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
10 Feb 2022
Dynatrace hands observability-as-code reins to DevOps
Dynatrace expanded observability-as-code tools to let developers and DevOps engineers determine how production services send feedback via a self-service interface. 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
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News
05 Oct 2018
Automated root cause analysis moves into the mainstream
DevOps monitoring tools that offer automated root cause analysis are now in production within mainstream enterprises. When it comes to their ease of use, however, there is still room to improve. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Sep 2018
A fine-tuned change request template minimizes user discontent
Change management is an essential ITSM practice, but it doesn't have to come at the expense of end users. Use templates to clarify expectations and set changes in motion without disruption. Continue Reading
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Guide
17 Sep 2018
How to achieve application performance improvement in ops
With more complex infrastructure and applications comes increased need for sophisticated performance monitoring and management tools, accompanied by strengthened processes. Continue Reading
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News
11 Sep 2018
PagerDuty incident response tools loop in business stakeholders
PagerDuty follows Atlassian with incident response tracking for corporate management, while IT pros on the front lines of incident triage also seek enhancements to low-level alerting configurations. Continue Reading
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News
05 Sep 2018
Atlassian shops size up OpsGenie buy, Jira for incident management
Atlassian snapped up OpsGenie and rolled out Jira Ops as part of a shift in focus to IT incident management. Users will follow the strategy cautiously. Continue Reading
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Tip
15 Aug 2018
IT incident management best practices -- and myths that scare you away
When IT activity inevitably goes awry, admins need to know the best course of action to take to ensure accountability, efficiency and accuracy -- and not get lost in myths. Continue Reading
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Tip
14 Aug 2018
Network capacity planning in the age of unpredictable workloads
When you manage network spaces carefully and make informed choices, the flexible, easily scaled workloads of distributed public and hybrid cloud applications become manageable. Continue Reading
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News
10 Aug 2018
AIOps platforms delve deeper into root cause analysis
AIOps tools offer fresh insights into the root cause of IT incidents, triangulating between application outages, code changes and infrastructure issues. Continue Reading
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News
03 Aug 2018
IT pros debate upstream vs. packaged Kubernetes implementations
As IT vendors race to package Kubernetes implementations, their fiercest competition is not from other vendors, but from pure upstream code and DIY container orchestration projects. Continue Reading
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Feature
02 Aug 2018
Words to go: Incident management KPI categories
Because incident management is a vital task for IT operations departments, admins need a way to measure its success. This list of KPIs offers a good place to start. Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Jun 2018
How the Nagios monitoring tool tracks IT environment details
Nagios users can monitor diverse components of an IT infrastructure, across Linux and Windows OSes, networks and servers, so long as they roll up their sleeves and dig into agents and plug-ins. Continue Reading
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News
25 May 2018
Chef InSpec users wrestle with compliance as code
Learning the ins and outs of the Chef InSpec product is only half the battle for compliance as code. The thornier task for some enterprises is to bridge the gap between compliance expertise and DevOps execution. Continue Reading
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News
17 May 2018
Serverless infrastructure calls for updated IT ops expertise
IT ops participation is necessary for successful serverless infrastructure management, but operations pros will need to sharpen their skills in systems engineering and infrastructure as code. Continue Reading
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Tip
14 May 2018
A Go programming language tutorial for IT ops
Go is a diversely applicable programming language that ops admins can use on distributed systems without the complications of traditional languages such as C or Java. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 May 2018
Blue/green deployment on the cloud makes updates easier
App deployment in the cloud operates differently than it does on physical infrastructure. The blue/green deployment model has a couple variations, each of which can save on time and errors. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 Apr 2018
A proper DevOps feedback loop includes business leaders
What the modern IT organization needs isn't DevOps -- it's BizDevOps. IT exists to serve the business, but that relationship must be fully reciprocal. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Apr 2018
Distributed tracing gives microservices monitoring more clarity
When you have users interacting with multiple services with each action, finding the cause of a problem becomes a difficult hunt. Distributed tracing helps highlight the issues. Continue Reading
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Guide
23 Apr 2018
Don't panic! The definitive guide to IT troubleshooting
IT problems can cause distress, chaos and, well, panic -- but they don't have to. These tips and tools guide admins through IT troubleshooting for the best chance of success. Continue Reading
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Opinion
19 Apr 2018
Serverless technology obfuscates workflows, performance data
Serverless and microservices reshape the application stack into something that looks like a swath of stars in the sky. How do you find a slow, misconfigured component in this interconnected galaxy? Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Apr 2018
Monitoring thresholds determine IT performance alerts
An IT monitoring strategy depends on the applications and systems it governs. Static and dynamic thresholds each have benefits and drawbacks, but it's possible to find a balance. Continue Reading
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Tip
12 Mar 2018
Six simple cloud security policies you need to know
Data protection takes center stage in modern IT. Step through this cloud security checklist to ensure your organization is covering all its bases. Continue Reading
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Opinion
22 Feb 2018
What's our future if we don't secure IoT devices?
When everything from the coffee maker to the manufacturing plant's robots to the electric grid is connected, shouldn't security be IT's primary concern? Continue Reading
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Opinion
10 Jan 2018
The ITIL 2018 update better catch up to modern IT
When ITIL last updated, DevOps was in its infancy. In the face of rapidly evolving IT practices and technologies, ITIL 2018 must be powerful and usable for diverse IT organizations. Continue Reading
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Tip
04 Jan 2018
Unleash application dependency mapping tools to combat outages
Create a detailed map of application dependencies from the CMDB and cloud resources and help prevent unexpected outages. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Jan 2018
Embark upon ITSM asset management with systematic tagging
The journey to an organized data center begins with a single tag. Start using IT tags today to apply updates, control access and help automate management. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Jan 2018
Evaluate ChatOps tools and bots for the right fit
ChatOps is still a niche in IT operations and DevOps shops, but organizations that have set it up love it. That means you should join the fun and give it a try. Here's what you need to know about ChatOps tools. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 Nov 2017
Get serious about patch validation and deployment -- fast
Zero-day exploits are more dangerous than ever, but so is applying an untested patch to live systems. Without a strategy to quickly validate patches -- outside of production -- you're playing with fire. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Nov 2017
Infrastructure as code benefits range from audits to ops
When an auditor asks to see how the entire application stack is configured, you'll recognize the benefits of an infrastructure-as-code implementation. Continue Reading
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Tip
12 Oct 2017
Use Azure availability sets for patching to achieve the best uptime
Ops' responsibility doesn't end once in a public cloud; in fact, it can get more confounding. Learn the best route to update Azure cloud instances and what mistakes to avoid. Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Aug 2017
A deployment pipeline keeps infrastructure ducks in their rows
IT infrastructure is difficult to get right. Whether to stand up a test/dev server or deploy a new app to production, infrastructure developers turn to a deployment pipeline to build IT. Continue Reading
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Tip
22 Aug 2017
Come to grips with immutable infrastructure in production
Immutable infrastructure is a developer approach to application hosting that's made its way into the IT ops lexicon. It's time to understand the changes it brings to application support. Continue Reading
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Tip
04 Aug 2017
Chef Habitat offers a different take on configuration management
Chef Habitat's strategy focuses on the dynamic application environment instead of static servers, approaching configuration management with a new focus. Continue Reading
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Tip
18 Jul 2017
Simple steps to improve the IT incident management process
No one notices when there's a solid IT incident management response process in place, but everyone notices when there's not. Improve how you handle issues in three steps. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Jun 2017
Server OS patching doesn't have to be as painful as you fear
OS patching is like a mechanic's job -- you need different tools for different makes and models. SCCM, Satellite and Landscape provide upkeep for IT's sports cars and SUVs. Continue Reading
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Tip
09 Jun 2017
Three DevOps toolchain options refine IT automation
DevOps tools that don't interconnect form a bottleneck that teams can easily avoid -- or retroactively remedy -- if the CI/CD workflow merits the time commitment. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Apr 2017
Let's talk about IT infrastructure and emerging technologies
Work closely with hardware specialists and engineers in the data center, as emerging compute, network and storage technologies have ramifications beyond the racks. Continue Reading
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Tip
06 Mar 2017
Application support and maintenance add up to operational ALM
An application isn't fully grown when it moves from development to production -- it still needs nurturing to meet its full potential. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Feb 2017
Optimize PHP with finely tuned IT resources and settings
Application ops should address the elephant in the room -- poorly optimized PHP -- to speed load and processing times. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Nov 2016
Ways to make the application deployment process clear and flexible
The application deployment manual must be flexible, and short enough to actually follow. A process that can't change with the evolving IT system isn't of much use to anyone. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Oct 2016
Know how to handle IT incident management to avoid chaos
When an important application goes down, you'd better have the right IT incident management processes and procedures in place to fix it. Continue Reading
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Feature
23 Sep 2016
CFEngine configuration management tool up close and in-depth
CFEngine is a widely known and used configuration management tool. Learn about its primary features and functions and if and how your organization could benefit from it. Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Sep 2016
SaltStack configuration management tools and their many functions
SaltStack is a relatively new tool in the configuration management market with powerful capabilities and an active user community. Read more about this emerging product here. Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Sep 2016
What Chef configuration management can do for your IT systems
Chef configuration management tools possess a huge community of users. Learn more about product versions, capabilities, user resources and what Chef can offer an enterprise. Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Sep 2016
Select the best configuration management tools for your company
What characterizes the best configuration management tools for your company? Read about the different tools available and which ones would address your company needs the best. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Aug 2016
Script management technology adds safety to scripting's power
Script management is a necessity to maintain an IT deployment. The canny organization will choose the right tools that give power to the sys admin, while protecting against accidents. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Aug 2016
Decision criteria for choosing configuration management software
Selecting the right configuration management software is vital for your company to function well in this modern age. Learn what you need to know in order to select the best tool. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Aug 2016
Patch servers the right way without wasting time
Apply these server patching best practices to save time, reduce complexity, and build an optimal schedule and toolkit. Continue Reading
