I’m going to start this week’s blog out with a very clear statement that regular readers will already be aware of: I fall on the automation side of the DevOps equation. I see DevOps as automation first, process second. The problem is getting to that “second” part. The act of automating the entire pipeline should, by example, show the benefits of integrating these disparate tools and disparate teams. But it seems it often does not.
So I’m going to take a second to tell you why it should. If you have integrated tools and teams, kudos! Hopefully you get absolutely nothing out of this blog, and you are enjoying a drink on a beach somewhere while your entire operation is taking care of itself. Everyone else, please read on.
Look at the generic graphic. Notice how each step on the top is a different shape? That’s because they are individually implemented with limited integration of both people and processes. So you have a tool to submit for testing … Does testing (or monitoring at the end) feed back into your bug tracking system? Does it create tickets to get stuff done? When a container fails, is it simply dropped and a new one spun up to replace it because “they’re just cattle”? If so, does the system take steps to keep the failed container—or at least information about it—alive so troubleshooting can occur? Ignoring failed instances that were replaced and their impact on users was low is exactly how CloudBleed happened a couple years ago.
Automate first, get the benefits of automation and drive faster delivery. Then take advantage of all that automation and make it into a streamlined process. It’s a massively complex system, even if you deliver everything on a single “platform,” so it will never be perfect. But issues that occur with regularity can be automated also to provide integration between systems. Isolating an instance and sending a notice to the defect tracking system that it is alive but not communicating (because it has been replaced) is something that is relatively easy to script/integrate and offers the ability to find what actually went wrong. Contrasted with just dropping the instance and starting a new one, this process is an order of magnitude better, and with integrated teams, Dev and Ops can work together to resolve whatever caused the instance to go down.
Strong integration and a smooth pipeline is what technologies such as application release automation are designed to deal with, but most shops see these tools as “unnecessary” overhead. I disagree. Find one you like—there are a million of them—and use it to connect things. It’s just one step, but it is a step to transforming your operational delivery systems from unique snowflakes to part of a collection that works together.
That’s it. Automate first because the gains are phenomenal, but don’t stop there. Really—don’t. You are doing yourself a disservice if you do. The whole “We’re going to change your world!” crowd is annoying, because changing your world is your decision, but listen to them anyway, and see which of their ideas fit your organization. You’ll be surprised once automation is solidly in place how much of what the process side of DevOps offers makes sense.
