It is easy to see why enterprises gravitate towards building and running modern apps on a new generation of cloud-native technologies. Increased scalability, shortened release cycles, and simpler management of the underlying infrastructure environment mean enterprises can modernise legacy systems and roll out resilient, multi-cloud capable services through the use of cloud-native tools.
“Developers should be focusing more on value creation than operational issues.”
JOE BAGULEY, VMWARE
“Instead of grappling with infrastructure or resource constraints, developers within an organisation can focus their attention on creating more engaging app features, resolving issues, and crafting a more delightful end-user experience. Organisations such as DATEV have seen how becoming cloud native resulted in marked improvements in customer services and the agility to respond faster to market changes, helping them become more competitive within their industry,” says Joe Baguley, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, EMEA of VMware.
Plugging into the cloud native ecosystem
For all the advantages that cloud-native development offers, plugging into the cloud-native ecosystem are not without its share of hurdles. For a start, new deployment approaches and the use of scripts now place a larger knowledge burden on developers that they must first master.
Though containers are far easier to scale than traditional apps or virtual machines, stateful apps do require additional effort in their design. Specifically, developers versed only in monolithic applications that work well on a single machine or cloud instance will need to quickly shore up their expertise.
Baguley also noted that as enterprises deploy a DevOps methodology that often follows the adoption of cloud-native development, the process of following up and collaboration between the release teams, testers, and developers can add a substantial amount of time to the development cycle. For developers, this is made worse as release cycles shorten and new versions are released far more frequently than ever before.
Finally, with the average cost of a data breach reaching an all-time high of US$4.35 million, it is worth remembering that cloud-native apps are not immune to cyber compromise. The onus is on enterprises to integrate security into their DevOps pipelines and make the shift left by addressing security right in the development phase.
Succeeding in DevOps
Roz Gregory, VP VMware Tanzu, APJ of VMware, shared that empowering developers to spend more time writing code and deliver quality digital products will take more than a switch to cloud-native development and DevOps. “For organisations to succeed, they must act to minimise the friction of new, unfamiliar cloud-native tools faced by their developers and help them overcome the many challenges to their DevOps journey.”
“Organisations must act to minimise the friction of new and unfamiliar tools.”
ROZ GREGORY, VMWARE
One way to achieve this is by improving developers’ cloud-native journey with suitable platforms or tools to streamline their experience with Kubernetes and help automate the toil of infrastructure, packaging, and security. Only then can they realise their full potential to deliver new apps and services quickly and efficiently.
What are some of the capabilities to keep in mind when choosing a solution? Gregory advised to keep an eye out for:
- The ability to enable developers to quickly achieve productivity with their preferred OSS tools and ship cloud-native apps
- A way to centrally manage, secure, and monitor the organisation’s Kubernetes estate
- Support for modern DevSecOps practices including automated patching
- Flexibility that does not lock you in to a specific public cloud or private cloud platform
Tools aside, DevOps also necessitates a cultural change. New processes and ways of doing things must be established, though implementing them for the first time will likely take time and iteration. To succeed, ensure that developers and business users are aligned regarding the pace of change and timeframes.
With the right tools and processes, there is no reason why you cannot deliver futuristic, best-in-class apps for your customers today.
Learn how you can enhance the DevOps experience here.