Application Maintenance on Production Systems
In this resource center, access advice and tutorials about application maintenance, covering such topics as problem discovery and troubleshooting applications, mapping app dependencies, ensuring security throughout the application lifecycle and more.
Top Stories
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News
11 Feb 2022
Observability data finds its way into BizDevOps
The digitize-or-die catalyst of the COVID-19 pandemic forced enterprises toward BizDevOps, and IT observability data has begun to inform cooperation with business users. Continue Reading
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News
31 Jan 2022
Enterprise AIOps quietly gets real
Machine learning algorithms are being used to automate some aspects of enterprise IT operations, but the original goal of advanced self-healing systems is still a long way off. Continue Reading
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News
25 Sep 2019
Ansible Tower revamp adds analytics, security automation
Ansible Tower and Ansible Engine are now one product, Ansible Automation Platform, which also includes automation analytics, security automation integrations and certified content. Continue Reading
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News
24 Sep 2019
BizDevOps, DevOps feedback loops guide IT transformation
BizDevOps has been the priority for Dynatrace customer American Fidelity the last four years, guiding the company's IT priorities amid ever-increasing technical complexity. Continue Reading
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News
18 Sep 2019
DevSecOps veterans share security strategy, lessons learned
DevSecOps practitioners imparted dos and don'ts for newbies and urged them to think strategically as well as tactically about improving IT security. Continue Reading
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News
17 Sep 2019
New application security risks lead IT teams to DevSecOps
Once a bleeding-edge concept, DevSecOps has gone mainstream following high-profile security breaches that proved simply installing automated security tools doesn't go far enough. Continue Reading
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News
11 Sep 2019
HashiCorp Consul plays to multi-platform strength with Azure
HashiCorp's Consul service mesh will be offered as a hosted service on Microsoft Azure, where it can link container clusters along with VMs in multiple regions. Continue Reading
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News
06 Sep 2019
Feature flags emerge as enterprise DevOps must-have
CloudBees and Atlassian have feature flags on their near-term product roadmaps, as enterprise DevOps shops seek to lower the risk of continuous code deployment to production. Continue Reading
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News
05 Sep 2019
Atlassian cloud woos enterprises with SLA, security boost
Large enterprise users of Atlassian's on-premises software say the vendor's cloud tools have piqued their interest with updates to security and support. Continue Reading
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News
28 Aug 2019
Knative serverless Kubernetes bypasses FaaS to revive PaaS
Knative's emerging claim to fame is that it can turn Kubernetes into a next-gen platform as a service with both a Heroku-like developer experience and deep infrastructure control. Continue Reading
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News
22 Aug 2019
Splunk pricing worries some users amid SignalFx monitoring buy
Splunk wants to collect more data via SignalFx, but some users wonder how much it will cost to keep up with the proliferation of logs and metrics in the age of cloud monitoring. Continue Reading
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News
08 Aug 2019
Mesosphere's Kubernetes pivot sets stage for IT vendor attrition
Mesosphere becomes D2iQ, and affirms that Kubernetes is eating the world. Is IT entering a golden age of interoperability, or on the verge of mass consolidation? Continue Reading
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Tip
31 Jul 2019
Weigh infrastructure as code risks against the benefits
Infrastructure as code can transform the modern data center, but maintain a healthy dose of caution -- and thorough documentation and testing environments -- to prevent chaos. Continue Reading
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News
30 Jul 2019
GitOps path puts CI/CD ahead of infrastructure automation
Which comes first -- automated app deployment pipelines, or automated infrastructures on which to deploy? At GitOps shop Procore, the answer is emphatically the former. Continue Reading
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News
26 Jul 2019
BizDevOps tools await enterprise maturity
PagerDuty, Splunk and other vendors have added BizDevOps features to their IT management tools, but if they build it, will enterprises come? Continue Reading
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News
25 Jul 2019
Kubernetes authentication project wrestles with migration problems
GKE users like the Workload Identity feature for Kubernetes authentication with GCP services, but similar improvements to core cluster security present a potential market-wide migration headache. Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Jul 2019
Apply automation for streamlined IT asset management
Without accurate data, IT asset management processes fail. But, with automation and self-service capabilities, admins can efficiently track assets -- from onboarding to end of life. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2019
Compliance-as-code tool hits DevSecOps sweet spot for MSP
There are almost as many tools to assist with DevSecOps as there are definitions for the term – how one managed service provider that serves federal agencies chose a compliance-as-code vendor. Continue Reading
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News
19 Jul 2019
Kubernetes policy project takes enterprise IT by storm
A Kubernetes-friendly compliance as code project hosted by the CNCF has caught on among large enterprises in the first half of 2019, largely through word of mouth. Continue Reading
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News
17 Jul 2019
Container security improves overall enterprise IT posture
Enterprise IT pros worried about security when containers were first introduced, but as containers are put into production, they can actually present ways to tighten security practices. Continue Reading
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Tip
15 Jul 2019
Avoid chaos with an IT crisis management playbook
A minor IT issue can quickly snowball into a major catastrophe without a carefully constructed crisis management plan, but just what details should an organization include? Continue Reading
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News
02 Jul 2019
Kubernetes security tool gives IT a leg up on DevSecOps
An emerging real estate firm tasked with DevSecOps sought an assist from startup Alcide, which bakes Kubernetes security best practices into its software. Continue Reading
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News
01 Jul 2019
Elastic SIEM woos enterprises with cost savings
Elastic SIEM gains interest from former Splunk users, with the promise of cost savings and the prospect of centralized security analytics and IT monitoring data repositories. Continue Reading
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News
26 Jun 2019
LogicMonitor wades into AIOps with anomaly detection
Another country heard from in AIOps: LogicMonitor rolls out anomaly detection and alert dependency correlation, but can it rise above the noise? Continue Reading
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News
21 Jun 2019
AI help desk software frees IT ops to take on SRE skills
A financial services company will retrain its help desk staff to be app developers and SREs, while AI handles the grunt work for the company's call center employees. Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2019
IT pros brace for wave of M&A in microservices security
Microservices and DevOps have made IT security a shared responsibility among enterprise stakeholders, and experts expect this shift to prompt mass consolidation among vendors. Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2019
Alaska Airlines charts course for DevOps security
As Alaska Airlines plots a flight path to a hybrid cloud infrastructure, it will navigate with an automated DevOps security tool that spans multiple IT environments. Continue Reading
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News
13 Jun 2019
AIOps tools beef up insights, but long-term scope unclear
AIOps tools present a way to cope with IT infrastructure sprawl and complexity, but how far they can go with hands-off automation features is still a topic for debate. Continue Reading
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News
12 Jun 2019
AIOps early adopters tackle data quality issues
AIOps is new in many ways, but early adopters must also heed a time-honored IT maxim: garbage in, garbage out. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 Jun 2019
AIOps monitoring arms IT staff with broader, deeper insights
Conventional monitoring gives ops teams critical visibility into the health of their IT systems, but with limited scope. Through an AIOps tool, they can significantly broaden their view. Continue Reading
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News
06 Jun 2019
UPS delivers Agile plan for legacy application modernization
As UPS moved its package-tracking system from mainframe to open systems, it drew on the old adage about how to eat an elephant: one small bite at a time. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
03 Jun 2019
Build a successful Apache Mesos installation on Linux servers
As Apache Mesos gains traction for container orchestration, admins should try it out and evaluate its capabilities. Use this tutorial to set up the necessary software and avoid the pitfalls that plague the process. Continue Reading
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News
31 May 2019
Palo Alto Networks buys Twistlock, PureSec for container security
Palo Alto Networks snaps up Twistlock and PureSec to broaden its cloud security portfolio and give enterprise IT shops more options for container and serverless security. Continue Reading
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News
21 May 2019
Enterprises anticipate IT ops benefits from GitOps
Infrastructure as code, configuration as code, security as code -- enterprise SREs set their sights on everything as code in pursuit of GitOps efficiency. Continue Reading
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News
21 May 2019
GKE, Azure roll out Windows Kubernetes support
Cloud service providers rolled out Windows Kubernetes support this week, which may take some of the burden of Linux container management requirements out of the hands of Microsoft-only shops. Continue Reading
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News
17 May 2019
Mainframe DevOps gets fresh integration option in LzLabs
Most mainframe DevOps tools make open source app delivery pipelines speak mainframe's language, but LzLabs brings mainframe apps to a Linux-based platform without recompilation. Continue Reading
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News
14 May 2019
Application dependency mapping expands in New Relic One
DevOps monitoring vendors rev their engines as enterprises take on more sophisticated IT monitoring practices to reach the next major phase of app modernization. Continue Reading
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News
10 May 2019
OpenShift shops chart a course for advanced IT automation
IT teams tackled containerization, developer self-service platforms and infrastructure provisioning automation in 2018. So, what's next? Continue Reading
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News
08 May 2019
OpenShift architecture bakes in CoreOS Operator automation
OpenShift 4.1 promises easier container management for IT ops pros, but getting there from OpenShift 3 could be tricky for enterprises with large deployments. Continue Reading
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News
08 May 2019
OpenShift-Azure ties deepen as IT sets sights on multi-cloud
Enterprises will consider an OpenShift managed service on Azure as part of a multi-cloud strategy, but Kubernetes won't necessarily make workloads cloud-agnostic. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Apr 2019
ICYMI: Advice for aspiring site reliability engineers
IT ops pros looking to land an SRE job can use these four articles to absorb the key responsibilities and challenges that site reliability engineering entails. Continue Reading
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News
25 Apr 2019
Experian credits incident management tool for IT efficiency
When Experian deployed xMatters, the IT landscape was very different. But the incident management tool's adaptability kept it useful through shifts in tech trends. Continue Reading
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News
12 Apr 2019
Opsgenie integrations expand under Atlassian
Opsgenie's induction into the Atlassian fold reflects a trend of incident management tools' absorption into broader DevOps platforms, but not every user prefers a one-stop shop. Continue Reading
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News
10 Apr 2019
Cloud Foundry PaaS undergoes seismic shifts as IT evolves
Cloud Foundry undergoes drastic changes as infrastructure automation technology develops, to the point where some industry experts see more erosion than evolution. Continue Reading
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News
08 Apr 2019
Users forge ahead with Cloud Foundry-Kubernetes integration
Complementary roles for Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes are clear to IT pros, and the community plans to knit the two more closely together with the Eirini project. Continue Reading
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Tip
05 Apr 2019
Implement these 5 ALM best practices from dev to deployment
Enterprise applications are anything but simple. To wrangle the software, resources and code of these critical apps, be smart with IT tooling, management and other aspects of support. Continue Reading
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News
02 Apr 2019
Chef licensing changes prompt debate among IT pros
IT pros who use Chef automation software have mixed reactions to the company's plan to revamp its software licensing strategy. Continue Reading
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News
01 Apr 2019
Google SREs test the limits of infrastructure automation
Google SRE veterans spoke publicly about infrastructure automation work, its future and its limitations. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Mar 2019
Prepare for ITIL framework updates in version 4
The much-anticipated release of ITIL v4 not only changes the framework's certification structure, but emphasizes many modern software development and IT service delivery practices. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Mar 2019
Evaluate the COBIT framework 2019 update
ITSM frameworks must adapt as IT changes swiftly or risk stagnation. COBIT ended its six-year silence with its 2019 update. Get an overview of the new information and how to use COBIT. Continue Reading
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News
27 Mar 2019
Monitoring distributed systems means first, do no harm
SRE veterans who work with large, complex, latency-sensitive infrastructures say some monitoring tools can hurt the systems they're meant to help. Continue Reading
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News
26 Mar 2019
Site reliability engineer shift creates IT ops dilemma
Aspiring SREs find it hard to move away from tactical tasks to focus on strategic projects. Veteran SREs say the path to less toil begins with prioritization and automation. Continue Reading
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News
25 Mar 2019
Kubernetes for Windows hits GA, with limitations
Kubernetes support for Windows nodes was declared stable in Kubernetes 1.14, but extensive fine print remains. Continue Reading
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News
25 Mar 2019
SRE software refines DevOps incident response for enterprise
SRE workflows often emerge organically within enterprise IT teams, but software tools add measurability and automation for incident response and review in one DevOps shop. Continue Reading
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News
22 Mar 2019
Kubernetes management for 'Minecraft' has enterprise IT traits
What do 'Minecraft' servers and enterprise databases have in common? In the realm of Kubernetes management, more than you might think. Continue Reading
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Quiz
21 Mar 2019
Can you accurately measure SLA expectations and results?
Realistic SLA expectations rely on accurately defined criteria, properly set. Test your knowledge of SLA measurements and learn to tailor contracts that avoid costly consequences with this quiz. Continue Reading
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News
21 Mar 2019
IT security monitoring at golf club lets IT ops play through
ClubCorp took stock of its IT security strategy last year, which led to freedom from grunt work and renewed focus for the IT ops team. Continue Reading
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News
15 Mar 2019
DevSecOps shift begins, but remains a work in progress
DevOps security has shifted left, but IT pros disagree on just how far into application design and away from infrastructure security practices will go. Continue Reading
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News
15 Mar 2019
DevOps security tools 'shift left' into CI/CD pipelines
DevOps security remains a work in progress, but many enterprise IT shops already plug collaboration points for IT security and operations pros directly into the app development pipeline. Continue Reading
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News
13 Mar 2019
F5-Nginx deal reflects mainstream trend toward microservices
F5 snaps up Nginx for cloud-native app support, and analysts predict a microservices gold rush as modern application architectures catch on in enterprise IT shops. Continue Reading
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Tip
06 Mar 2019
Steps to safely build and manage a preproduction environment
A well-run testing lab is a true asset to developers. An uncontrolled one, on the other hand, is a massive liability that can cost dearly. Plan lab builds along these guidelines. Continue Reading
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News
05 Mar 2019
Container security tools turn heads with expansion to hosts
Vendors that sell container security tools now face off against traditional security tool providers, as both vie for the attention of IT pros who look to fortify their cloud-native infrastructure. Continue Reading
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News
28 Feb 2019
Sensu architecture smoothes monitoring data workflow for NCR
Sensu Go's architecture and monitoring as code prompted NCR to switch away from Zabbix and pass on SolarWinds, as it sought to collect data from 80,000 restaurant customers. Continue Reading
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News
28 Feb 2019
Istio security drives Auto Trader UK move to GKE
The U.K.'s largest online automotive marketplace put Istio security features in place before it adopted containers and GKE, rather than the other way around. Continue Reading
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News
26 Feb 2019
VMware PKS adds Heptio IP, boosts container street cred
VMware adds bare-metal Kubernetes and an elite support squad from Heptio, but it's unlikely to get widespread interest with bespoke container orchestration on premises. Continue Reading
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News
25 Feb 2019
Mainframe DevOps forces platform reckoning for enterprises
DevOps has reached the mainframe world, where a few enterprise 'unicorns' have blazed a trail with new tools for the rest of the IT industry. Continue Reading
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News
14 Feb 2019
Container security tools pitch service mesh integrations
Container defense in depth is a hot topic, and some IT pros approach it with a combination of third-party container security tools and service mesh security features. Continue Reading
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News
14 Feb 2019
Linkerd vs. Istio fray dominates service mesh battle
Linkerd's maintainers admit it has a narrower range of features than buzz machine Istio. But after failed attempts to set up Istio, some early adopters believe less is more. Continue Reading
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News
11 Feb 2019
Container security vulnerability prompts call to patch runC
The discovery of a container utility flaw means IT pros must patch most container runtimes, as well as practice defense in depth and beware of strangers with sketchy container images. Continue Reading
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News
31 Jan 2019
Uncertain future of open core software puts companies at risk
Many enterprises rely on commercial vendors for open source software support, but the open core business model isn't always a solid bet for longevity. Continue Reading
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Quiz
21 Jan 2019
Pop quiz: Can you identify these top IT trends of 2019?
From serverless and AIOps to a widening tech skills gap, numerous IT trends bring momentum into 2019. See how ready you are for new opportunities and hurdles in IT with this quiz. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
14 Jan 2019
Control Docker containers with the Nginx load balancer
Docker is an efficient container platform, but it isn't perfect. Follow this Nginx load balancer tutorial to provide your container environment with high availability across multiple nodes. Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Jan 2019
Explore the new year's emerging IT trends
Small data centers, intelligent IT management tools -- digital diversity? Catch up on the 10 trends driving IT operations forward in 2019, and how they'll shape your organization. Continue Reading
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News
02 Jan 2019
DevOps security model hits organizational snags
DevOps security tools are on the market, and IT pros are acutely aware of the need to update their practices. But alignment with business teams hasn't gotten any easier. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Dec 2018
10 tips to approach IT operations processes with confidence
Stuck in the NOC over the holidays? To pass the time, improve your ability to plan projects and quash production infrastructure incidents with confidence. Continue Reading
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News
18 Dec 2018
IT industry trends home in on containers, AIOps and CI/CD
IT ops pros should be on the lookout for enterprise-wide production container deployments, real-world AIOps usage and new approaches to CI/CD in 2019. Continue Reading
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Opinion
17 Dec 2018
AI for IT operations means smarter, safer deployments
Anticipate developments in AIOps and IT automation in 2019, particularly in major spaces such as IT security. Help your organization look forward and adopt smarter automation. Continue Reading
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News
14 Dec 2018
Istio service mesh tradeoffs prompt caution among IT pros
Istio can boost the security and observability of Kubernetes environments, but some IT pros question whether the perks are worth a steep learning curve. Continue Reading
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News
13 Dec 2018
Enterprise SREs guide devs through Kubernetes in production
Behind most enterprise developers that own and operate the services they create stands a platform engineering team that's teed up Kubernetes in its most manageable form. Continue Reading
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News
13 Dec 2018
Kubernetes 1.13 stabilizes storage, but Windows GA delayed
IT pros with Kubernetes in production welcomed stable releases of cluster install and container storage utilities in version 1.13, but they'll have to wait for some key features. Continue Reading
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News
11 Dec 2018
Kubernetes security issues raise concerns for enterprise shops
As Kubernetes enters the enterprise mainstream, it has early adopters abuzz about security issues in the platform and the containers it orchestrates. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Dec 2018
Align KPIs for IT with corresponding business goals
It's easy for IT KPIs to take a back seat to those of the business or vice versa. Instead, explore these ways to maintain a working balance. Continue Reading
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Tip
05 Dec 2018
Create an IT support process to take on any outage
Every IT incident must be met with a streamlined resolution procedure, all the way from critical to trivial. Ensure those plans are in place before it's do or die. Continue Reading
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News
04 Dec 2018
Kubernetes security vulnerability reveals fractured market
Enterprises that pay for Kubernetes support will respond differently to this week's critical security vulnerability than lean DevOps teams that use upstream distributions. Continue Reading
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Feature
30 Nov 2018
Improve microservices management in operations with 5 tips
Distributed applications are the future of IT, thanks to their scalability and flexibility, but growth means growing pains. Tackle microservices issues with this expert advice. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Nov 2018
Simple-to-automate IT tasks: Stop doing these 3 things
There are certain tasks that no IT ops administrator should still do manually. No more excuses -- take these easy operations processes off your plate, and let scripts or tools take over. Continue Reading
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News
16 Nov 2018
AWS Lambda monitoring goes mainstream with New Relic beta
New Relic users and prospects will investigate AWS Lambda monitoring features released in private beta, as serverless usage filters in to enterprise IT shops. Continue Reading
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News
15 Nov 2018
Container security tools push multi-cloud closer to reality
Container security tools, such as StackRox and Aqua Security, offer DevOps shops that want multi-cloud portability a centralized way to reduce the risk of complex infrastructures. Continue Reading
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Tip
13 Nov 2018
Use Active Directory for testing environments in DevOps shops
AD enables admins to create testing environments almost identical to production environments through duplicated trees, interconnected forests and authentication best practices. Continue Reading
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News
09 Nov 2018
Docker on Windows Server helps legacy apps, with caveats
Windows-only Docker Enterprise Edition prospects struggle with Linux requirements and a shift to a container-first mindset as they plan to modernize legacy Microsoft applications. Continue Reading
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News
09 Nov 2018
Terraform orchestration matures as multi-cloud lingua franca
Terraform offers cloud-agnostic infrastructure as code to highly skilled DevOps pros, and its latest release looks to extend its appeal beyond early adopters. Continue Reading
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News
07 Nov 2018
Kubernetes on VMware gains a lifeline with Heptio acquisition
VMware's Heptio buy brings it Kubernetes chops that will help it make a multi-cloud bid, but it will struggle to raise its profile in open source container management, industry watchers predict. Continue Reading
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News
02 Nov 2018
HashiCorp Vault maturity prompts strategy speculation
HashiCorp is valued at $1.9 billion for its IT management software, such as Vault 1.0, and the IBM-Red Hat merger has set off speculation about the firm's future. Continue Reading
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News
25 Oct 2018
Nomad vs. Kubernetes talk prompts HashiCorp managed service plan
HashiCorp's founders say Nomad and Kubernetes are not mutually exclusive, but the company will launch a Nomad managed service to match cloud providers' turnkey Kubernetes services. Continue Reading
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Opinion
25 Oct 2018
Quantum supremacy and the path to encryption chaos
Widespread use of quantum computing isn't as far into the future as some might think. When it arrives, this powerful computing technology could turn IT security upside down. Continue Reading
- 25 Oct 2018
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News
22 Oct 2018
IT pros shore up Prometheus monitoring via third-party tools
Upstream Prometheus monitoring isn't ready for prime time in enterprise environments, but it gets by with a little help from its friends, such as Sysdig and Rancher Labs. Continue Reading
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News
16 Oct 2018
SRE model requires technical, organizational optimization skills
Practitioners categorize SRE job descriptions two ways -- by distributed systems architecture design that evolves rapidly, and also by the ability to optimize human workflows. Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Oct 2018
Make your pitch for chaos engineering practices
Is your QA team ready for chaos engineering? Find out how to prep staff for resilience engineering and why you should avoid that 'chaotic' name altogether. Continue Reading
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Tip
12 Oct 2018
Implement security for DevOps across the board
Security for DevOps isn't about the devices or the data center facility anymore. Learn how to protect valuable data as it moves beyond the corporate network into hybrid cloud and among various applications composed of microservices. Continue Reading
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News
12 Oct 2018
New Relic acquisition of CoScale boosts Kubernetes prowess
Kubernetes monitoring is all the rage, and New Relic's CoScale buy gives it an edge in an increasingly noisy market for container monitoring tools. Continue Reading
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News
10 Oct 2018
Embrace DevOps innovation to modernize legacy applications
To bring legacy applications into the DevOps fold, IT teams must be creative and collaborate in ways that may differ sharply from approaches to greenfield projects. Continue Reading
