HOW CLOUDCONTROL APPZ HELPS YOUR SOFTWARE DELIVERY PROCESS?

HOW CLOUDCONTROL APPZ HELPS YOUR SOFTWARE DELIVERY PROCESS?

INTRODUCTION

It is critical that companies have faster and more effective process of getting their product in to market before a competitor does it. It is also important to push new features and bug fixes in to production more frequently to keep the customers happy.

Software delivery/deployment is a mechanism through which new software, new module, change, patch or a bug fix in an existing software is made available to users. It involves build, configuration, installation, testing, running, optimizing and monitoring of the software application in a specific environment. Deployment can be carried out through manual or automated processes. It is very essential to have integration of digital technology and transformation in to the development and deployment processes to deliver added value to customers.

OBJECTIVES

Few of the most common objectives of any software delivery system are detailed below:

• Faster time to market:

  To be competitive in the market, companies want to release new modules and features more frequently.

• Better customer satisfaction:

  To make the customers happy by responding to their requests more quickly and fixing any issues as fast as possible.

• Zero system down time:

  To ensure high availability (99.999) by reducing down times and any impact to customers.

• Cost effectiveness:

  To reduce the deployment and post deployment costs.

• Automation:

  To streamline the operations and to reduce human errors using end to end automation.

• Compliance &Auditability:

  To be compliant with regulations and having traceability using audit trails.

• Roll back:

  Availability of options to roll back a deployment at the push of a button, in case if something goes wrong.

• Security:

  To control access to systems, data and keys,  to limit human intervention

• Support for Hybrid Cloud:

  Ability to deploy the releases to any environment (DEV, QA or PROD) in on-premise or cloud.

CONTINUOUS DELIVERY PIPELINE

A continuous deployment/delivery pipeline automates the software delivery process. It builds the code, runs vulnerability scans, executes tests, triggers approval workflows, deploys the code and monitors the environment.  Applications could be deployed to an on-premise infrastructure or to a cloud infrastructure like AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.

The key objectives of a continuous delivery pipeline are automation with zero or very low manual intervention (low touch), faster delivery and a repeatable process.

APPZ LOW TOUCH SOFTWARE DELIVERY PIPELINE

Stage 1: Source Control

• The first component in the AppZ pipeline is source control system, which can be Github, Gitlab, BitBucket, SVN, etc.
• Source code repository is connected to AppZ Engine using Webhooks and anappz. yaml configuration file.

Stage2: AppZGitOps Engine

• When code changes are committed in the source control system, it alerts AppZ Engine, using the Webhook configured.
• AppZ engine then pulls the code, validates, builds, test, scan, sign and pushes it to a repo.
• It then triggers the approval workflow, if one is configured.

Stage 3: Workflow Manager

• Approvers will receive emails with details of the change, build, deployment, etc., who can then either approve or reject the change

Stage 4: Deployment Manager

• Once the deployment is approved, deployment manager takes the image and deploys it to the set target environment (which can be DEV, QA or PROD).
• Deployments can be configured to re-create, rolling-update or blue-green based on customer requirements.

Stage 5: Monitor (Dashboard)

• Once deployed, operations team can login to the AppZ dashboard and can monitor the server parameters, performance and logs.

  Fig: AppZ Low Touch Software Delivery Pipeline

APPZ LOW TOUCH SOFTWARE DELIVERY PLATFORM BENEFITS

• Extremely fast software delivery (in minutes).
• Zero down time using rolling-update or blue/green deployments.
• Minimizes risk and reduces cost (50-70% on migration and 30% on TCO).
• Fully automated (Low touch deployments).
• Full auditability and compliance support.
• Roll back options.
• Scanned images, secured keys using vault, approval workflows and low touch (minimal human intervention).
• Supports automated software delivery to bare metal, on-premise or multi-cloud environments.
• Experienced team (migrated more than 1400 applications to hybrid-cloud environments).

CONCLUSION

AppZ Low Touch Software Delivery platform assures fast and low touch deployments at a very competitive price.

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https://calendly.com/cloudcontrol/60-minute-deep-dive