AWS Lambda is a serverless, event-driven compute service that lets you run code for virtually any type of application or backend service without provisioning or managing servers. You can trigger Lambda from over 200 AWS services and software as a service (SaaS) applications and only pay for what you use.

Lambda counts a request each time it starts executing in response to an event notification trigger, such as from Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) or Amazon EventBridge, or an invoke call, such as from Amazon API Gateway, or via the AWS SDK, including test invokes from the AWS Console.

AWS architecture for a simple web application that checks weather conditions:

For Creating Lambda

Step 1: Creating Function

We need to create a Lambda Function by going to the functions tab, clicking the Create Function button, and fill the details like Function name, Runtime environment, Architecture, and roles with permissions to upload logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.

Step 2: Upload or create Application code

• We will redirect to the Runtime Environment, here we can create our Application code
• Every code is called inside the event handler function

The boiler plate code created by lambda for a nodejs function is always inside a exports.handler function. This is the function that gets called when the lambda runs.

• There can only be one index.js file in a lambda and there can only be one handler inside it
• Exports function should always return response json object with a statusCode and body. Body has to a JSON stringified and the statusCode can we any of the codes supported in HTTP protocol. (This is required so that the lambda does not crash with internal server error)

Testing of lambda can be done directly from the console using the test button. We can even pass json object as input which will be a part of the event object in the exports.handler

TO Export the function

To Use NPM Packages and other dependencies we have to export the lambda function into our local folder then we can use that in our IDE to install Third-party dependencies

TO Import the function

We can push our code to AWS Lambda function using IDE when we configure AWS using aws config command on Terminal or else we can .zip our code and click upload from button to add the code with the function.

After uploading the code from the local here the lambda function looks like,
We install joi form npm package for example

API Gateway

You can create a web API with an HTTP endpoint for your Lambda function by using Amazon API Gateway. API Gateway provides tools for creating and documenting web APIs that route HTTP requests to Lambda functions. You can secure access to your API with authentication and authorization controls. Your APIs can serve traffic over the internet or can be accessible only within your VPC.

Resources in your API define one or more methods, such as GET or POST. Methods have an integration that routes requests to a Lambda function or another integration type. You can define each resource and method individually, or use special resource and method types to match all requests that fit a pattern. A proxy resource catches all paths beneath a resource. The ANY method catches all HTTP methods.

Click Create API and select Rest API to create API for the lambda function

To create Endpoint methods

Click Action -> Create method to create GET, POST, PUT, PATCH etc..

After creating methods we need to connect the Rest API with Lambda function by selecting the lambda function we need to connect.

Once its done the API need to be Deployed by clicking Action -> Deploy API

Once deployed we will get the invoke URL like provided below

We can create multiple routes and methods for a lambda functions

Amazon Cloud Watch

You can use a Lambda function to monitor and analyze logs from an Amazon CloudWatch Logs log stream. Create subscriptions for one or more log streams to invoke a function when logs are created or match an optional pattern. Use the function to send a notification or persist the log to a database or storage.

CloudWatch Logs invokes your function asynchronously with an event that contains log data. The value of the data field is a Base64-encoded .gzip file archive.

We can check logs by clicking the monitor tab on the function to see view logs in cloudWatch button

For Each call, it will create separate log files

The Logs

Whatever we put in the console.log in the lambda function will comes in that log file

Amazon Event Bridge

Amazon EventBridge is a serverless event bus service that you can use to connect your applications with data from a variety of sources. EventBridge delivers a stream of real-time data from your applications, software as a service (SaaS) applications, and AWS services to targets such as AWS Lambda functions, HTTP invocation endpoints using API destinations, or event buses in other AWS accounts.
It is the next version of Amazon CloudWatch Events. Event bridge can be used to connect with a long list of aws services like lambda, api gateway, ses, ec2 etc. It also supports custom rest api endpoint and many 3rd party services like zendesk, Jira etc.

Why should you use EventBridge

• Scalability: EventBridge scales automatically to handle the volume of events you send to it.
• Simplified Architecture: It allows you to create event-driven architectures without the need to manage infrastructure.
• Event Filtering: You can filter events to ensure that only the relevant events are routed to specific targets.
• Reliability: EventBridge is built on the popular AWS service CloudWatch Events and offers the same level of reliability and durability.

How EventBridge Works

EventBridge consists of three main components:

• Event Producers: Sources that generate events. These can be AWS services, integrated SaaS applications, or your custom applications.
• Event Bus: It’s a custom or default event bus where events are sent to be routed to different targets.
• Event Targets: Services that handle events. For example, AWS Lambda, Amazon SNS, or Amazon SQS.

Integration with API Gateway and AWS Lambda

• Set up an API Gateway: Create an API in the API Gateway console. Add a POST method and point it to the EventBridge event bus.

• Create an EventBridge rule: In the EventBridge console, create a rule and choose the event bus you previously defined. Set the source as the API Gateway and specify the event pattern. Set the target as the AWS Lambda function.

• Create a Lambda function: In the AWS Lambda console, create a new function with the Node.js runtime. Define a handler that processes the event data and performs the desired action.

• Send a POST request: Using a tool like Postman, send a POST request to the API Gateway URL with the desired event data in the request body.

• Process the event: EventBridge captures the event and routes it to the specified Lambda function based on the defined rule. The Lambda function processes the event and executes the defined logic.

In conclusion, EventBridge offers a simple yet powerful way to handle events in your applications. By integrating with other AWS services, you can create efficient and scalable event-driven architectures. I hope this blog helps you understand the potential of EventBridge and motivates you to explore its features further. Happy coding!

What is the DevOps Infinity Loop and Why is It So Important?

The DevOps Infinity Loop is a continuous feedback loop consisting of several phases: planning, development, testing, deployment, and monitoring. This methodology emphasizes collaboration, communication, and automation between software development and IT operations teams.

The significance of the DevOps Infinity Loop lies in its ability to enable organizations to achieve faster, higher-quality, and more reliable software application delivery. This methodology facilitates continuous improvement by emphasizing collaboration, communication, and automation between software development and IT operations teams. It fosters efficient teamwork, where feedback from each phase becomes invaluable for enhancing subsequent iterations. The DevOps Infinity Loop empowers organizations to optimize processes, respond swiftly to customer needs, and drive innovation in a dynamic and competitive software development landscape.

In summary, The DevOps infinity loop enables you to develop and deploy software continuously, without any interruption in the workflow

Step-by-Step Guide to the DevOps Infinity Loop

The following is a step-by-step guide to implementing the DevOps Infinity Loop in your organization:

Step 1: Planning

The planning phase is the first phase of the DevOps Infinity Loop. It involves defining the project requirements, scope, and objectives. The development team works with other stakeholders, such as business analysts, product owners, and project managers, to gather requirements and define the project’s scope. The team also defines the project’s timeline, budget, and resources.

During the planning phase, the development team also identifies the tools and technologies required for the project. This includes selecting the programming language, framework, and libraries. The team also identifies the development and testing tools required for the project.

The planning phase sets the foundation for the entire project. It is essential to spend enough time and effort to ensure that the project’s requirements and scope are well-defined and understood by all stakeholders.

Step 2: Develop

The development phase is the second phase of the DevOps Infinity Loop. It involves writing code and building and testing the software application. The development team uses the requirements and scope defined in the planning phase to write code and build the application.

During the development phase, it is essential to follow coding standards and best practices. The team should also use version control to manage the codebase and collaborate with other team members. Continuous integration (CI) is also essential to the development phase. CI automatically builds and tests the application every time new code is committed to the codebase.

The development phase should also include automated testing. This includes unit testing, integration testing, and functional testing. Automated testing ensures that the application is free from bugs and defects and meets the requirements defined in the planning phase.

Step 3: Testing

The testing phase is the third phase of the DevOps Infinity Loop. It involves running automated and manual tests to ensure the software application meets the requirements and is free from bugs and defects. The testing phase includes several types of testing, including unit testing, integration testing, functional testing, and acceptance testing.

During the testing phase, it is essential to use automated testing tools to speed up the testing process. Automated testing tools can also detect bugs and defects that may be missed by manual testing. Using a test management tool to manage and track the testing process is also essential.

The testing phase should also include performance testing. Performance testing involves testing the application’s performance under different load conditions. It helps to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize the application’s performance.

Step 4: Deployment

The deployment phase is the fourth phase of the DevOps Infinity Loop. It involves releasing the software application to production. The deployment phase includes several steps, including packaging the application, deploying it to the production environment, and configuring it.

During the deployment phase, it is essential to use automation tools to speed up the deployment process. Automation tools can also ensure that the deployment is consistent across different environments. Using a deployment management tool to manage and track the deployment process is also essential.

The deployment phase should also include rollback procedures. Rollback procedures allow the team to revert the deployment if there are any issues or errors.

Step 5: Monitoring

The monitoring phase is the fifth and final phase of the DevOps Infinity Loop. It involves monitoring the application’s performance and user feedback. The monitoring phase includes several types of monitoring, including application performance monitoring (APM), infrastructure monitoring, and user feedback monitoring.

During the monitoring phase, it is essential to use monitoring tools to detect and diagnose issues and errors. Monitoring tools can also help to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize the application’s performance. Using a log management tool to collect and analyze application logs is also essential.

The monitoring phase should also include user feedback monitoring. User feedback monitoring involves collecting and analyzing feedback to improve the application’s user experience. User feedback can be collected through surveys, feedback forms, and social media.

Step 6: Continuous Improvement

The DevOps Infinity Loop is a continuous process that involves several iterations or cycles. Each cycle builds on the previous one, with the feedback from each phase used to improve the next iteration. Continuous improvement is an essential part of the DevOps Infinity Loop.

During the continuous improvement phase, the development team analyzes each phase’s feedback and identifies improvement areas. The team then implements changes and updates to the software application and the DevOps process.

Continuous improvement also involves reviewing the DevOps process itself.

The team should evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the DevOps process and identify areas for improvement. The team should also identify and implement new tools and technologies to improve the DevOps process.

Benefits of the DevOps Infinity Loop

The DevOps Infinity Loop offers several benefits to organizations, including:

1. Faster Time-to-Market

The DevOps Infinity Loop allows organizations to deliver software applications faster. The continuous feedback loop ensures that issues and errors are detected early and improvements are made quickly.

2. Higher Quality

The DevOps Infinity Loop ensures that software applications are of high quality. Automated testing tools and continuous monitoring ensure the application is free from bugs and defects.

3. Better Collaboration

The DevOps Infinity Loop emphasizes collaboration between software development and IT operations teams. The continuous feedback loop ensures that both teams work together to deliver high-quality software applications.

4. Improved Efficiency

The DevOps Infinity Loop uses automation tools to speed up the development, testing, and deployment processes. This improves efficiency and reduces the time and effort required to deliver software applications.

5. Continuous Improvement

The DevOps Infinity Loop is a continuous process that involves several iterations or cycles. Each cycle builds on the previous one, with the feedback from each phase used to improve the next iteration. Continuous improvement ensures that the DevOps process is always improving and evolving.

Conclusion

The DevOps Infinity Loop is a continuous feedback loop consisting of several phases: planning, development, testing, deployment, and monitoring. The DevOps Infinity Loop emphasizes collaboration, communication, and automation between software development and IT operations teams. It allows organizations to deliver software applications faster, with higher quality and reliability.

Implementing the DevOps Infinity Loop requires a cultural shift and a commitment to continuous improvement. However, the benefits of the DevOps Infinity Loop are significant, including faster time-to-market, higher quality, better collaboration, improved efficiency, and continuous improvement. Following the step-by-step guide outlined in this article, you can implement the DevOps Infinity Loop in your organization and start reaping the benefits of this powerful methodology.

Achieving a seamless DevOps process requires the hiring of a qualified DevOps engineer. However, since the interpretation of DevOps may differ based on a company’s culture, product, or objectives, securing the right DevOps hiring or consulting solution can take time and effort. Companies like BitCot specialize in DevOps consulting services and can help organizations streamline their DevOps processes and achieve their goals. With our expertise in DevOps tools and practices, BitCot can assist in finding the right DevOps engineer to fit a company’s needs and culture.

Looking to streamline your software delivery with optimized DevOps processes?

Trust BitCot for world-class DevOps consulting services.

Book a free consultation

What is AWS IoT Core?

AWS IoT Core is a managed cloud platform that enables connected devices to easily and securely interact with cloud applications and other devices. It can support billions of devices and trillions of messages and can process and route those messages to AWS endpoints and other devices reliably and securely.

Harness the Power of AWS IoT for Business Success

Begin Your IoT Journey Today!

Let's Connect

AWS IoT Core in Action: A Simplified Overview

AWS IoT Core is designed to support MQTT, a lightweight messaging protocol for small sensors and mobile devices. This protocol is optimized for high-latency or unreliable networks, making it a great fit for IoT applications.
Consider an example where a smart thermostat in your home is connected to AWS IoT Core. The thermostat sends temperature data using MQTT to AWS IoT Core, which securely transmits the data to a mobile app on your phone. You can also control the thermostat remotely using the app, with commands sent via AWS IoT Core.

Here’s a sequence diagram to help visualize this flow:

The Role of MQTT in AWS IoT Core

MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight messaging protocol that is designed for constrained devices and low-bandwidth, high-latency, or unreliable networks. Its design principles make it an ideal choice for IoT applications and other situations where a small code footprint is required, and network bandwidth is at a premium.

In the context of AWS IoT Core, MQTT plays a vital role in enabling efficient, real-time, two-way communication between devices and the cloud. Devices can publish (send) messages on a specific ‘topic’, and other devices or applications can subscribe to these topics to receive the messages. This publish-subscribe model is the heart of MQTT and forms the basis of interaction in AWS IoT Core.

Here’s a sequence diagram showing an expanded view of MQTT communication in AWS IoT Core:

This diagram shows a typical interaction pattern between an IoT Device, AWS IoT Core, and a Client App using MQTT. The IoT Device and Client App are both publishing messages to topics and subscribing to topics, enabling two-way communication.

MQTT’s efficient publish-subscribe pattern, combined with its light-weight nature, makes it a critical component of AWS IoT Core, enabling seamless and efficient communication between billions of IoT devices and the cloud.

Security in AWS IoT Core

For IoT applications, establishing a secure connection between devices, AWS services, and applications is critical. AWS IoT Core provides robust security mechanisms including certificate-based mutual authentication, custom authorizers, and Amazon Cognito Identity.

Application Authentication via Amazon Cognito Identity Pools:

When using Amazon Cognito for application authentication, the process involves leveraging Cognito Identity Pools. Cognito Identity Pools are designed to provide AWS credentials to users so that they can access AWS services. In the context of AWS IoT, these credentials can be used to authenticate an application.

Here is a simplified step-by-step process:

1. Create a Cognito Identity Pool: The first step involves creating a Cognito Identity Pool in the Amazon Cognito console. This pool will contain identities for users who will be using your application.
2. Create an App Client: Once the identity pool is set up, you’ll need to create an app client. The app client is a component that interacts with the identity pool to create and manage user identities.
3. Generate and Store AWS Credentials: When a user starts your application, the app client communicates with the Cognito Identity Pool to generate temporary, limited-privilege AWS credentials for that user. These credentials are then stored securely on the user’s device.
4. Use AWS Credentials for Authentication: The application can then use these AWS credentials to sign requests to AWS IoT Core. When the application makes a request, AWS IoT Core can check the credentials to verify that they are valid and determine whether the request should be authorized.

By using Amazon Cognito Identity Pools, you can delegate the complex task of managing individual AWS credentials to Amazon Cognito. This allows you to focus on building your application, while Amazon Cognito takes care of the details of user authentication and secure credential management.

Please note that while this approach simplifies the process of user sign-up and sign-in, it’s important to understand that managing security for your IoT applications is a shared responsibility. You should always follow best practices for securing your application, such as encrypting sensitive data and limiting the permissions of your AWS credentials.

Configuring IoT Devices with AWS IoT Core

In this section, we will walk you through the steps to connect your IoT device with AWS IoT Core. This includes creating and activating a device certificate, attaching a policy to the certificate, and configuring the device with AWS IoT Core.

Step 1: Creating a Device in the AWS IoT Registry

The first step in connecting an IoT device to AWS IoT Core is creating a representation of that device in the AWS IoT registry. In the AWS IoT console, you can create a ‘Thing’ which represents your device. Each ‘Thing’ has a unique name and can have attributes and certificates associated with it.

Step 2: Creating and Activating a Device Certificate

Secure communication between your device and AWS IoT Core is accomplished through the use of X.509 certificates. In the AWS IoT console, you can create a certificate for your device. Once created, the certificate must be activated and then downloaded to your device.

Step 3: Attaching a Policy to the Certificate

A policy in AWS IoT Core specifies what actions a device can perform (like connecting, publishing, or subscribing to MQTT topics). You need to create a policy that allows the necessary actions and then attach this policy to your device’s certificate.

Step 4: Configuring the Device to Use the Certificate

Once the certificate is downloaded to your device, you will need to configure the device to use this certificate for its communication with AWS IoT Core. This usually involves updating the device’s configuration file with the path to the certificate and the private key, and also the endpoint for AWS IoT Core.

Step 5: Testing the Connection

After the device is configured, you should test the connection to AWS IoT Core. This can be done by having the device publish a message to an MQTT topic and seeing if that message appears in the AWS IoT console.

Remember, configuring IoT devices involves handling sensitive cryptographic material and should be done carefully. In production environments, measures should be taken to protect this material, such as using secure elements on the device or using AWS IoT Core’s Just-In-Time Registration (JITR) or Just-In-Time Provisioning (JITP) features.

By following these steps, you can securely connect your IoT device with AWS IoT Core and start leveraging the powerful features it provides for IoT applications.

The Role of Device Shadows in AWS IoT Core

Device Shadows are virtual, cloud-based representations of IoT devices. They store the latest state of a device, enabling applications to read data and interact with devices, even when they’re offline.

For instance, the mobile app from our earlier example can publish a desired temperature to the device shadow. The next time the thermostat connects to AWS IoT Core, it can sync with its device shadow and adjust its temperature accordingly. This concept allows for asynchronous interactions between devices and applications, enhancing the overall user experience.

Consider the following example of a device shadow for a smart thermostat:

In this example, the ‘reported’ state represents the current state of the thermostat, while the ‘desired’ state represents the target state of the thermostat. When the thermostat connects to AWS IoT Core, it can read its ‘desired’ state from the device shadow and adjust its settings to match. Similarly, the thermostat can report its current state to the device shadow, which can be read by the mobile app.

Transform Your Business with AWS IoT

Get Started Now!

Conclusion

As businesses and developers continue to explore the possibilities of IoT, platforms like AWS IoT Core provide the robust, secure, and scalable solutions needed to succeed in this exciting field. With its powerful features like MQTT support, robust security, and device shadows, AWS IoT Core can power a wide range of IoT applications, from smart homes to industrial automation.

As we move forward into 2023, we can expect to see even more exciting developments in AWS IoT, such as enhanced machine learning capabilities, improved edge computing support, and advanced analytics features. These advancements will provide even more tools for businesses to leverage IoT data, make more informed decisions, and deliver superior customer experiences.

Whether you’re a developer looking to dive into the world of IoT or a business owner seeking to leverage this technology for growth, AWS IoT Core offers a wealth of opportunities. So start exploring today, and see what you can build with AWS IoT Core!

On this verge of development, DevOps grew beyond expectations and began to serve several benefits to the business functions of the organizations.

There has been a huge rise in the preference of organizations for DevOps since it incorporates an intuitive work culture altogether. Hiring DevOps for your company is an important process that consists of many processes that bind to each other.

This includes software development, testing, deployment and other related processes promptly, reliably and persistently.

DevOps has not only been able to accelerate the software delivery process but also has added to the enhanced customer experience, timely failure detection, cost savings, quick recovery, and so on.

Apart from the benefits listed above, there is a concern that forces organizations to be aware, during the DevOps transformation journey. How to measure the ROI of DevOps? Let’s take a sneak peek at the sections that discuss these in detail.

DevOps for Business: A Quick Overview

DevOps methodology begins with the progress of your internal organization. Companies use powerful open source tools like Github actions for DevOps to automate the software development process. The core aspect to know about DevOps is that it is the combination of Developers and Operations.

DevOps is an integrated process—with the streamlined communication between your team, operational goals, and Developers’ goals, your business will:

• Facilitate quick incident resolution
• Release new features fast
• Minimize risks with process automation
• Improve the satisfaction of both developers and customers

As per the IDC report, the global value of the DevOps market will take a huge leap from $2.9 billion to $8 billion by 2022. Many IT teams leverage DevOps technology to fuel their businesses and processes of internal organization.

DevOps lets you maintain a sync with all the recent trends and great practices. With DevOps, you can create the best plan for your organization not only to enhance automation but also to scale up business growth for high scalability.

Why Should You Measure DevOps ROI?

Return on Investment (ROI) refers to the measure of performance to analyze the extent of return for a specific investment.

Here is the basic formula of ROI calculation, which you probably already know.

Return on Investment (in percentage) =(The existing value of Investment – Investment cost)/ Investment cost * 100

Simply put, ROI or Return of Investment is the ratio between net profit and the cost of investment you make for any business.

However, why should we measure the ROI? ROI underlines the measurement of the effectiveness of the investment based on profitability.

Before you start a new project, ROI calculation is a crucial step that lets you plan the project, anticipate the costs involved, and lay down the objectives to build successful projects.

When you calculate ROI, it can let you monitor if the project is possible and you can understand how to start doing it. Additionally, it is also an added value when you wish to source the budget from the top management.

Before you move ahead to present the ideas to the board, it is great when you have numbers that can back up your project.

You should be able to prove to the organization that the project you wish to kickstart brings more value than the initial investment.

Though certain projects make it easier to calculate the ROI, some other projects like DevOps make it complicated. Hence, you should use metrics that can let you measure the ROI and set organizational objectives.

The Impact of DevOps on ROI

Software releases are not persistent in a non-DevOps world— they can contain features, changes and the latest updates that development teams have built since the previous release. Every code the developer builds but not being shipped creates no value to your businesses.

Similar to Just-In-Time manufacturing, developers can generate the value and accelerate the velocity in which the code works to deliver and complete the process.

In this world of the digital revolution, DevOps engineers must rely on the best DevOps tools to deploy advanced features and quickly resolve the problems when compared to the competitors.

DevOps focus on making software releases continuous, regular, and automated. Once you hold the capacity to make software releases many times a day, it is not a big task to make an individual push to production.

The conventional releases require many hands on the deck, cumbersome processes, operations teams striving late nights and weekends to fix the problems, and so on.

Won’t it add value to the organization when you have a relaxed, happier, and contented Operations team to proactively resolve the problems? Isn’t it a benefit rather than getting stressed with the frequently failed deployment

How to measure ROI from DevOps

How to choose the ideal ROI measure to calculate the business cases for DevOps practices? It all depends on what is significant to your business.

As the digital transformation extends, the advanced business models and new techniques to interact with customers have changed the value across every segment.

It is essential to understand the unique value your business provides to the users and link the metrics to achieve it successfully.

Be it about reducing the time customer spends to achieve the goals, maximizing the revenue per user, etc; you should relate it directly to the investment you make in DevOps to enhance the key business indicators.

Here are the steps to effectively evaluate ROI from DevOps:

1. Software Development Costs Calculation

While knowing the existing costs you can understand the savings. It begins with analyzing the hourly cost to develop software. The general formula involves the multiplication of the average annual salary for a software developer with the account for employer costs and benefits. Further, multiply the resulting figure by the number of working hours per year.

2. Process Initiation Costs Calculation

In this calculation, you evaluate the costs that appear during the commencement of the processes. It extends from the development process to CI/CD pipeline, data security and finally the protection. With advanced automation tools, this becomes an effortless process. Hence to understand the true investment, you should add the costs of hitting the new automation levels with the new tools and the actual cost of these tools.

3. Time Savings Calculations

The next step is to evaluate the time savings that DevOps tools implementation brings to the businesses. This precise calculation can help businesses to realize the exact financial benefits of the business.

4. Calculating Profits

This final step lets you understand the financial advantages or the monetary value of ROI upon DevOps implementation. To calculate profits, you compare time savings and the cost involved in introducing this process. The calculations for a year result in savings taken for the specific year, along with long-term realization for coming years.

To calculate ROI percentages, the following formula applies:

Is There a Quick Way to Measure ROI?

Imagine the situation when you don’t have time to relax and evaluate all these ROI values all by yourself! Since you already have the top DevOps tools in the market to tackle the software development processes through automation, you can use a similar method to measure the ROI.

A marketing ROI calculator can help you to get the desired ROI percentage for DevOps. If you don’t find additional time a day for manual computations, this new technology makes it effortless and accurate. It can remove the manual errors and needs no time to recalculate or find errors.

Conclusion

When your business goes digital and beyond conventional, it makes the entire process flawless. DevOps offer faster-automated business operations to help gain more returns.

As we discussed, every DevOps operation doesn’t go perfectly on the first try after you apply. It is crucial to check, measure, counter check and analyze numbers. When you find out ROI, you can learn if you require to modify either the DevOps strategy or plans.

If you wish to minimize the time you spend learning new tools and technologies for DevOps, you can count on BitCot. Our services also let you hire expert DevOps engineers to implement the DevOps ecosystem you opt to integrate into your firm.

To achieve this, several tools can be used at various stages. DevOps tools aid automation of the software development process by focusing on product management, communication, development, and collaboration. With the right DevOps tools, teams can automate most mundane software development processes and pay attention to the essential tasks.

If your organization is planning to adopt the DevOps methodology, an excellent place to start is by learning about the various tools that are available for you to choose from. Here is a list of the top 10 DevOps tools to use in 2022 and beyond.

Jenkins 

Type of Tool: DevOps Automation 

Jenkins is an open-source, accessible automation server that helps you automate several software development processes, including CI/CD, building, deployment, and testing. It makes it easy for the teams to keep track of repetitive tasks, integrate changes seamlessly and spot errors instantly.

It is Java-based and serves as a CI or continuous integration tool for developers to make it simpler to incorporate new components into the software. Jenkins makes use of plugins to achieve these functions.

Highlights 

Jenkins has been used for a long time and has a mature ecosystem. You also have a community for any plugin, documentation, or tool-related support, and it has almost become a standard DevOps tool.

GitHub

Type of Tool: DevOps Version Control 

It is one of the largest and most advanced platforms for software development. The easy-to-use user interface makes it a popular choice for most companies. It also has several innovative features such as restoring deleted repositories, preventing production deletions, security features, and integration options.

You also have the option of Git version control and web hosting for your software development. It was released in 2008 and was written in ECMAScript, Ruby, C, and Go. Currently, more than 3 million organizations in the world use Github.

Highlights 

Github is one of the most reliable tools as it has close to zero outages and downtime. All the essential services are free, too.

Puppet

Type of Tool: DevOps Configuration Management Tool 

Puppet is a multi-platform configuration management tool. You can write your entire infrastructure management using this tool. The software can be delivered safely and faster because the infrastructure management process is automated. For smaller projects, Puppet can be used as an open-source tool.

If your infrastructure is more extensive, you may require other capabilities such as role-based access control, real-time reports, node management, etc. You have the option of managing many teams and hundreds of resources using this tool. Any dependencies or failures are handled intelligently by this tool. It skips dependent configurations when a bad configuration is discovered.

Highlights 

Puppet recognizes the relationships within the infrastructure on its own. It has more than 5000 modules that can integrate with the most popular DevOps tools.

Status 

Type of Tool: DevOps Monitoring Tool 

Status is an APM Or Application Performance Monitoring tool that helps you diagnose any performance issues and track them down to the root cause. It can identify API calls, codes, and functions that may have led to problems in performance.

You can check the complete overview of the database performance and the slow database queries. You have the option to filter them and inspect them using the original SQL query trace. The status also lets you check individual database breakdowns to check if the response time has deteriorated.

The main advantage of Atatus is that it helps you maximize the performance of other DevOps tools as well. It gives you regular alerts about issues and brings together the Development and Operations team together by providing a standard report of the performance problems and the origin of any errors.

Highlights 

Status automatically identifies the highest priority defects based on your software’s goals and primary concerns. It also gives you a single source for all the information about request parameters, stack trace, affected user, environment, host, and more.

Ansible

Type of tool: DevOps Configuration Management Tool 

Ansible helps you automate deployment processes and set up your complete infrastructure. Compared to other DevOps tools, it stands out because of the convenience of use and simplicity. It uses an IAC or Infrastructure as Code approach.

It uses a simple YAML syntax that defines tasks very quickly. The agentless architecture is another feature of Ansible that has made it famous. It is a lightweight solution for configuration management because no agents or daemons are running in the background.

Highlights 

The absence of daemons and agents also makes Ansible one of the most secure tools. It also offers several modules that can be integrated easily with other DevOps software.

Docker

Type of Tool: DevOps Container Management Tool 

Since it was launched in 2013, Docker has become one of the most popular container platform tools. It has continued to evolve and is now regarded as one of the most crucial tools for DevOps. The concept of containerization became popular in the tech sector after the release of Docker, which supports remote development and automates application deployment.

The applications are separated into different containers, making them secure and portable. Docker applications are also independent of OS and platform. This means you don’t have to manage dependencies, unlike virtual machines like VirtualBox. It is also more cost-effective.

Highlights: You can package all the dependencies into Docker containers and ship them as a single unit. This allows the software to perform on any platform or system without any issues.

BitBucket

Type of Tool: DevOps Version Control Tool 

BitBucket is a development project version control repository service. It uses GIt or Mercurial revision control systems. It is handy if you are using Atlassian products. BitBucket is capable of efficiently managing many repositories. On the public repository of BitBucket, you can have unlimited users.

It can integrate seamlessly with Confluence and JIRA. It is not only a code hosting platform but is also helpful for code management.

Highlights

BitBucket is the best option for projects with private repositories. You also have pipeline services to support CI/CD cycles. You can use a single platform to plan projects, collaborate on codes, test them, and deploy them efficiently.

Bamboo

Type of Tool: DevOps Pipeline Tool

Bamboo is a CI/CD or Atlassian’s delivery server that lets you automate the delivery pipeline from development to deployment. It is easily integrated with BitBucket, Jira, and other Atlassian products. It has a built-in Mercurial and Git branching workflow along with test environments. Overall, you can save a lot of time concerning the configuration when using Bamboo. Bamboo is more user-friendly with auto-completion, tooltips, and other features.

Highlights 

Bamboo comes with several pre-built features that must be manually set in other CI/CD tools. It uses about 100 plugins to enable this. Bamboo also carries out several out-of-the-box functions that reduce the dependency on plugins.

Selenium

Type of Tool: DevOps Testing Automation Tool 

Testing automation is one of the most significant advantages of switching to DevOps. Selenium offers a user-friendly, end-to-end solution that allows your testers to send API queries, simulate web system behavior, and analyze system behavior. You can test advanced and elaborate test scripts in HTML or RUBY to deal with different causes.

Selenium is an integrated development environment that allows web developers to record, edit and debug tests. Custom start points and breakpoints can also be created for various test scenarios.

Highlights 

Selenium can be integrated with Maven, Jenkins, TestNG, SauceLabs, and many other development platforms. The Selenium Grid also allows parallel testing. It supports all popular languages, including Ruby, Java, C#, JavaScript, PHP, R, and Perl.

Slack

Type of Tool: DevOps Collaboration Tool 

Slack has gained immense traction in the last few years for being one of DevOps’ best collaboration and communication tools. It uses an API or Application Programming Interface to automate activities such as automatic notifications based on human input, sending alters according to defined criteria, and creating support tickets for internal use. It s best known for its connectivity with various services, frameworks, and applications.

Slack’s instant messaging integrations are readily available on several software collaboration platforms because of its growing popularity. It can also create infrastructure routines, chatbots, and triggers using simple programming.

Highlights 

Slack enables real-time discussions, search capabilities, and an engaging UI. According to experts, Slack’s agility and robust features will replace emails in the software sector.

With so many new DevOps tools being introduced in the market each year, It is hard to know which one is best suited for you. Each one comes with a unique set of capabilities meant to make your DevOps journey easier.

Experimentation is the best option for most organizations to find their ideal DevOps tools. It is recommended that you opt for free trials offered by commercial tools instead of spending time configuring open-source tools.

You can also choose a DevOps consultation with Bitcot. We help you find the most suitable tools and connect you with DevOps personnel to make a smooth transition. This is the most reliable option to create a robust DevOps infrastructure that is also scalable as your organization grows.

But, then the question of bugs and inconsistencies in the system arises. How do you bridge the gap between development and execution to ensure a seamless customer experience? This is where DevOps comes into the picture. It is a marriage between the development team and operations team in the simplest terms. It includes a set of processes that eliminate any delays in the process of making new features and facilities available to your customers.

Whether you have already made that transition into DevOps or plan to do so soon, you have two options. You can either hire a DevOps consultant or an engineer based on your requirements. This article will explore the difference between the two to make it easier for you to make the right choice for your business.

How Does DevOps Help Your Business?

Let us begin by understanding what DevOps is and how it can benefit your business. The term itself is a combination of development and operations. DevOps collaborates between your application development team and the IT operations team using a set of automation tools. Implementing DevOps creates a loop between the following steps- plan, code, build, test, release, deploy, operate and monitor. Then, with the received feedback, you go back into the planning stage, creating an infinite loop.

This is made possible with DevOps tools like continuous integration, delivery and deployment tools, real-time monitoring tools, incident management tools, cloud computing, and a lot more. With the right DevOps processes and team, you enjoy various benefits:

• Better application quality
• Faster delivery of new features
• Better user experience
• Improved operational efficiency
• Reduction of IT related expenses

While most business owners are aware of the benefits offered by DevOps, one question remains- should you hire a consultant or get an engineer onboard? Read on to learn more.

Who is a DevOps Engineer?

A DevOps engineer is an in-house member of the IT department. They may be accredited DevOps experts or may also be a developer who has experience with IT operations.

A DevOps engineer is primarily responsible for implementing a DevOps plan. Although they are part of the IT team, they are not usually developing codes or products. They find the right tools and processes to create a synergy between your development and operations teams.

This is one of the most sought-after roles in the tech industry since very few individuals are qualified DevOps engineers. This is because most DevOps engineers start their career as software developers or system administrators and build the skills to become DevOps engineers in the latter part of their career.

Who is a DevOps Consultant?

Unlike a DevOps engineer who is a full-time employee of your organization, a DevOps consultant is a third party hired on a per-project basis. Their role is to fulfill specific DevOps requirements that usually require only short-term engagement with any organization.

These professionals have several years of experience working with a multitude of clients. This gives them a unique perspective and allows them to provide you with the latest solutions to improve or implement your DevOps processes.

Even if you wish to hire devOps engineer for your IT department, it is highly advised that you initiate the transformation process under the supervision of a DevOps consultant.

Should You Hire a DevOps Engineer or Consultant?

This is the most common question that people have concerning their DevOps plans. Here are some fundamental differences that will help you make that decision.

Average Salary Of DevOps Engineer

A Glassdoor report shows that the average salary of a DevOps engineer in the US is over $110,000 each year. This is a considerable expense for any organization to maintain regularly unless it results in comparable returns in your investment.

The Average Salary for OffShore DevOps engineers from India is over $80000 each year.

DevOps Consultant Charges

DevOps Consultant Charges Start from 200$ per hour and go up to 1000$ per hour.

Although the fees of DevOps consultants are higher because of their specialization and experience, you only have to make a one-time investment. The disadvantage is that the billing hours may be higher without the desired outcome if you do not hire the right consultants.

Conclusion 

When choosing between a DevOps consultant and engineer, please think of the former as the one who creates your DevOps roadmap and the latter as one who helps implement it successfully. Depending upon the nature of your business, you may even have to hire them both at different stages to secure your DevOps processes and make them successful.

No matter your requirements, BitCot is the right choice for your organization. We provide DevOps consultation services and help you hire the right in-house professionals when the time comes.

Before we move on to the actual list of the best DevOps tools, we need to understand the stages in DevOps, which include:

Although there are several OEM or open-source options available for DevOps engineers, it is hard to find a tool that integrates all the stages mentioned above. You need to try different tools and their functionality before you pick the right combination to reach your personal goals.
To help you get started, here is a list of 7 DevOps tools that you must try out: 

Git

When you are talking about DevOps automation tools for the build and code stage, Git is one of the most popular choices. While automation is important for DevOps, collaboration forms an even bigger part. With Git, it is easier for members of the team to keep track of each other’s work and progress together.

You have a host of features like check-in, merging, branches, labels etc. You have better version control features with Git as well. In order to integrate your current workflow, using a service like GitHub helps you push your existing work easily.

Why DevOps Engineers Need This Tool 

• The branching workflow feature allows you to change the codebase without affecting the master branch.
• Each developer gets a unique local repository with a full history of commits.
• Source Code Management tools like GitHub can be used to pull requests and collaborate with the team easily.

Selenium

Selenium is one of the best free, open-source DevOps testing tools. It helps you develop scripts automatically to test web applications in different conditions. The best feature is parallel test execution that makes testing easier across the team. You can expand the functionality of DevOps tools like Selenium with a third party solution like Jenkins, TestNG, Junit and Lambda Test.

Why DevOps Engineers Need This Tool 

• It is highly extensible and flexible.
• It requires lesser hardware in comparison to other DevOps testing tools. 
• The community-based features help you get support from testers across the globe.

eG Enterprise

Among the DevOps monitoring tools, eG Enterprise is highly recommended. Monitoring allows for better software development and deployment. Through the DevOps lifecycle, the team gets an idea of the impact that a code will have in both production and pre-production environments.

Application performance can be tracked in real-time as this is a continuous monitoring tool. So every time you make a change in the code, you can immediately monitor the impact on performance.

Why DevOps Engineers Need This Tool 

• The distribution transaction tracking tool allows you to monitor the cause of any slow transactions.
• With continuous monitoring and delivery, you can identify any bugs in the early stages easily.
• You get converged visibility of various applications and the IT infrastructure that they are supported on.
• You also get alerts about user experience in real-time.
• You may enable proactive incident management using the synthetic monitoring feature.

Jenkins

Jenkins covers three important stages in the DevOps methodology including building, testing and deployment of software. It helps you use the power of automation to speed up movement across the pipeline. For this reason, it has become one of the most widely used tools with over 300,000 installations the world over.

Jenkins is 100% free. The fact that it uses a Java script also gives you the advantage of portability. Normally, Jenkins is used as a standalone tool that has a built-in servlet application called Jetty.

Why DevOps Engineers Need This Tool: 

• It contains several plug-ins that make it extensible.
• You do not have to wait for nightly builds. The CI server of Jenkins allows you to pull every commit that you develop.
• Fixing bugs is easier as you only have to check corresponding commits and fix them as you go ahead. This saves a lot of time.

Chef

Chef is among the most popular configuration management tools in DevOps. It is used to simplify and automate deployment. You can also repair and update your application infrastructures easily with this tool. By avoiding manual changes in the script, you also enjoy the best orchestration through the DevOps lifecycle. This ensures easy code delivery and release.

There are three components- the server, nodes and the workstation:

• The server helps you store all the details of the infrastructure.
• The workstation pushes the configuration onto the infrastructure using cookbooks or recipes.
• Each node is a simple device that is configured using this tool.

Why DevOps Engineers Need This Tool 

• One of the most important features of Chef is that it treats the infrastructure as code. This means that you can use customizable policies in your deployment infrastructure.
• You get API support from AWS, Rackspace and Azure which makes it easy to extend your configuration management to a cloud-based system.

Docker

Docker gives you the features of deployment tools as well as DevOps security tools. You also have a host of agile operations for cloud and legacy applications. Docker has gained popularity among DevOps tools because it packages dependencies. It uses different containers to package each application with all the dependencies and elements. Then the whole container is treated as an individual package.

In addition to this, Docker also comes with a reliable and automated supply chain to save time. It is compatible with Google Cloud and AWS and is useful for existing and new applications.

Why DevOps Engineers Need This Tool: 

• Docker makes distributed development easier.
• Since all the applications are segregated into containers, security improves.
• The containers are also easy to transfer.
• Dockers make sure that every stage of your DevOps methodology has the same development environment.
• The DevOps and the IT ops teams can use the same images in both the staging and production stages for easy creation and deployment. This makes collaboration easier.

Kubernetes

Among the DevOps automation tools, Kubernetes is one of the most useful ones as it has a role to play in every step of the DevOps process. You can automate deployment, scaling, management, networking and create container-based applications with this tool. Although it is one of the most popular DevOps deployment tools, it also allows continuous integration and delivery.

Why DevOps Engineers Need This Tool 

• It ensures complete deployment automation.
• Container creation is also automated on nodes that are useful in both cloud and hybrid environments. This makes your development environment very flexible, based on the requirements of the business.
• It is useful in auto-scaling, canary deployments and rolling updates.

Why Have We Chosen These Tools? 

To successfully apply the DevOps methodology to your business, you need to select tools based on your specific requirements. The 7 tools that we have mentioned above are among the basic requirements of this process. Of course, you can look for other options from AWS, Azure DevOps Tools and other services to suit your requirements.

The tools mentioned above have some features that we consider vital to make the transition into DevOps:

• They are easy to integrate into your existing workflow.
• Each tool is beneficial in a different stage of the DevOps lifecycle.
• They are flexible and easy to extend based on the demands of your business.
• They are compatible with third-party hosts and servers.
• All the tools mentioned above help you save time.
• They are affordable and easy to use.

How To Stay Updated With DevOps Software 

As the demand for DevOps tools increases, you will find a plethora of new tools being introduced regularly. As a DevOps engineer, you must stay ahead and make sure that you use tools with the best and latest features to help your organization.

• There are several websites like devops.com or sdtimes.com that give you updates about new technology. They also host webinars regularly to help you learn how to use these tools.
• YouTube channels like the DevOps Toolkit can be highly beneficial to you.
• You also have channels focused on DevOps Azure tools or AWS that help you learn and improve your DevOps methodology
• Some platforms like GitHub give you a curated list of the best DevOps tools and practices that you can learn from.
• The periodic table of DevOps tools is a great resource for you to begin with. This table helps you identify the best tools across the DevOps lifecycle.
• You also have traditional resources like newspapers and journals that carry important news and updates about DevOps technology.

If you want to reduce the time spent on learning about new tools and updates, get in touch with BitCot. We help you hire the best and most experienced engineers. We also help you choose the right tools based on the DevOps culture that you want to integrate into your organization.

We stay in sync with all the latest trends and best practices in DevOps. This helps us create a perfect plan for your organization to not only improve automation but also gear up for growth with easy scalability.

For most businesses, cloud computing has become an essential to prevent this. It allows you to access data from remote servers easily. Amazon takes cloud computing to the next level with AWS or Amazon Web Services. It is a reliable, flexible, cost-effective, and most importantly, scalable cloud computing platform. With mega-brands like Netflix turning to their services, most businesses are following suit.

From IoT, Mobile tools, management tools, security tools, enterprise applicants to storage and a lot more, AWS offers several products that you can choose from based on your requirements. In this article, we will talk about the most important concern that most companies have- scalability.

Here are 8 tips to help you reduce costs and also support your growth with the right products.

But before that, let us understand what scalability means.

What is Scalability?

For any business, scalability means the ability to adapt to growth. This could be in the form of increasing your workforce or creating an infrastructure to support it. The real issue begins when you scale at a rate that you did not expect. The faster you grow, the harder it is to adapt.

Of course, you cannot put a stop to it. Instead, you can make use of technology like AWS that is designed to help businesses push their potential. When you plan for scalability, you can handle inflow of customer database and traffic online without any hassles.

Create Virtual Machines

If you are just getting started with AWS, the vast infrastructure and services can be confusing to understand. The first step is to start a single box application that helps you develop virtual machines. The most common option chosen by companies that are getting started with AWS is the deployment of EC2 instances. Instances have different resources like compute, storage, network, etc which can be used based on your workload requirements. Start with Amazon EC2 or Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, which is the closest equivalent to a virtual machine. It is a general instance that comes with a balanced ratio of necessary resources. Then, you can move to other instances or families based on the cost-effectiveness and performance needs.

It is highly recommended that you deploy instances inside a VPC or Virtual Private Cloud. Amazon VPC allows you to launch various AWS resources within a defined virtual network. This gives you full control on the subnets, IP address range and routing rules.

Balance Your Traffic

The above mentioned infrastructure is just the basic preparation that you need in order to manage increasing traffic. Most businesses opt for vertical scaling by moving to more powerful instances. For example, you can switch to Amazon Elastic Box Store from EC2. This helps you upgrade from the 244GB memory and 40 virtual cores offered by EC2. However, vertical scaling has a limit and you will soon run into issues when you begin to have a heavier influx of traffic.

Vertical scaling is similar to adding a more powerful RAM or other components to a single piece of hardware. There is only so much you can do with it. The best thing about AWS is that it allows horizontal scaling. This means that you distribute the load across different AWS Availability Zones to improve performance.

AWS uses the concept of regions which are physical data center clusters that are distributed across the globe. Each group of data centers is called an Availability Zone. So, when you have a huge traffic influx, you have the option of distributing the load across the servers in these availability zones. The user has the same experience, no matter which server he or she uses. You can achieve this by using ELV or Elastic Load Balancing which helps distribute requests from your users across EC2 instances. The advantage of this is that you have no bandwidth limit. You can also run health checks on every request to ensure that you are only getting the right traffic on your website.

Improve Data Management

Once you start using AWS, the simplest thing to do is to store all your assets across EC2 instances in different availability zones. But, what happens when the request for static assets increases? Images and videos are the best examples of static assets that do not change very often and are delivered to users in the same form each time. Then, you will need to keep an eye on the bandwidth utilization on EC2 instances. You cannot store all the assets on a single server because you have to keep purchasing more powerful instances. Instead, you can choose AWS services like Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service which is a very durable object storage option. If you want to scale further to serve both dynamic and static content, you can move to Amazon CloudFront. You do not have to pay any transfer costs to move from EC2 or S3 to CloudFront.

Alternatively, you can reduce the load from a central database using Amazon ElastiCache or Amazon DynamoDB. These are managed services that also help you detect unhealthy nodes easily.

The type of data management service that you use depends on the end-use. If you want to store mostly static assets, S3 is great. On the other hand if the goal is low latency with content delivery, CloudFront is the best option for you. There are multiple options that you need to study and understand before you make the choice for your business.

Introduce Auto Scaling

Data and traffic management are two of the largest workload components that businesses have to worry about when they begin to scale up. As mentioned above, there are reliable AWS services that can help you take care of that without adding hardware or software, or employing more manpower. When you have got a grip on that, automation is the logical step forward. To understand what Auto Scaling is, let us take the example of an eCommerce app or website. It has a peak and lull each day, based on the user preferences. Now, servers must be used based on the traffic at different times of the day. But what if your serves fail during an unexpected traffic peak in the middle of the night. You certainly can’t have your engineers respond to that instantly. The result is an impact on your business because sales are affected.

Using Auto Scaling allows you to resize the fleets of your server based on the traffic. It also detects any unhealthy hosts and replaces them instantly. This not only eliminates the need to have additional fleet management staff, but also ensures that your users do not have a bad experience on the website. It also allows you to fix the policies based on the traffic on your website or application. For instance, if you have maximum eyeballs at 9.00 AM on a weekday, you can schedule maximum server provision at this time. With Amazon Autoscaling, you can choose between Spot Instances and On-Demand instances. On-Demand means that you only pay based on the hourly usage. On the other hand, with Spot Instances, you can make use of any unused EC2 capacity.

Automate Code Deployment to Existing Infrastructure

When your goal is to optimize user experience, you need to be quick and consistent with deploying new codes to match the requirements. This is one of the primary reasons for most companies moving to the DevOps culture.

AWS offers services that allow you to make quick changes, repeat deployment, improve productivity, leverage elasticity and even automate testing in real-time. Here are some tools that make code deployment easy for customers:

1. • AWS OpsWorks: This allows you to manage your application based on different trigger events. These events are managed through either built-in codes or custom-written codes, giving you better control on real-time testing and deployment.
   • AWS CodeDeploy: This is used as a complimentary service to AWS Elastic Beanstalk or OPsWorks as it automatically deploys codes to your existing infrastructure. Tags can be used to create various deployment groups. This helps reduce downtime by making it easier to launch or stop code deployment.
   • AWS CodePipeline: With this service, you have the option of creating a deployment process in four stages, namely sourcing, building, testing, and deploying. The code can be pulled from GitHub or S3. Then you use preferred build servers and use tools like Ghost Inspector for testing. Finally, CodeDeploy or Elastic Beanstalk can be used to deploy the code.
   • AWS Elastic Beanstalk: With this service, you can deploy code on .NET, Java, Python, Ruby, and Go on other familiar servers like Passenger and Apache. You can create an environment on Elastic Beanstalk where you have the infrastructure that you need to run the application. It also takes care of auto-scaling and load balancing.  Next, you create different versions of the code and run it in an environment.
     

Simplify Monitoring and Metrics

In order to improve your business, you should be able to measure it. Using AWS tools like Amazon CloudWatch, you can measure both internal and external metrics. For example, you can check the network traffic volume, monitor CPU usage, and even monitor workload easily. These tools allow you to track any errors in the logs, learn traffic patterns and even distribute resources based on the requirements of your business. This helps you understand if the infrastructure that you are using is good enough to support your business. You can also make corrections based on end-user experience.

Create a Service Oriented Architecture

Service-Oriented Architecture or SOA is a type of infrastructure that uses various communication protocols. The objective is to automate repetitive tasks that have a similar outcome and ensure seamless customer service. Based on the tiers in your organizations, the resources, and manpower that you need changes, making it difficult for startups to create an SOA.AWS offers services like Amazon Simple Queue Service that makes it easy to manage any tasks that have been queued. Now, let us assume that a job must be processed using three steps. If one of the steps fails, the task gets queued instead of getting cancelled entirely. SQS gives you unlimited queues so that you do not have to worry about capacity planning.

Amazon Simple Notification System is a simple service that lets you push messages to many subscribers at a given time. You can deliver push notifications so that users get the necessary communication even when they are not using the app.

Go Serverless

With the use of services like AWS Lambda, you can run codes and use any type of backend service without the use of servers. There are over 200 AWS services and Saas applications that trigger AWS Lambda to process data, enable machine learning, build event-driven functions and even create a scalable online experience without the use of a server. These computing platforms on AWS ensure that you do not have to worry about provisioning servers as you scale your business. Netflix was one of the first companies to put AWS Lambda to use. With over 50 million customers and petabytes of data, using AWS Lambda they have managed to create an infrastructure that automatically adapts based on triggers.

Amazon Web Services give you access to more than 50 unique services that you can stack and use based on your requirements. When moving to DevOps, it is one of the most reliable options for you to not just begin with, but also scale up with.

BitCot helps you reduce the time spent on learning about all these services. We understand your business and help you use the most beneficial services based on the outcome that you want for your business.

While software development is focused on planning and executing codes, the operations team tests it out in real-life situations. So, the waiting period for feedback often causes a huge delay.

The only way to make this process seamless is to Hire DevOps Engineer.  Now, based on your company culture, product or goals, the meaning of DevOps varies, So DevOps hiring or consultant is no easy feat.

The good news is that there are some basic thumb rules that can help you with the process, or at least get you started. Here is everything that you need to know about hiring DevOps for your company.

What is DevOps and Why Is It Important?

In the simplest terms, DevOps is a synergy between your development team and operations team. For any end-user oriented product, there are a few stages that it needs to go through. These tasks are divided between the development and operations teams.

To understand what a DevOps engineer can do for your business, you need to understand the differentiation between these two teams.

Let us say you have a new application or software that you want to sell to a customer or implement in your organization.

The software development team plans the product- this includes the UI, the functionality and the code. Once they have completed this, they hand it over to the operations team who will deploy and test it in real-life situations. Then, if there are any bugs or issues, they report back to the development team.

This instantly causes a lull in the process. The development team must wait for the feedback. In the meantime, if they are assigned a new project, the former goes on a waiting list. This results in a vicious cycle that delays the whole process.

DevOps engineers fix this gap. They have the skills and experience that can break this barrier and help create a smooth and continuous cycle that is often called the DevOps infinity loop.

What is the DevOps Infinity Loop and Why is It So Important?

A DevOps infinity loop allows you to create and release software without any break in the process. This loop includes a few key phrases: 

• Planning- This is when the development team and the stakeholders determine the features and goals of the project.

• Code and build: The developers write the code and check it into a repository which is the single, easily accessible source. Then, using an automation tool, the build phase is initiated. This is where the code is retrieved and executed.

• Integration: When you have multiple teams working on the code, it is merged into the central repository. The DevOps engineers use automation tools for code review, testing and validation.

• Testing: DevOps testing is different from manual testing. While it does not entirely replace human testers, it uses certain tools for continuous testing. One common tool is Selenium which helps you test multiple codes parallelly. These tools also generate detailed reports that help stakeholders assess the functionality of the product.

• Deployment: The last stage of the development cycle, which is deployment, is usually the most chaotic one. It consists of a series of manual, time-consuming processes. DevOps eliminates all these processes and ensures continuous deployment through automation. Every code is taken through the DevOps pipeline for immediate production. This allows you to schedule several deployments in a day, based on the volume generated by the team.

• Operations: The IT admins are given reliable software management tools that help them collect data and operational details about the code once it is in production.
• Monitoring: The DevOps infinity loop is complete with continuous monitoring. Using tools like Wireshark, the software is continuously monitored. These tools create easy communication and collaboration channels between the development and operations teams. They are given alerts as production issues occur to eliminate any waiting time.

So, the role of the DevOps engineer is to put methodologies, tools, and procedures into place to keep the infinite loop of communication between the teams.

Now, this changes from one company to another. Therefore, it is very difficult to define the role of a DevOps engineer, making it even harder to hire one that fits into your organization.

Why Does Your Company Need DevOps? 

The next question is, does your company benefit from hiring DevOps? Let us take a look at the advantages that a DevOps engineer brings to an organization:

• Software deployment is faster with continuous updates.
• The work environment is stabilized. The stress of fixing software or adding new features is significantly reduced, making your teams more productive.
• Production quality improves as you get consistent feedback from the end-user.
• Automation helps you eliminate mundane and repetitive tasks, giving you more headspace for innovation.
• Get reliable and quick techniques to solve technical errors or other problems from the time of creating until the deployment of the software.
• Production and management costs are reduced by a large margin. With maintenance and feedback being automated, you also save on time. In business, time is money.
• Software delivery timelines are shorter.
• Your teams are highly productive with seamless collaboration and communication.
• The IT infrastructure of the company improves. You experience lower downtime as fixes and updates are put into a continuous process.
• Security of your IT infrastructure and data improves.

Then we come to another vital question, do all businesses require DevOps?

Essentially, any organization that is involved in creating applications and innovating in the field of technology needs a DevOps team. Others who are merely using IT services and products may benefit from a DevOps team as they scale up. If you use customized software for business operations, implementing DevOps will help you stay ahead, prevent downtime and also innovate specifically for your business.

Common Misconceptions about DevOps

The DevOps role is a less understood one. It is a dynamic role that is also shrouded in myths and misconceptions.
In order to hire a good DevOps Consulting team, you should be aware of these misconceptions:

DevOps is a job title
Just because someone has the term DevOps in their title or resume, it does not mean that they are suitable for the role. DevOps is a mentality and a way of working. The individual should be able to understand different technologies and must also be adept in working with people.

DevOps means adopting different tools
With the DevOps movement picking up pace, the biggest misconception is that you just have to follow a checklist and adopt automation tools. While this is integral to the DevOps loop, there is more. When you use DevOps to streamline processes, you must make a cultural shift. It is more about enabling collaboration. As opposed to common belief, DevOps is more about the people than it is about automation.

Employing DevOps Engineers Means That You Will Release Software Every 5 Minutes
The release of the software is based on need. It may be several times a day sometimes or every couple of weeks. Take Facebook, for example. They roll out changes whenever a problem is detected and a solution is engineered. The same allies for Netflix and Amazon, who are pioneers in the DevOps movement.

You can get a DevOps Certification
There are so many online courses that are offering certification courses for DevOps. Sure, they teach you about important software and technology. But, these certifications are not a test of whether someone is a good DevOps engineer or not. It requires several other skills including people management, problem-solving, communication and even some knowledge about marketing a brand.

Challenges with Hiring DevOps

Now, let us come to the most important issue at hand. Why is it so difficult to hire DevOps? 

• Shortage of talent: A DevOps engineer must have sound technical knowledge. This includes programming skills, understanding of Quality Analysis, knowledge about the SDLC or software development life cycle and a lot more. This means that you cannot hire someone straight out of university or college. DevOps engineers are usually senior and experienced individuals. This makes it hard to fill that gap in the market for talent.

• Assessing talent is challenging: There is no ‘course’ or ‘certificate’ that can help you gauge the qualification of the individual. It is also not about seniority. DevOps is more a mindset, than a skill. So, identifying good talent can be difficult.

• The field is very competitive: Given that there is so much demand and so little talent, this field is naturally competitive. This means hiring a fully experienced DevOps engineer can be expensive.

• It is difficult to define the role for your organization: The biggest question you need to ask yourself before hiring a DevOps engineer is, ‘what does this role mean for your organization?’. Once you understand what gaps the DevOps engineer needs to bridge between your teams, you can decide on the skills that are key to fulfilling this role.

How to Identify Good DevOps?

Here are some simple tips to help you identify a good DevOps engineer:

• Basic technical knowledge is a must. They should have an understanding of networking technology, server function, encryption, database, storage and security.
• Formal technical training is not enough. Experience is a must with a DevOps engineer.
• Soft skills are very valuable. Your DevOps engineer must be able to lead a team, solve problems on the go and help people collaborate effectively.
• Focus on the personality of the individual. If you feel like they do not have a collaborative mindset or have set ways of working because of seniority, it is best to keep your search on.
• Frequent job changes on the resume is a red flag. It is a good idea to find out why they chose to spend short durations at so many organizations.

Best Practices in Hiring DevOps

There are some best practices and strategies that can help you overcome the above-mentioned challenges: 

• Create a DevOps vision for your organization: As mentioned before, the meaning of DevOps changes from one organization to the other. You need to set specific goals while implementing DevOps. Identify the issues that you want to solve and the processes that you want to streamline.

• Attitude matters: DevOps is a cultural shift from the regular IT silos that we identify. There is a good chance that your staff may resist this change. So, you need a DevOps engineer who has the personality to handle these challenges. There is a good chance, you may even lose some of your senior employees during the transition process. Does your DevOps engineer have the skill to prevent this or make changes based on requirements in these situations?

• Look for DevOps in the right places: Given that the DevOps community is very small, there are some waterholes where you can find great talent. This includes social media outlets like LinkedIn. You will also notice that there are DevOps conferences that take place regularly. Build your network in the initial stages so that when there is an urgency to fill a vacancy, you have leads in place.
• Create your own DevOps engineers: According to Indeed, DevOps engineers are the hardest roles to fill. The best way to help your organization is to identify individuals who are already technically sound and invest in soft skills and management training.  

DevOps Engineer or Consultant: Which One To Choose

If your requirement is ongoing and continuous, then hiring a DevOps Engineer is a good idea. A DevOps Consultant is an expert who can offer his services only when required.

Which one should you hire? Let us take some points into consideration:

• DevOps engineers are very difficult to find. So, in case you have an urgent requirement, a DevOps consultant can give you a bird’s eye view of the whole process and help you streamline it.
• It is cheaper to hire a DevOps engineer if you are in the business of innovation. This means that you need continuous feedback and output. Going to a consultant is not only expensive but also inconvenient.
• Security is a major concern with consultants. If the consultant is not properly verified or skilled, your data is at risk.

Ultimately, it depends upon your business and what your final DevOps vision is. Always remember the golden rule of DevOps while recruiting. It is the management of people, not just tools and checklists.

If you find DevOps recruitment challenging, BitCot offers the perfect solutions for you. We help you Hire Full-Time DevOps Engineers or consultants based on the specific requirements of your organization.

Log into https://aws.amazon.com and sign with your earlier created root account.

To register a new domain using Route 53

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/.
2. If you’re new to Route 53, choose to Get started.
   If you’re already using Route 53, in the navigation pane, choose Registered Domains.
   
3. 1. Choose Register domain, and specify the domain that you want to register:
   • Enter the domain name that you want to register, and choose Check to find out whether the domain name is available.
     If the domain name that you want to register contains characters other than a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and – (hyphen), note the following:
     • You can enter the name using the applicable characters. You don’t need to convert the name to Punycode.
     • A list of languages appears. Choose the language of the specified name. For example, if you enter příklad (“example” in Czech), choose Czech (CES) or Czech (CZE).
       
     • If the domain is available, choose to Add to cart. The domain name appears in your shopping cart.
       
     • The Related domain suggestions list shows other domains that you might want to register instead of your first choice (if it’s not available) or in addition to your first choice. Choose to Add to cart for each additional domain that you want to register, up to a maximum of five domains.
     • In the shopping cart, choose the number of years that you want to register the domain for.
     • To register more domains, repeat steps 3a through 3c.
     • Choose Continue.
4. On the Contact Details for Your and Domains page, enter contact information for the domain registrant, administrator, and technical contacts. The values that you enter here are applied to all of the domains that you’re registering. For more information, see Values that you specify when you register or transfer a domain.
   Note the following considerations:
   First Name and Last Name
   For First Name and Last Name, we recommend that you specify the name on your official ID. For some changes to domain settings, some domain registries require that you provide proof of identity. The name on your ID must match the name of the registrant contact for the domain.
   
   
   Note:
   To enable privacy protection for .co.uk, .me.uk, and .org.uk domains, you must open a support case and request privacy protection.

5. Follow the on-screen registration process and the domain registration is completed.

BitCot can help you For Purchasing/Registering a new domain from AWS Route53, We can assist you For Purchasing/Registering a new domain. If you have any problem For Purchasing/Registering a new domain from AWS Account, get in touch with us here.