Beyond DevOps - Operability for Serverless and IoT

Focus on operability to get the best out of Serverless and IoT

Working with Serverless and IoT platforms means that much of the infrastructure “heavy lifting” has been done by the cloud vendor, leaving engineering teams free to focus on operability as a key differentiator for products and services.

In this talk we’ll cover:
● The coming technology landscape for business systems
● Why operability is key for future software
● Practical operability techniques for Serverless and IoT

Background: DevOps practices have been hugely valuable over the past 10 years in making software systems more resilient, reliable and valuable for users. However, many of the challenges that DevOps set out to solve are being addressed by cloud vendors at a rapid pace: application platforms, automated deployments, dynamic infrastructure provisioning, and more. Organisations starting their digital transformations in 2018 and beyond should look to new approaches such as Serverless and the cloud vendor IoT offerings and avoid
older approaches such as IaaS and even containers.

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A talk given at University College, London in 2018

Transcript

1. Beyond DevOps: Operability for Serverless and IoT Matthew Skelton, Conflux | 22 March 2018, UCL
2. Focus on operability to get the best out of Serverless and IoT 2
3. About me Matthew Skelton, Conflux @matthewpskelton matthewskelton.net Leeds, UK 3
4. About me Matthew Skelton, Conflux @matthewpskelton matthewskelton.net Leeds, UK 4 assemblyconf.com
5. What we’ll learn • Beyond DevOps • Operability as a key focus • What is Serverless? • What is an IoT platform? • Operability for Serverless & IoT 5
6. Beyond DevOps Beyond DevOps - Operability for Serverless and IoT 6 @ConfluxHQ
7. DevOps 7 • Infrastructure Automation vs • “Highly effective, daily collaboration between software developers and IT operations people to produce relevant, working systems” https://skeltonthatcher.com/blog/a-useful-working-definition-of-devops/
8. Before “Cloud” 8 • Costly physical infrastructure • Lengthy deployments (months) • Mostly manual configuration • Slow feedback speed • Optimised for cost
9. 9 Leonardo Rizzi - https://www.flickr.com/photos/stars6/4381851322/ CC-SA
10. Build vs Operate 10 BUILD OPERATE
11. Dev vs Ops 11 DEV OPS
12. Wall of Confusion 12 Andrew Clay Shafer / @littleidea
13. Feedback and Learning 13 Gene Kim - https://itrevolution.com/the-three-ways-principles-underpinning-devops/
14. Feedback and Learning 14 Gene Kim - https://itrevolution.com/the-three-ways-principles-underpinning-devops/
15. Feedback and Learning 15 Gene Kim - https://itrevolution.com/the-three-ways-principles-underpinning-devops/
16. Type 1: Dev and Ops Collaboration 16
17. Type 2: Fully Shared Ops Duties 17
18. “Infrastructure as Code” 18 • Programmable via APIs • Scripts in version control • Testable and Test-driven • Software Engineering practices applied to web infrastructure
19. CAMS 19 • Culture • Automation • Measurement • Sharing John Willis - https://blog.chef.io/2010/07/16/what-devops-means-to-me/
20. CAMS 20 • Culture • Automation • Measurement • Sharing John Willis - https://blog.chef.io/2010/07/16/what-devops-means-to-me/ 25% !!!
21. Type 3: Ops as Platform 21
22. Platform Teams • Not on-call for applications • Responsible only for underlying platform infra • Provide the platform “as a Service” to Product teams 22
23. Product-aligned Teams 23
24. Product-aligned Teams • On-call for application software • User Experience (UX) • Product viability • Software dev & Testing • Operational concerns 24
25. Productivity/Supporting Team(s) 25
26. Productivity Teams • Advise & enable Product teams • Experienced engineers (software, testing, operations) • Coordinate cross-team work • “Heavy lifting” 26
28. Invest in code that differentiates your organisation 28
29. Infrastructure concerns • SaaS: Software as a Service • FaaS: Function as a Service • PaaS: Platform as a Service • CaaS: Containers as a Service • IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service • On-premise: traditional/manual 29
30. Infrastructure concerns • SaaS: configuration 30
31. Infrastructure concerns • SaaS: configuration • FaaS: core business logic 31
32. Infrastructure concerns • SaaS: configuration • FaaS: core business logic • PaaS: scaling, resource mgt 32
33. Infrastructure concerns • SaaS: Software as a Service • FaaS: Function as a Service • PaaS: Platform as a Service • CaaS: Containers as a Service • IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service • On-premise: traditional/manual 33
34. Capabilities and Automation 34
35. Every software system needs a focus on operability to be successful 35
36. What is Serverless? Beyond DevOps - Operability for Serverless and IoT 36 @ConfluxHQ
37. Serverless: pay only to execute differentiating code 37
38. Serverless 38 Event Stream architecture
39. FaaS: Functions as a Service 39 AWS Lambda Azure Functions Google Cloud Functions
40. PaaS: Platform as a Service 40
41. What is an IoT platform? Beyond DevOps - Operability for Serverless and IoT 41 @ConfluxHQ
42. IoT Platform: control and respond to billions of sometimes connected devices 42
43. IoT Platform: consumer 43
44. IoT Platform: manufacturing 44 www.bosch-iot-suite.com
45. IoT Platform: exploratory 45
46. Operability: a key focus Beyond DevOps - Operability for Serverless and IoT 46 @ConfluxHQ
47. operability: an ability to work well (in Production) 47
48. Operability Deploy Monitor Diagnose Debug Query Control Inspect Clear 48
49. Operability for Serverless & IoT Beyond DevOps - Operability for Serverless and IoT 49 @ConfluxHQ
50. Operability for Serverless/IoT 50 “Even if the cloud provider is doing everything, ... is my latency where my customers need it to be? The provider’s going to do the best they can to give me a great service, but if my customers don’t agree, then I have a problem.” -- Kelsey Hightower, @kelseyhightower https://read.acloud.guru/you-need-sre-skills-to-thrive-in-a-serverless-world-kelsey-hightower-340a002b3730
51. Operability for Serverless/IoT 51 • UX: latency, “service” • Prevent: pro-active, improve • Security: perimeter explosion • Audit: data, traceability, archive • Compliance: PII, GDPR, SOX • Cost control: pay per execution
52. User Experience 52 • Latency • “Service” “How much does this organisation care about my end-to-end experience?”
53. Preventative approaches 53 • Billions of metrics • Automatic correlation • Automated anomaly detection • Act as ‘sensing’ for Product “It just works”
55. Security 55 • Perimeter explosion (FaaS, IoT) • Auto-renewal for Certs • Egress detection for data • Dependency scanning “I feel safe with these people”
56. 56 Guy Podjarny / InfoQ https://www.infoq.com/articles/serverless-security
57. Audit & Compliance 57 • What data do you hold? • Changes: where, when, who? • Archive: secure, relevant “Show me your approach to data removal for consumers”
58. Cost control 58 • Detect run-away executions • Retire little-used functions • Prevent DoS → $$$ • Rapid product decisions “What is the cost of this feature?”
59. Operability for Serverless & IoT: design for operational transparency 59
60. Modern logging & tracing 1/ Distinct states (Event ID) {Delivered, InTransit, Arrived} 60
61. Modern logging & tracing 2/ Trace the path (Correlation ID) 612999958.. 61
62. Modern logging & tracing 3/ • Dev teams and Ops teams collaborate on logging details: ◦ Log messages ◦ EventID ◦ Correlation • Invest in logging (time & tools) 62
63. Run Book dialogue sheets 1/ runbooktemplate.info 63
64. Run Book dialogue sheets 2/ • Checklists for typical operational considerations • Team-friendly exploration around a large table • See runbooktemplate.info 64
65. Summary Beyond DevOps - Operability for Serverless and IoT 65 @ConfluxHQ
66. Operability for Serverless/IoT • Is infrastructure automation the best approach for your org? • Invest in areas that differentiate your organisation • Make systems operate well 66
67. Operability for Serverless & IoT: design for operational transparency 67
68. Further reading Team Guide to Software Operability Matthew Skelton & Rob Thatcher skeltonthatcher.com/publications Download a free sample chapter 68
69. Questions? matthew@confluxdigital.net @matthewpskelton 69