For those of us that work on Enterprise Systems such as the mainframe, the claims that the Unicorns ⁽¹⁾ make, can be pretty astounding. Dozens and sometimes hundreds of releases a day from big companies like Netflix ⁽²⁾ and Etsy ⁽³⁾ are hard to comprehend. But look a little closer and you can see that the key difference is in the way changes are released to customers, not so much the total volume of changes. A traditional enterprise application may have thousands of changes made over the course of 3 to 6 months, but all of those changes are released at once. The Unicorns are typically able to release a very small number of changes at a time because they can develop, build, test, and deploy these changes very efficiently. Small batch releases to customers has significant value. It enables you to get feedback very quickly, and it is significantly easier to verify because the change is not mixed in with other changes.

So how can you transform your development environment to deliver small batch of changes? I like to tackle the problem like any other computer science problem, no doubt because of my background. Break the large problem into a set of smaller problems and then solve those smaller, less daunting problems:

Step 1 of 7

14%

Which of the following best describes how you currently monitor and manage systems across your hybrid cloud environment?(Required)

Multiple separate tools for different environments

Multiple separate tools for different monitoring and management functions

Single consolidated dashboard

Custom built monitoring and management solution

No full monitoring and management solution

Don’t know

How valuable would it be for your monitoring and management solution to incorporate predictive analytics to help you identify and address system issues that are critical and not waste time or effort working through all the data and “noise” that is not critical?(Required)

Extremely valuable

Moderately valuable

Somewhat valuable

Slightly valuable

Not valuable

How do you most typically address potential system issues BEFORE they impact your operations?(Required)

Automated workflows and playbooks to remediate potential issues as soon as they are detected

An orchestrated response process that leverages automation, AI, and human expertise to rapidly respond to potential issues

Advanced monitoring tools such as predictive analytics and anomaly detection to proactively identify and address potential issues

Respond to issues as they arise, using manual processes and troubleshooting techniques

A combination of automated remediation, orchestrated response, and/or proactive monitoring to address potential system issues

Don’t know

Other

What methods does your organization use to control and monitor cloud/IT spending?(Required)

Centralized procurement processes

Pre-approved budget thresholds

Automated cost monitoring tools

Department-level spending controls

Regular cost audits and reviews

Cloud cost optimization platform

Approval workflows for resource provisioning

Native financial operations tools provided by the cloud provider

No formal controls in place

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

Which methods do you rely on most to detect security vulnerabilities in your systems?(Required)

Automated scanning tools

Manual assessments

Vendor notifications

Threat modeling (for early detection)

None of these

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

What are the TWO most common ways you prioritize vulnerabilities to address within your environment?(Required)

Based on potential impact

Based on exploitability

Regulatory compliance requirements

Based on CVSS scores

Risk-based analysis of multiple factors

First-in-first-out approach

No formal prioritization process

Don’t know

How do you typically handle system updates and security patches?(Required)

Automated updates and patches

Manually review and apply updates and patches on a regular schedule

A combination of automation and manual review

Apply updates and patches on an as-needed basis.

Outsourced update and patch management

No defined process

Don’t know

Other

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Step 0: Start with a Proof of Concept

Pick a Proof of Concept (PoC) to begin with that is important, but not mission critical. The PoC can be used as a learning ground and hopefully as a template for subsequent PoC’s. Make sure you have a team that culturally is willing to transform. Often the hardest issues to tackle have nothing to do with technology, but are cultural.

Step 1: Understand your Application

You need to have a good understanding of what your application consists of. Not only does the source code make up the application, but what source files are used, what the middleware configuration might be, what scripts you may have to build and deploy the application, and what data files (e.g. flat files, databases) that you use are also important. Some of these components may be shared with other applications, so you need to understand those dependencies as well. Once you have a good handle on the application, you can then automate the application build and deployment process so that all members of the team can work efficiently.

Step 2: Understand your test cases

If you can build and deploy the application quickly but it still takes days or weeks to test, then testing prevents you from delivering to your clients. An important shift for testing needs to be from testing the entire application to testing the change. You need to focus on running the right tests to ensure the change is correct and causes no regressions. Tests that do not exercise the code change are irrelevant and can be skipped. For many existing applications, the test suites may consist of hundreds if not thousands of test cases. Many of those test cases may be duplicates or testing areas of the code that are not being changed.

Step 3: Understand your processes

How fast can you get your updates to your customer? If your bug fixes and enhancements have to sit on the shelf for days, weeks or months before the customer gets them, they will not be satisfied. Streamline not only the development processes but the operations processes in your organization.

To know more about the topic with the help of a real life case, watch the replay of a recent webcast which IBM in partnership with staging-devopsy.kinsta.cloud hosted with Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation’s Jeff Blackadar on how breaking down IT silos helped speed up mainframe development for them.

Also, do let me know your thoughts on the blog and on the topic.

¹ the born on the web technology teams

² http://www.slideshare.net/jedberg/devops-at-netflix-reinvent

³ http://www.slideshare.net/beamrider9/continuous-deployment-at-etsy-a-tale-of-two-approaches

About the Author/ Mike Fulton

A IBM Distinguished Engineer, CTO Enterprise DevOps at IBM,  Mike is a software development professional specializing in compilers, debuggers, profilers and virtual machines. At IBM, Mike works towards understanding and influencing trends and directions in Enterprise IT delivering new technologies into the DevOps Portfolio. He also overlooks integration of the DevOps Portfolio into IBM and Enterprise Software Solutions. Mike is an IBM Master Inventor with several patents to his credit.

He is an avid blogger and regularly writes on his blog site – makingdevelopersliveseasier.wordpress.com