ALM best practices for advanced DevOps organizations

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  Article

  Elicitation techniques for better software reqs

  Software application requirements are the engine driving ALM. Because Agile projects are not explicitly phased, the process of elicitation needs a light reformat. Read Now

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  Article

  System reqs and feature reqs meld for DevOps ALM

  Under a DevOps methodology, the team must know how a feature will affect the entire system and what modifications will accommodate it. The transition from Agile to DevOps brings infrastructure and other teams into planning. Read Now

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  Article

  Build this application: Top down, or bottom up?

  A new software build begs the question of where to start: from end-user experience, working down to the components -- or from the capacity of components up toward UX. Read Now

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  Article

  Buy it or build it: Choose a software development plan

  When there's a need for new software, it can be purchased in pieces and adapted, or built in totality in-house. The choice relies upon budget and available time, as well as some less-obvious but important factors. Read Now

1The host with the most

Several decisions around ALM relate to where an application will reside. The hosting resources for an application affect risk tolerance, uptime and management, among other factors. Delve into the issues around application hosting on cloud services verses on-premises servers, migration decisions and how to host legacy applications.

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  Where to host a business application -- in the cloud or on premises?

  Four knowledgeable perspectives come together to weigh the pros and cons of cloud and on-premises application hosting. Read Now

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  What is cloud hosting worth to you?

  New applications may cost less to host on the cloud, while the cost for an existing application rises due to rehoming it on cloud resources. Before transitioning, be sure to weigh the worth of rearchitecting the software, the workflow and more. Read Now

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  Virtualize and conquer app support, management

  Hosting all applications on the same virtualization platform ensures consistent error logs and data backups, replication processes and security compliance. It can significantly increase the efficiency of IT departments, with these tangible benefits. Read Now

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  Important considerations for IaaS and PaaS decisions

  Some providers make a sharp distinction between infrastructure and platform as a service offerings, whereas others tend to blend them. So, what's the most cost-effective and efficient option? Read Now

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  Avoid app failure and exorbitant costs with a cloud migration plan

  A successful app migration to the cloud requires a thought-out plan, including a proof-of-concept pilot, among other steps. Read Now

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  Is migrating to entirely event-driven applications feasible?

  Event-driven apps practically cannot waste resources, by nature, but that doesn't make them the best fit for everything. Existing apps will need a full rewrite and reimagining -- provided the app can be translated to begin with. Read Now

2Terminology for better ALM discussions

Improving one's knowledge about ALM is about more than just weighing the pros and cons of Agile and DevOps, or of the cloud. It's equally important to understand all the terminology being tossed around, to be sure that no nuance is lost. These are some key terms to brush up on.

• Definition

  application lifecycle management

  Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the supervision of a software application from its initial planning through retirement. It also refers to how changes to an application are documented and tracked. Read Now

• Definition

  continuous development

  Continuous software development is a blanket term that covers several aspects of an iterative application development process based on making each change when it is ready, rather than wrapping many changes into large batches. Read Now

• Definition

  continuous integration

  Continuous integration (CI) is a software engineering practice in which frequent, isolated changes are immediately tested and reported on when they are added to a larger code base.  Read Now

• Definition

  continuous delivery

  Continuous delivery (CD) is a software release approach in which development teams produce and test code in short cycles, usually with a high degree of automation. Read Now

• Definition

  rolling deployment

  A rolling deployment is the installation of software updates on one server or server subset at a time, rather than updating all servers or server subsets at the same time.  Read Now

• Definition

  blue-green deployment

  A blue/green deployment is a software deployment strategy that relies on two identical production configurations that alternate between active and inactive. One environment is referred to as blue, and the duplicate environment is dubbed green. Read Now

• Definition

  canary testing

  In software testing, a canary (also called a canary test) is a push of code changes to a small number of users who have not volunteered or opted-in for testing. Because the canary is only pushed to a small number of users, its impact is relatively small should the new code prove to be buggy and changes can be reversed quickly. Read Now

• Definition

  phased rollout

  Phased rollout is a hardware or software migration method that involves incremental implementation of a new system. A phased migration might be conducted either by implementing the entire new system in some locations or business units or by implementing separate modules of the system independently until the implementation is complete. Read Now

• Definition

  dependency hell

  Dependency hell occurs when a software application cannot access the additional programming it depends upon to function. Read Now

• Definition

  application monitoring

  Application performance monitoring (APM) is software designed to help IT administrators ensure that the applications users work with meet performance standards and provide a quality user experience.  Read Now

3Deployment choices for resilient, reliable apps

Deploying applications takes a dedicated testing space, but where? Consider on-premises servers or one of a small collection of cloud options, including the use of multiple clouds simultaneously. There are benefits and drawbacks to each choice for testing, as well as for staging and deployment of complex applications.

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  Turn to the cloud for development of on-premises apps

  The cloud does not have to be an all-or-nothing scenario. For an app that's remaining on premises, consider going to a public cloud provider for the development phase -- being sure to take into account its subsequent real-world environment. Read Now

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  Cloud staging environments simulate production

  To ensure a new application functions as-expected upon deployment, create a temporary production environment -- a staging area -- on a cloud platform. Read Now

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  Keep the app deployment process simple and malleable

  While no two deployments are identical, an easily followed and flexible process goes a long way to ensure that application deployment and support teams know what to do and how to do it. Read Now

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  Update applications without downtime: tips for a smooth transition

  The scale and nature of a given application sways the decision on how to roll out updates. To make this process as smooth and bug-free as possible, try these advanced rollout strategies. Read Now

• Article

  Navigate the multicloud landscape for microservices

  Microservices and multicloud -- two trends in modern IT -- seem made for each other. When using multiple clouds, carefully plan out the location and purpose of each microservice to protect against inefficiency, security risks, and unnecessary cost. Read Now

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  Addressing IT resiliency without new hardware

  Critical applications demand high IT hardware and software resiliency. While traditional hardware clusters are a tried-and-true method, resiliency can be strengthened without making that major investment. Read Now

4All eyes on the application

Once an application is deployed and active, the DevOps team must monitor it to catch bugs, resource starvation and other problems before they affect users. This requires not only the right tools for the type of application and deployment, but also a suitable methodology. The best course of action possible requires ALM best practices and savvy tool choices.

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  Reimagine the IT department to increase app reliability

  Boosting IT reliability starts by opening up the process to users for self-service tests, and asking both developers and operations to share support responsibilities. Read Now

• Article

  IT ops analytics made easy through big data

  Analytics makes IT more efficient. When an application outputs more monitoring data than any IT team could hope to sift through, big data analytics sweeps in to do the heavy lifting. Read Now

• Article

  Full-stack monitoring options open to IT pros

  IT professionals looking for a single-vendor monitoring suite have several options at their fingertips, and with Datadog and CA Technologies entering into APM, IT shops' options are only expanding. Read Now

• Article

  A revolution in IT tools for container monitoring

  The advent of microservices and containers shook up established ALM best practices and sent organizations seeking new methods of monitoring. This is where specialized container monitoring tools come into play. Read Now

• Article

  Systems management tools ease the burden of monitoring

  IT professionals know that no monitoring tool functions unilaterally and instead amass a collection of tools. Enter integrated system management software to aggregate the data from these tools into digestible output. Read Now

• Article

  Get ready for BizDevOps and digital performance management

  BizDevOps and DPM create a situational awareness system for IT -- bringing business management and developers together for better application performance. What does this mean? Probably a reimagining of developmental culture. Read Now