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  • Veracode Makes DevSecOps Transition Easier for Developers

    Veracode Makes DevSecOps Transition Easier for Developers

    Following the formal acquisition of Veracode by CA Technologies, a much bigger effort to make security a more integrated element of DevOps has kicked off in earnest.

    Veracode recently unfurled an update to its application security platform aimed specifically at developers that provides security findings as each application module is scanned. Tim Jarrett, senior director of enterprise security strategy for Veracode, says the idea is to provide developers with that information from static analysis delivered via the Veracode platform as early in the application development lifecycle process as possible.

    Other new capabilities include support for custom cleansing functions to automate remediating issues involving common known vulnerabilities and an auto-scan capability that gets implemented any time a file is saved.

    Also with this release, Veracode is adding support for the Perl programming language that is still widely used for building web applications.

    Jarrett notes that organizations these days are holding developers more accountable for security issues that are easier to fix during the application development process. Addressing those same issues after an application is deployed in production not only exposes organizations to security threats, but can be much more expensive to fix.

    The challenge is that most organizations have yet to solve the riddle for getting developers to address security issues earlier in the application development cycle. Jarrett says far too many developers are conditioned to view IT security has being someone else’s job inside the organization. Veracode is trying to make it simple to address security issues using tools that make the process as frictionless as, say, relying on a spell checker to publish a higher-quality document.

    Obviously, there will never be perfect security. But far too many of the issues that IT security teams regularly deal with relate to known exploits. At a time when cybercriminals are making use of a variety of automated tools to discover those exploits, most IT security teams are outgunned. Worse yet, many IT organizations can’t even find qualified cybersecurity professionals to hire in the first place.

    On the plus side, however, as DevOps processes mature, many developers are now assuming complete responsibility for the maintenance of the code they write, including all security issues. This not only leads to higher-quality applications, it also results in those developers being more vigilant when it comes to address security issues they would otherwise need to address themselves once an application is deployed in production. In some quarters, this earlier focus on security in the application development and deployment process is referred to as DevSecOps. As a discipline within most IT organizations, however, DevSecOps remains relatively nascent.

    Of course, regulatory bodies are increasingly treating organizations that fall prey to security attacks less like victims. Instead, they are holding them accountable for ignoring best security practices by assessing fines for losing control over sensitive data. As those fines increase the blame for incurring those fines eventually cascades back to the developer. Given that changing climate, it might not be too long before developers recognize that embracing DevSecOps is in their own best interests.

    — Mike Vizard

  • AppDynamics Extends Performance Monitoring Reach to Developers

    AppDynamics Extends Performance Monitoring Reach to Developers

    AppDynamics, fresh off its acquisition by Cisco Systems, this week moved to extend the reach of its monitoring services all the way out to individual developers.

    The spring 2017 edition of the AppDynamics service now includes a developer toolkit intended to make it simpler for developers to track the performance of their code without having to get that data from an IT operations team.

    Matt Chotin, senior director of Developer Initiatives for AppDynamics, said the goal is to respond to the needs of developers who, in the age of DevOps, increasingly are being held accountable for the performance of their applications end to end. The toolkit enables those developers to directly invoke application programming interfaces (APIs) exposed by AppDynamics.

    The toolkit also provides additional AppDynamics support for the Go programming language, the Xamarin framework used to develop mobile applications and a plugin for Android applications. Now also available are dashboards for tracking individual session and crash alerts and reports that make it possible for developers to discover the root cause of a potential issue much closer to the time it occurs.

    But Chotin said the most unique attribute of the AppDynamics release is that developers can apply diagnostics to business transactions in two modes. One mode enables developers to examine code in pre-production and production environment, while another—a Live Mode—can be used against live application data.

    In addition to extending its reach out to developers, AppDynamics is making it easier for IT organizations to deploy its agent software. A new Universal Agent makes it simpler for the AppDyamics controllers to distribute those agents. Chotin said AppDynamics is also working on developing lighter-weight agents that would be used to provide better support for containerized applications.

    Finally, AppDyanmics is also simplifying its software licensing model in a way that enables sharing subscriptions.

    While AppDynamics has developed an extensive following among IT operations teams, reaching out to developers represents a new frontier. As responsibility for application performance shifts in the age of DevOps, Chotin said AppDynamics is discovering the developers want to be able to access directly the metrics that apply specifically to their code. Instead of being presented with information about every application running in the environment, developers want to be able to zone in on any and all issues affecting their specific code, he said.

    Obviously, not every IT organization is implementing DevOps processes to the same level of zeal. In many cases, IT operations teams are still mainly held responsible for application performance. But as the line between those IT operations teams and developers continue to blur, any move to embed instrumentation functions deeper into the application code base stands to benefit everyone. Of course, not every developer might be excited about being required to do that initially. But once they discover that the time between when there’s an issue and they can go back to writing code starts to drop, AppDynamics is betting that many of them are likely to insist on that level of instrumentation being available.

    — Mike Vizard

  • DevOps Job Titles Emerging in Enterprise IT Organizations

    DevOps Job Titles Emerging in Enterprise IT Organizations

    IT job functions and, by extension, individual titles inside the classic enterprise have been relatively constant. Various hierarchies of developers labored separately alongside IT operations teams that focused mainly on infrastructure. However, the emphasis on continuous integration and continuous development (CI/CD) within the context of a modern DevOps environment is starting to blur the lines separating who does what inside these organizations. In fact, Phil Guido, general manager of IBM Global Technology Solutions in North America, says new titles such as DevOps engineer and Scrum Master, which better reflect new roles many IT professionals taking on, now are emerging.

    At the crux of this shift is the rise of programmable infrastructure coupled with a need for IT organizations to be more agile. Instead of rolling out a few applications and associated updates a year, IT organizations today are being urged by business leaders to roll out more applications and updates at a pace associated more often with web-scale companies than the classic enterprise. Much of that demand emanates from shareholders and Wall Street to accelerate investment in digital business initiatives that generate higher-margin revenue.

    To achieve those goals, enterprise IT organizations are trying to emulate as many of the DevOps processes employed by web-scale companies. For example, web-scale companies make extensive use of CI/CD technologies and processes to roll out as many new applications as fast as they possibly can. Overseeing those processes are developers who now are accountable for not just writing but also maintaining the application. The theory is that if developers are held accountable for the quality of the application, they will focus more on making sure that application attains a level of quality. The trick is to empower those developers to own everything from the code itself to the programmatic infrastructure it runs on. Because of that requirement, many of those developers adopted a “cloud first” mentality because deploying applications on a public cloud such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) eliminated the need for those developers to engage with IT infrastructure professionals altogether.

    However, most traditional enterprise IT organizations have a much smaller number of application developers. Every minute those developers are not writing code reduces the number of applications an enterprise can roll out. Because of that issue, many enterprises have been trying to find a way for existing IT operations teams and developers to work together hand in glove.

    That requirement, Guido says, is creating a lot of demand for advice from IBM about how to manage DevOps. IBM advises organizations to go slow to ensure they have a few quick successes under their belts before propagating DevOps across the entire organization, he notes. If an organization tries to do too much or move too fast, there’s a good chance that employee resistance to change will only increase. Above all, Guido says, organizations should avoid being too prescriptive in how they define DevOps.

    Of course, not everyone agrees that changing job titles is always the best way to go about fostering change. But human nature being what it is within large organizations, some job titles will have to be reclassified to bring about permanent change.

    — Mike Vizard

  • AppDynamics Buy Expands Cisco’s DevOps Agenda

    AppDynamics Buy Expands Cisco’s DevOps Agenda

    AppDynamics’ $3.7 billion acquisition by Cisco Systems has two major implications for the DevOps space. On a tactical level, Cisco has committed to distributing AppDynamics’ agent software everywhere from the public cloud to individual devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) and in between. On a more strategic level, the company is positioning itself to be able to uniquely correlate IT operations data generated by applications and IT infrastructure to give organizations comprehensive visibility into their entire DevOps environments.

    During a briefing with analysts and the media this week, Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s IoT and Applications Business Group, described how his company sees AppDynamics as a linchpin acquisition that propels the company well beyond its well-established networking and server infrastructure base. After the merger is completed, expected sometime in the third quarter, AppDynamics will continue to operate as an independent business unit within the IoT and Applications group, and current AppDynamics CEO David Wadhani will report to Trollope.

    Trollope described AppDynamics as a complement to Cisco’s ongoing efforts to drive more recurring revenue. The company, which offers an application monitoring service delivered via the cloud, was poised to shortly go public prior to being scooped up by Cisco. AppDynamics is employed mainly by IT organizations to monitor applications running on public clouds. But Wadhani noted one of the fastest-growing segments of AppDynamics’ business is monitoring applications running in private clouds.

    The data AppDynamics gathers in those environments can be correlated against, for example, the data Cisco collects via its Tetration analytics application, which the company launched last year. That capability, Trollope said, will significantly increase the total Cisco value proposition.

    In fact, as hybrid cloud computing scenarios based on microservices and containers become more common, Wadhani noted that monitoring of complex applications running in production across multiple clouds will become a more crucial requirement. AppDynamics recently extended its monitoring service to include support for containers deployed in these environments.

    Under the leadership of CEO Chuck Robbins, extending Cisco’s reach across the enterprise has become a high priority. Cisco recently abandoned a cloud interoperability service strategy. But its acquisition of AppDynamics suggests the company is shifting its focus to higher-margin software that generates recurring revenues across multi-year contracts.

    Following the acquisition, Trollope said Cisco also plans to take advantage of its existing relationships with senior business and IT leaders to advance a vision of DevOps that provides organizations with visibility all the way down to how each customer engages with their IT resources. The issue Cisco needs to navigate is the degree to which those senior executives actually exercise control over DevOps. To date, DevOps has been more of initiative led by developers and IT operations staff than mandates from senior executives.

    Wadhani said Cisco’s direct and indirect sales staff should significantly expand the number of organizations that are exposed to AppDynamics services. That means one way or another, DevOps is about to become a much broader discussion across the enterprise.

    — Mike Vizard

  • Top 10 IT Management Tools

    Top 10 IT Management Tools

    Staying up with the latest IT management tools is akin to keeping up on the latest Starbucks drink options. We simplify it here through a look at the most useful tools, from monitoring to DevOps orchestration and APM.

    IT management tools have entered a new heyday, thanks to the advent of cloud, DevOps and mobile computing. With all of the new types of infrastructure, software and development methods, developers and IT managers need simple automation to get through the day. But with hundreds of IT management and DevOps tools on the marketplace today, both open source and commercial, it’s hard to know where to start.

    The global DevOps tools market alone is expected to be worth $3 billion by 2019, according to Technavio. While there are many applications to choose from, we have compiled a list of our favorites below. Some of these are tried and true, while others are newfangled and still in their early days of experimentation.

    Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)

    IT Operations Management and IT Service Management

    Microsoft SCOM is a legacy enterprise infrastructure monitoring and management tool that delivers comprehensive coverage for the Microsoft ecosystem of assets and devices, whether they are installed on internal data centers or in the cloud. SCOM has evolved over the years to monitor network and storage along with Unix-based systems.

    Cautions: Since SCOM is a deep monitoring tool that collects data from many different systems, it generates a large volume of data and alerts that can overwhelm systems administrators and IT managers.

    Vistara

    IT Operations Management and IT Service Management

    Vistara is a comprehensive tool for monitoring heterogeneous multivendor assets and devices, whether installed on-premise or in the cloud. It covers a wide swath of Microsoft and Unix applications and systems, major enterprise vendors such as Oracle and Symantec, and top storage and networking technologies. Vistara also integrates well with other monitoring tools. A unique feature of Vistara is that it records all user sessions, which provides an audit trail for tracing system changes and other events.

    Cautions:  Vistara is a powerful, multifunctional tool and needs to be set up properly to derive the maximum benefits.

    SolarWinds

    Network Monitoring

    SolarWinds is a leading tool for managing and monitoring performance of a multivendor distributed network environment. The tool delivers a lot of useful metrics, including performance, capacity and downtime. It is particularly useful in companies with many locations, such as a retail brand, or a national or multinational company with a large number of branch offices and locations.

    Cautions: SolarWinds does not provide comprehensive monitoring for servers or storage systems.

    (Editor’s Note: SolarWinds reached out to devopsy.kinsta.cloud to clarify that it does offer comprehensive monitoring for servers and storage systems through its Server & Application Monitor and Storage Resource Monitor tools.)

    Nimsoft (CA)

    Network Monitoring

    Nimsoft is another excellent network monitoring tool, but is best-suited for an on-premise (internal data center) environment that has standardized on a few types of equipment and has a low rate of change. A company that is adding new technologies and devices frequently won’t find the tool to be flexible enough to adapt to evolving needs.

    Cautions: This legacy tool is not ideal for diverse and fast-changing IT environments.

    ServiceNow

    IT Service Management

    ServiceNow is well-known in the industry for comprehensive service management, including service level management, financial management, incident management, availability management, change and release management and more. ServiceNow has the broadest coverage for all ITIL activities, making it the de facto standard for service management and suitable for use in small companies up to the enterprise.

    Cautions: Because this tool is so flexible, you can easily customize it to meet your organization’s specific needs. Beware that by doing so, you’ll need a full-time administrator to manage the customized system.

    Chef/Puppet

    DevOps Automation and Management

    When it comes to tools for managing cloud application development and deployment, Chef and Puppet have near-cult status among developers. Companies occasionally use them both, but there is overlap between the tools. Chef is ideal for DevOps provisioning, orchestration and configuration management and is a more flexible platform overall, featuring auto rollback to previous versions. Chef also provides real-time visibility into metrics and messages. Puppet is best for DevOps automation and administration and is a highly prescriptive, process-driven platform that does not allow shortcuts, which should make IT Operations people happy.

    Cautions: Chef and Puppet are used primarily by developers, not IT Ops, and therefore raise some level of caution if developers are spending too much time managing the tools vs. writing code.

    Docker

    DevOps/Containerization

    Docker is the industry-leading tool for DevOps automation of application deployment inside software containers. It can be used for nearly any software project and infrastructure environment, and is especially helpful for managing dependencies and version inconsistencies. The application is a game-changer for simplifying the complexities of deployment. Docker containers wrap up a piece of software in a single, portable unit that contains everything it needs to run: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries and so on.

    Cautions: Docker’s approach to security is still unproven, and some believe it is not up to enterprise security standards.

    Apache Mesos/Google Kubernetes

    DevOps/Clustering

    Apache Mesos is best for cluster management and utilization for distributed applications in a DevOps world, while Google Kubernetes is ideal for automating deployment, scaling, and operations of application containers across clusters of hosts. Clustering tools sit on top of hardware and increase utilization through effective workload management and resource-sharing. They work in both public and private cloud infrastructure environments, across many different platforms, and allow IT organizations to run more workloads on the same hardware. While both of these tools are fairly new, Mesos has been around longer and is more appropriate for large environments with heavy management and scale needs.

    Cautions: When looking at small clusters of say, fewer than a dozen nodes, Mesos may be an overly complex solution.

    New Relic

    Application Monitoring

    New Relic is well-known for its real-time capabilities in monitoring and managing web and mobile applications within cloud, hybrid and on-premise infrastructure. For an APM tool, New Relic is strong at identifying server-based performance issues. It also allows for real user page performance tracking so you can see if certain classes of users (for instance, by region) are having worse performance than others.

    Cautions: New Relic does not capture 100 percent of transactions, but does a sampling. This may or may not be important depending upon your business needs. It is also somewhat rigid, and may not be too flexible in an environment that has a lot of microservices.

    Graphite/Grafana

    Dashboards

    Graphite and Grafana are two leading graph and dashboard builder for visualizing time series metrics. The tools are particularly useful for analyzing metrics and other types of data from on-premise systems, public cloud, private cloud and IoT systems.

    Grafana is most commonly used for visualizing time series data for Internet infrastructure and application analytics but is also used in domains including industrial sensors, home automation, weather and process control.

    Graphite is excellent at visualizing data and metrics.

    Cautions: You will need a complex and elaborate configuration of databases to gather the data and a compute engine to generate the dashboard.

    About the Author/Ravikumar Raghavenderrao

    ravikumar-raghavenderraoRavi RRK, as he is known, is the Vice President – Service Delivery at NetEnrich. Ravi’s responsibilities include service delivery management, customer satisfaction, and new service introduction. Ravi’s team also has the responsibility to ensure and enforce quality and policy standards across the NetEnrich organization.

    Ravi has over two decades of experience in the IT industry in the areas of remote infrastructure management, delivery and large account management. Prior to joining NetEnrich, Ravi spent over 20 years at Wipro Technologies in various positions. Ravi holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) degree from Osmania University and a Master of Engineering (Mechanical) degree from the Indian Institute of Science.

  • DevOps Luminary, Ernest Mueller Set to Return to DevOps Days Austin Stage

    DevOps Luminary, Ernest Mueller Set to Return to DevOps Days Austin Stage

    Ernest Mueller, the Agile Admin has been part of the DevOps scene almost since the very beginning. He was one of the founders and still a leader of the Austin DevOps scene. Ernest after many years of speaking at DevOps Days Austin had announced that he was “semi-retired” from speaking at DevOps Days Austin and would no longer appear there.  devopsy.kinsta.cloud in an exclusive, is now reporting that Ernest Mueller, the Agile Admin is back!

    Via unnamed confirmed sources we have verified that Mueller will be reprising his “State of DevOps” presentation at this year DevOps Days Austin on May 2nd and 3rd. If this is indeed true, what a great turn of events for the DevOps community.

    Our unnamed confirmed sources also tell us that the his fellow organizer crew for DevOps Days Austin crew is ecstatic that Ernest has reconsidered. Just on the rumors alone ticket sales for the event have immediately picked up.

    Will this be Mueller’s swan song? Will this years presentation rekindle his burning desire to present at DevOps Days Austin? Only time will tell. We hope to confirm details with Mueller shortly and will have a follow up story shortly. For now though the news is that Ernest M is back!

  • Coming to DevOps Enterprise Summit 2015? Must attend IBM sessions and Night at the Garage event!

    Coming to DevOps Enterprise Summit 2015? Must attend IBM sessions and Night at the Garage event!

    DevOps Enterprise Summit 2015 is next week. Though only in it’s second year, it is a conference that any technical professional can get excited about, and is an event that IBM is proud to sponsor. Three days of discussion span topics from product integration, to agile and lean concepts, and how to start implementing DevOps and continuous delivery at enterprise scale.

    We are bringing the full force of IBM DevOps to #DOES15 this year, with subject matter experts speaking in two keynotes and two sessions, and bringing even more knowledge to booth #8 to show IBM DevOps solutions in action. If you are going to be at DevOps Enterprise Summit this year, make sure you check out:

    • DevOps and Innovation at USAA and IBM from Dibbe Edwards, Vice President Development, DevOps for Hybrid, IBM and Michael Bueche, Assistant Vice President IT Operational Excellence, USAA on Monday morning from 11am-12pm in the Grand Ballroom. Dibbe and Michael will discuss how DevOps initiatives combined with automation and culture changes are driving quicker user feedback and overall software delivery.
    • Act like a Start-Up, Scale for the Enterprise from Rachel Reinitz, IBM Distinguished Engineer and CTO, IBM Bluemix Garage, Dr. Angel Diaz, VP of Cloud Technology & Architecture, IBM, and Kristal York, Executive Mobile Strategist, PointSource on Tuesday afternoon from 2:15-3:15pm in Bayview A. Rachel, Angel and Kristal will discuss why and how IBM is implementing DevOps and how IBM’s global network of Bluemix Garages is providing the knowledge and experience that enables our clients to transform into digital businesses and deliver disruptive innovation.
    • Test Automation For Mainframe Applications from Rosalind Radcliffe, IBM Distinguished Engineer & Chief Architect for DevOps and CLM on Wednesday morning from 9-10am in the Grand Ballroom. Rosalind will be talking about how to apply shift left testing to mainframe applications, including integration testing and virtual services to improve early testing.
    • Organization Design Panel Discussion with Mustafa Kapadia, IBM DevOps Service Line Leader, as the facilitator join Jason Cox, Director, Systems Engineering at The Walt Disney Company, Jeff Einhorn, Senior Group Engineering Manager at Target, Jeff Raffo, Director – Personalization Technology at Nordstrom and Jim Penny, Solutions Director at IBM on Tuesday afternoon at 2:15 pm in the Exhibit Hall. The group will discuss about Organization Redesign and how some of the largest enterprises have been able to achieve this transformation. You may also get a box set of our For Dummies books or a limited edition IBM DevOps t-shirt with your visit!

     

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    Finally, if you are looking for an immersive DevOps experience that includes complimentary beer, wine, local cuisine, and live entertainment, join us for a Night at the Garage! IBM is providing transportation on Monday night, October 19, from the Hyatt Regency SF to the Galvanize building that hosts the IBM Bluemix Garage, where you can network with other DevOps enthusiasts and witness the art of the possible firsthand at 5 interactive workstations. Register now to attend, space is limited! We look forward to meeting you there.

    About the Author/Saleem Padani

    SaleemPadaniSaleem Padani has 20-plus years of technology and business experience in product and application development, enterprise architecture, service delivery and solution marketing. Currently, he is responsible for overall go-to-market strategy and execution for IBM DevOps and Enterprise modernization capabilities for IBM. Follow him on twitter at @spadani1

     

  • Vote for the DevOps Dozen

    Vote for the DevOps Dozen

    canstockphoto18996369At the end of July we opened up nominations for our inaugural DevOps Dozen, to recognize the top 12 companies in DevOps. Over 1500 of you voted (thank you) selecting from over 120 different companies.  We have taken the top vote getters in each category to come up with a list of the final 32 finalists for the DevOps Dozen.

    Frankly 32 finalists was more than we were planning on. But so many companies were so closely grouped in the nomination voting that we didn’t feel comfortable selecting one company for the finals and leaving another out.

    So now we are opening the final phase of voting to you our readers. Voting will be open for the entire month of September. But you can only vote once.  On our DevOps Dozen site most of the finalists have sent us information that they would like you to know before casting your vote. Please take the time to read some of this, especially for companies you may not be familiar with.

    The finalists range from open source projects, to cloud service providers, DevOps tools vendors to service providers.  When voting you are allowed to select 12 of the 32 as DevOps Dozen winners.  So take the time and make your selections carefully.

    Just a word about the 32 finalists. Every one of them is already a winner. Having made it past the nominations means that at least 350 of the 1500 people voting voted for them.  On top of that if you take the time to check out these companies why they are here is pretty obvious.

    So help us recognize excellence in DevOps and vote today!

  • Open source and Samsung take center stage at Red Hat Summit

    Open source and Samsung take center stage at Red Hat Summit

    While much of the DevOps world was focused on DockerCon in San Francisco this week, there was also big news happening on the east coast. While DockerCon was shaking things up with the announcement of the Open Container Project the Red Hat Summit in Boston held its own share of big news and much of it spotlighted the important role of open source.

    “Red Hat is really the independent voice of Linux focused entirely on business,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group. “It is also a showcase of how to make money on the platform without taking advantage of anyone in the process and largely remaining true to the core tenets that created Linux in the first place.”

    Focus on Open Source

    One of the primary core tenets—if not the defining core tenet—of Linux is open source. The shared development and collaborative nature of the operating system as an open source project is its main strength. At the Red Hat Summit open source played an even larger role than normal.

    “The company continues to show strong momentum for OpenShift Commons as the re-write of the technology is moving forward showing that the platform-as-a-service (PaaS) battles are alive and well,” explained Al Hilwa, program director of software development research for IDC. “Red Hat also rebranded and updated its FeedHenry platform as it continues to turn it fully into open source and integrate it with OpenShift.”

    Samsung Partnership

    Aside from the focus on open source, the other big news out of the Red Hat Summit was a new strategic alliance with Samsung. Samsung will push Red Hat’s mobile platform and potentially other software into the enterprise in a more integrated fashion as a function of the new partnership.

    The relationship has potential, but according to Enderle there are both positive and negative outcomes possible. “Samsung needs Red Hat far more than Red Hat needs Samsung because Red Hat provided the enterprise brand that Samsung needs to penetrate the space. Samsung is a firm that has never found a platform they didn’t like and have historically been unable to focus on any one of them for extended periods of time,” cautions Enderle. “Red Hat alone won’t be able to fix that and Samsung’s behavior could actually tarnish Red Hat if they aren’t careful.”

    Strong Momentum

    Hilwa also made another observation about the strength of Red Hat’s business model. “That the company will cruise through the two billion dollar annual revenue barrier sometime this year is all but certain with its posted rates of growth. This is an enormous milestone for the open source world.”

    We’ll have to wait and see how the Red Hat / Samsung partnership pans out for either company, but the Red Hat Summit highlighted the strength of Red Hat’s momentum and the unstoppable juggernaut of open source development.

  • Rancher Labs hopes to help DevOps teams rope in container management

    Rancher Labs hopes to help DevOps teams rope in container management

    DevOps teams have turned to containerization in a big way in order to help improve their efficiency. But many enterprises have run into problems scaling containers across their infrastructure to account for issues like networking and load balancing.

    Rancher Labs, a Cupertino-based cloud software startup, is hoping to help organizations address the scalability with a new open-source Docker platform. Eponymously dubbed Rancher, the beta version for the platform went live this week. It’s designed to be a full set of tools to help DevOps teams manage Docker containers in production. The platform folds in infrastructure services built specifically for containers, including networking, storage management, load balancing, service discovery, monitoring, and resource management.

    The goal of containers is efficiency and full portability, but Sheng Liang, co-founder and CEO at Rancher Labs, notes that the implementation can be hard to get perfect.

    “As users deploy containers across different infrastructures, they quickly realize that different clouds, virtualization platforms and bare metal servers have dramatically different infrastructure capabilities,” said Liang. It’s these variables that Rancher seeks to limit. “By building a common infrastructure backplane across any resource, Rancher implements an entirely new approach to hybrid cloud computing,” said Liang.

    The company is going long on containers—an assessment that backers agree with. The company also recently announced that it has received $10 million in series A funding from Mayfield and Nexus Venture Partners. In addition to its Rancher suite, the company also produces RancherOS, a minimalist Linux distribution tightly focused on running Docker containers.

    The management team behind Rancher is one that is familiar to many cloud practitioners. Co-founder and CEO Sheng Liang was co-founder and CEO of Cloud.com, and continued on at Citrix as CTO of Cloud Platforms Group after the company’s 2011 acquisition.  Also on board are Cloud.com and Citrix veterans Shannon Williams as vice president of sales and marketing, Darren Shepherd as chief architect and Will Chan as vice president of engineering.

    According to industry analyst Paul Burns, Rancher Labs’ niche is ripe for new innovation.

    “In its current state, running any containerization solution at scale and in production requires a significant amount of effort from those adopting the solution,” says Burns, who is president of analyst firm Neovise. “Key functions such as networking, service discovery, storage and load balancing can cause integration issues, keeping enterprises from truly reaping the benefits desired. By providing a unique solution that eases and simplifies the management of container software, Rancher is allowing companies to better utilize and benefit from the technology.”