- The rise of cloud has brought many
of the more advanced properties
to public cloud-based platforms
including continuous operations.
Continuous operations have the ability
to run cloud-based systems in such a way
that there is never a need to take an application
out of service.
We call this zero downtime objective.
To achieve this goal
software must be updated
and placed into production without interruption of services.
Cloud ops or cloud operations is the formalization
of best practices and procedures
that allow cloud-based platforms
and applications and data that live there to function well
over a long duration of time.
In other words, while moving to the cloud is important
the ability to stay there and be effective
depends upon operational procedures
and operational excellence.
Although cloud ops is still an emerging science
certain patterns are beginning to emerge
that are on their way to becoming best practices.
Redundancy seems to be core
to all good cloud operations.
Years ago, the use of redundant systems was costly.
So most of those charged with operating systems
use a single server.
When the server was being updated with new patches
and fixes operations had to stop.
When things went wrong
such as network or storage problems
application services stopped as well.
However, as we move those systems to public
or private clouds, the demand from users is no outages.
This is a tall order
given that cloud computing platforms are relatively new
but they are being sold as more reliable and more scalable
than traditional systems in traditional data centers.
That doesn't mean continuous operations
are an automatic part of cloud technology.
Continuous operations are achieved by the effective use
of cloud ops procedures and best practices.
Public and private cloud platforms
support auto and self provisioning
which means you have the ability
to set up dual independent systems.
The result is that operations remain up and running
during system or software updates
or even during system failures
that would bring down traditional systems.
Think of this as you build a car
know you're learning to drive it and improve it.
Cloud ops means continuous operations
and continuous improvement.
If this is your path
you must rethink traditional operations.
Next let's define the process of continuous operations
in cloud ops and examine the processes, the core components
emerging tools and known best practices.