DevOps - Surfing the Cloud

Surfing the Cloud

DevOps

A collection of 19 posts

Identity and Authentication Detangled

Identity and Authentication Detangled

Identity management, Authentication, and Authorization is hard for many people to understand. But it doesn't have to be, if you take a few minutes to understand the core principles: * Identification - Who do you claim to be? - Your Username * Authentication - Can you prove you are that

Sisyphus and Continuous Delivery

Sisyphus and Continuous Delivery

Like Sisyphus, damned to push an enormous boulder up a hill each day only to watch it roll back down, those of us in the Technology industry are compelled with a similar burden in the way we used to manage software, in the world of monolithic/waterfall software delivery — and

Container ENV configs are an Anti-Pattern

Container ENV configs are an Anti-Pattern

Using the OS Environment to configure your containers is an insecure practice, and we need to stop encouraging people to do it! The 12-factor app says to use the running Environment of a container to configure your running service. I would contend this does not mandate OS Environment variables, but

Do you have good Tech Culture?

Do you have good Tech Culture?

Work culture is far more critical to our success than work environment, yet it is more often glossed over because it deals with the problematic interpersonal challenges that are never easy to resolve. Have you considered the difference?

Four Principles of DevOps

Four Principles of DevOps

DevOps is a very charged word in the industry right now. There is a lot of information and opinions available and not everybody wants to go read several books just to get an idea of what we are talking about (a TL;DR problem). Because of this, I think a

Simple Uniform Log Format

Simple Uniform Log Format

Logs! Can it be this simple? If you have spent any time developing and administrating software services, you have struggled with the pain of dealing with logs in production. Every app formats them differently. There are modern tools (Splunk, ELK stacks) to help aggregate data together, but this becomes highly

Idiomatic Containers

Idiomatic Containers

Using a container properly can be the difference between your success or failure. Knowing how to do this lies in following a few simple idiomatic patterns. You may have heard that the ideal pattern for containers is one process per container. This is a simplified statement explaining one of the

The Docker Mind Shift

The Docker Mind Shift

It is hard to miss: DevOps and Docker/Containers are here with a vengeance. But at its heart, Containers are a challenge for many people, especially those who already work in tech because they are a different paradigm. Containers help DevOps achieve its full potential when done right. But to

Avoiding Calamitous Data Migrations

Avoiding Calamitous Data Migrations

In the world of Continuous Delivery, data migrations are a looming challenge. A data migration is simply changing the structure of your live data, and the code to suit. The problem is a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario. Do you push out the new code first, or do you change

Top Mistakes of Container Implementations

Top Mistakes of Container Implementations

Docker and containers are the latest new tech "hot thing." But it is easy to make mistakes, and with the breadth of options the first step can seem like an insurmountable cliff. Before you begin a docker implementation, regardless of which platform you are using, you should know

What is an Architect?

What is an Architect?

Technology Architects and Strategic Planners may be the most confused roles in the IT industry. Depending upon whom you ask or where you look, the definition varies dramatically. While the industry has struggled with defining the role of an Architect, an alternate label has also come into common use, which

Fox in the Henhouse

Fox in the Henhouse

There is a renown rivalry in Software Development as polarized as the Hatfield and McCoy's. As long as there has been software, there has existed two factions: the Developers, and the Administrators (also known as Operations). The Developers just want to write code and get it into Production.

Time

Language and communication happens at a fixed point in time. We have a thought, and a statement is made. Unlike a word processor, there is no undo feature. Time moves forward, and that statement you made or question you answered is now in the past. This creates a challenge to

Baselines, not Standards

Baselines, not Standards

In the IT industry, the word “standard” is loved and cherished. It is within easy reach in our toolbox, it fits snugly in our hand, and we use it on a daily basis, wielding it like a sword in both offense and defense. Our standards are the body and composition

Don't Fear SaaS

Information Assurance

Don't Fear SaaS

We are in the world of connected services, always online, always available. In this world, many software options are available online—you just need to connect these Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings into your solution. Software as a Service enables and empowers you. It allows a team of experts

Factors of an Ephemeral App

Factors of an Ephemeral App

*Note: this article is superseded by the newer Idiomatic Containers. This page will auto redirect in 5 seconds. Ephemeral Immutable Apps stand on the principals of the 12-factor app. However, the 12 factors leave unclear some of the operational and administrative factors — things which are very important if you want

The Ephemeral Immutable App

The Ephemeral Immutable App

Historically we have built our servers to fit the shape of our applications. There is an unending way to install and configure a running application, to size the memory and disk, and so forth. This has changed dramatically with the advent of simple to use containers. Instead, the world is

Elements of an Application

Deconstructing your application helps you to be able to better know how to manage its lifecycle. There are commonly four elements to an application: 1. Stack Application Framework, i.e. Java, Node, etc. 2. Code The code running in the Application Framework Zero environment specific definitions (environment agnostic) 3. Configuration

Biological Network Security

*Note: this article was originally published on Security Focus, 16-Jan-2002. I have updated it in places to be more relevant to the current world constraints. Like a raging cancerous growth the Internet has evolved and expanded in a rapid, unplanned and chaotic manner. Initially, little consideration was given to network