrator to manage the real-time container workloads.

8.Continuous Feedback
DevOps is all about taking a customer-centric approach and to enable the same, feedback from end-users is essential. The only way to solve this issue is to concentrate on user requirements and bridge the gap between end-users and DevOps.

PS: This post was originally published at:
https://devopscurry.com/key-devops-principles-to-focus-in-2021/

Some popular Serverless solutions to know in 2020

DevopsCurry — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 07:29:35 +0000

Top Tools for Implementing Serverless in 2020

Adopting Serverless may be challenging because its new, and in some ways, it is complicated. 2020 marks the 6th year of AWS Lambda, also known as the birth of Serverless architecture.

Serverless computing has developed with time and there are numerous tools available for implementing Serverless. Let us take you through some of the best tools for implementing Serverless in 2020.

You might be thinking — Why people talk more and more about Serverless? Well, Serverless architecture is scalable, flexible, and affordable. Its the best possible solution for your company’s architecture management.

You can read more about Serverless in our post: Link

In this post we are sharing some of the best Serverless solutions for 2020 below:

AWS Lambda — Serverless Computing AWS Lambda is one of the most popular serverless services. It defines the core values of Serverless — no need to worry about the servers and pay only for your consumption. Serverless allows you to run code for virtually any type of app or backend service. Each Lambda function runs in its own container. AWS Lambda is used where tasks are self-contained, or individual tasks run for a long time. It is also beneficial when there is a large difference between the lowest and highest levels of application. AWS Lambda supports most of the languages and runtimes, if not all.
Azure Functions: Azure Functions by Microsoft works perfectly for those who are already using Visual Studio Code. It is event-driven computing that supports a large number of programming languages like JavaScript, C, C#, Java, Python, PHP, PowerShell, etc. Azure is quite similar to AWS Lambda. One of the biggest differences between Azure and Lambda is how they deal with the availability of functions. Monitoring in Azure is integrated via Azure Application Insights. It will help to troubleshoot any performance issues, .
Cloudflare Workers : cloudflare introduced Cloudflare Workers in 2019. Cloudflare Workers enables serverless capabilities to run with low latency. It allows you to run JavaScript at their data centers around the world. This will help to give your code an exceptional performance, reliability, and scale. Cloudflare is one of the world’s largest cloud networks. Cloudflare Workers offers unique features like: architecture based on V8 for fast access and low cost, budget-friendly, faster access, and coded in JavaScript. JavaScript will help developers to push out serverless functions in a familiar language.
Google Cloud Functions : google cloud functions is a fully-managed NodeJS environment. It is event-driven. Thus, it will trigger a function returning an event. It is meant to work for small units of code that are part of the heavy load. Google Cloud supports functions written in JavaScript (Node.js), Python, and GO. Autoscaling of the functions is built-in. So Google will automatically allocate new resources to execute the functions. It offers everything that is required to build an enterprise-ready serverless application.
Alibaba Functions: Alibaba Functions offers 1 million requests for free per month. It is more than just a FaaS (Function as a Service). Alibaba Functions manages your code as well as infrastructure. It supports languages like Node.JS, Python, Java, etc. It is a fully-managed and event-driven service. Alibaba Functions is a low-cost compute functions that are also highly reliable. Other than programming languages, it also supports triggers.
Oracle Functions: Oracle Functions are ideal for those organizations that are looking for a container-based option for serverless deployment. It is easy to build and deploy Oracle Functions because all functions are packaged as docker containers. Users can build functions that will run in the Oracle Functions service or in Fn Project-based deployment. This means there are fewer chances of lock-in. Oracle Functions offers auto-scaling and integration with the wider Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. It also provides additional capabilities like identity and access control.
Knative : Knative is an open-source service that adds components for deploying, running, and managing serverless applications. Just like any other serverless service, it allows the developers to run code without having to worry about servers and infrastructure. The three primary components of Knative are Build, Serving, and Eventing. It runs on any Kubernetes platform. Knative is managed by companies like RedHat, Google, and IBM.
Kinvey : kinvey helps developers to deliver their mobile, website, and chat applications to their customers in a quick and convenient way. Kinvey is innovative and a little different from other platforms. It offers no code or low code microservices. Some of the principal features of Kinvey includes serverless backend, easy authentication, code sharing, angular and native script, and data pipeline. It will save you a lot of time. Also, the drag and drop builder can make things easier for you to connect backend services to your application. Kinvey can be considered as the fastest way to develop high-tech solutions.
IBM Cloud Functions: IBM Cloud Functions are based on Apache OpenWhisk and is an open-source service. The biggest advantage of IBM Cloud Functions is that it can be installed on-premise. Thus. it offers a lot more control over your serverless applications. It provides an open and portable serverless model that can run in the IBM cloud as well as other deployment options. Events can be triggered from other IBM Cloud services or via a REST API which makes it more extensible.

Although it is not possible to cover everything that Serverless computing offers in a single post. But here we have tried to include some of the best-known solutions for implementing Serverless in 2020.

PS: This post was originally published at : https://devopscurry.com/some-popular-serverless-solutions-in-2020/

Understanding Serverless in 2020

DevopsCurry — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 17:02:23 +0000

Cloud computing and Serverless terms have gained tremendous popularity in the last few years. Most of the companies are adopting cloud computing for improved management of company architecture. People often come across the term serverless, but what exactly is Serverless? Does it mean there aren’t servers at all? NO, not exactly!!! Lets have a better knowledge of Serverless and its pros and cons in this article.

What is Serverless?

Serverless is a method where cloud providers allow users to write and deploy the code without having to worry about the infrastructure, or you can say Servers. Serverless allows developers to purchase backend services on a pay-as-you-go model. So developers have to pay only for the services they have used.

In the early years, developers needed to have their own physical hardware to run a server. It was an expensive and inconvenient task. Cloud Computing made this process a lot easier. As it allowed developers to rent the servers remotely.

But the developers were over-purchasing the servers to manage the peak traffic or activity. This was leading to a waste of both space and money. Then the concept of auto-scaling was introduced to address the issue. But auto-scaling was not able to manage the unwanted spike such as DDoS Attack. Then came Serverless, which is a perfect solution as it offers a pay-as-you-go facility.

Serverless offers a execution model where the cloud provider manages the allocation and provisioning of servers dynamically. A serverless application runs in stateless containers that are triggered by time-events and are ephemeral, which are again managed by cloud vendor.

So one key element for Serverless is: “You should focus only on your applications, and not the infrastructure””

Serverless computing is basically of two types. Each describes their application architecture.

Back-end as a Service (BaaS) – This is used for applications that have most of their backend on the cloud. BaaS is ideal for front-end heavy applications. For ex. Mobile apps.
Functions as a Service (FaaS) – This features those applications that run parts of their code through event triggers. It offers flexibility for server-side applications.

Pros and Cons of Serverless

Lets have a look at the pros as well as cons of Serverless architecture. This will help in deciding whether Serverless works for you or not.

Pros of Serverless

Reduce Costs: serverless is a great way to reduce costs. Because you are outsourcing servers, databases, and some parts of logic. Not only cost-cutting but it also requires less human resources and computing power. Serverless will take care of the infrastructure and you can focus on server-side codes.
Easy Deployment: it is easy to deploy andcan be deployed within minutes or couple of hours. You don’t need to spend weeks and months on deployment. Because there is no need to focus on the infrastructure. Just concentrate on code and deploy it immediately.
Extra Focus on the Frontend(UX): the end-user is only interested in the front-end or UX. They don’t care about the infrastructure and back-end. Serverless allows you to focus on the front-end and user interface. Serverless can provide you with a way to reallocate resources.
Improved Scalability:serverless computing will make you capable of handling the heavy load. If your application is growing, it is easy to make changes accordingly to sustain the growth. If not, then no harm done! You don’t need to plan extra infrastructure without knowing the actual need for your app.
Improved Flexibility: easy implementation of an app with serverless is making it more flexible than the traditional ways. Faster results mean faster innovations. This will help you to move on to the next project as quickly as possible. It is also easier to pivot in situations where you need to restructure your architecture.
Happy Customers: serverless gives the luxury of not worrying about the infrastructure. That means developers can have that extra focus on excellent customer experience. It is possible to release logic and features quickly to improve user experience. Because nobody wants to wait for a long time for small fixes. So a serverless architecture will eventually lead to happy customers.

Cons of Serverless Architecture

Dependency on Third-party: you have to rely on your provider most of the time if you choose serverless architecture. You don’t have full control over the servers. Some changes might impact you without notice. Also, the platform’s availability depends on its terms and conditions.
Cold Starts: serverless computing may take some time to handle your first function request. This is known as cold start. However, this can be avoided if you ensure your functions remain in an active state. You can do this by sending requests to it regularly.
Not fit for Long-term Tasks: if you are using serverless for a long duration, constantly running tasks, you might end up paying more for compute time. However, it is ideal for short-term and real-time processes. If you are executing multiple functions at the same time, you’ll get Denial of Service (DoS) for your apps.
Complexity: serverless is quite complex to understand and apply. Units of integration are quite smaller than other architectures. You might face problems with deployment and versioning. Also, it is a new technology for developers. So sometimes. it can be a little tricky.

Some Popular Serverless frameworks

There are numerous Serverless tools and frameworks available in the market. Some of the best Serverless frameworks are:

AWS Lambda Functions
Microsoft Azure Functions
Google Cloud Functions
IBM Cloud Functions
Cloudflare Workers
SLAppForge
Stackery

Serverless architecture is one more option in the ocean of Cloud computing. As we discussed, Serverless is not easy to maintain and monitor. But it has its own benefits to offer. Finally, the developers can choose the architecture that best meets their requirements.

PS: This post was originally published at :
https://devopscurry.com/understanding-serverless-in-2020/

DevOps vs Agile – understanding the difference

DevopsCurry — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 05:07:41 +0000

DevOps, is a latest buzzword that has been trending in the software industry for some years now. But in-spite of it’s popularity, there is still a lot of confusion about to how different Devops is from Agile. However the DevOps vs Agile, is a never ending debate in the IT industry.

While both the methodologies have a lot in common, there are some notable Agile and DevOps differences. In this post we are trying to outline, how Agile and DevOps operate independently and the key differences between them.

What is Agile?
Agile is a software development methodology that focuses on an iterative and incremental approach to software development or project management. It was introduced as an alternative to the traditional old waterfall methodology. Agile process breaks the product into smaller pieces and integrates them for final testing.

There are four core values that form the base for Agile development process:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

What is DevOps?
DevOps can be defined as a software development culture where the Development and the Operations team work together to improve collaboration and productivity. It can be called as joint (collaborative) responsibility between development, testing, automation and operations team to make the software development and deployment process more faster and smooth.

Unlike traditional software development, DevOps focus on a continuous cycle of building, testing, deploying, and monitoring software. DevOps’ main objective is to deliver quality software efficiently.

A typical Devops lifecycle involves the following processes:

Continuous development
Continuous testing
Continuous deployment
Continuous monitoring
Continuous feedback

Differences between DevOps and Agile

But the key takeaway here is that both DevOps and Agile are not mutually exclusive and they can coexist within an organization. So any organization transitioning to a DevOps way should not completely abandon existing Agile workflows. DevOps can be considered as an extension of Agile built around the practices that are not in Agile’s focus.

PS: This article was originally published at: https://devopscurry.com/devops-vs-agile-understanding-the-difference/