Managing Cloud-Native Applications
The cloud-native application topic center helps IT operations and SysOps professionals manage apps that are designed to use loosely coupled cloud compute and storage rather than monolithic resources. Experts explain how to capacity plan and optimize performance for native cloud applications, including redundancy and scalability considerations.
Top Stories
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Conference Coverage
20 Apr 2023
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 2023 news coverage
Trying to keep up with the latest news out of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon? Use this comprehensive guide to stay updated and informed on both the European and North American events. Continue Reading
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News
15 Feb 2022
F5 distributed cloud security services strike a trendy chord
As talk of multi-cloud management gives way to distributed cloud, which also ties in edge computing, F5 bundles application security services to expand its appeal to enterprises. Continue Reading
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News
15 May 2018
Serverless deployment lifts enterprise DevOps velocity
Mainstream companies see mounting demand for serverless deployments for their new apps, but for existing apps, it's another story. 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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News
26 Apr 2018
Cloud Foundry users grapple with stateful cloud-native apps
Cloud Foundry shops can refactor stateless apps according to cloud-native principles, but would like to bring stateful applications on board as well. Continue Reading
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News
24 Apr 2018
CF community debates Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes integration
Cloud Foundry PaaS and Kubernetes container orchestration each appeal to DevOps shops, and users want consolidation, as the two camps continue to negotiate. 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
19 Apr 2018
Master application scalability in cloud computing alongside devs
Just because cloud scales endlessly doesn't mean every component in an application should, too. Teams throw money away and degrade app performance when ops isn't involved in design and test. Continue Reading
- 12 Apr 2018
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Tip
20 Mar 2018
Predictive IT analytics improves distributed application monitoring
Data analysis on app performance isn't an instantaneous process, but it's worth the wait given the time it will save IT admins in problem-solving in the future. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Mar 2018
Three steps to plan a self-service IT portal that actually works
There's no point to a self-service IT portal if the offerings are out of touch with how its users conduct business or the instant builds are on hold while additional capacity spins up. 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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Tip
05 Mar 2018
Integrate DevOps and containers with simple tool adjustments
Organizations with an established DevOps pipeline can migrate from VMs to containers without tossing out the entire toolstack. Focus on these steps to enable containers in production. 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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Tip
20 Feb 2018
SaaS support challenges IT ops admins to shift gears
SaaS means no more app support, right? In practice, IT ops teams enter a new realm of upgrade management and capacity planning when their user base migrates to a SaaS offering. Continue Reading
- 20 Feb 2018
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Tip
01 Feb 2018
Unikernels vs. containers: See the lightweight championship fight
The drive to minimize app hosting resources yielded unikernels and containers, the IT equivalent of a tiny house and apartment. Containing only the barest essentials, unikernels pose unique benefits and challenges. Continue Reading
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News
18 Jan 2018
Jenkins pipeline as code example demonstrates DevOps coordination
Ellucian, which makes software for colleges and universities, offers a pipeline as code example that unifies the release process for multiple generations of apps and brings IT security into the DevOps fold. Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Jan 2018
IT ops pros predict routes to DevOps efficiency in 2018
Operations admins have a lot on their plates already, and they'll pile on more in 2018. These IT pros and analysts share what's coming and how to handle it. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 Dec 2017
Know when to implement serverless vs. containers
Containers save resources and reduce deploy times. So does serverless. Containers are a great host for microservices. So is serverless. But the deployment options are more different than they are alike. Continue Reading
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E-Zine
19 Oct 2017
The future of cloud computing looks foggy
The concept of cloud, while never sharply defined, may be growing even less clear. The intenet of things, for example, means more connected devices are showing up in more places, an unstoppable trend that will affect the future of cloud computing.
These edge devices and related functions further blur lines between what's cloud and what isn't. To be sure, there's a good reason these initiatives are often talked about as fog computing.
TechTarget contributor Alan Earls explores all this in the cover story of this issue of Modern Infrastructure. He speaks with experts and IT professionals about how edge and fog computing make a difference in how business is conducted. The ability to meaningfully process data as close as possible to the source is potentially powerful for certain types of organizations, though not an easy task to execute. Having both data and the capability to process it so widely distributed -- rather than collected and centralized -- is a shift in thinking. It's also an acknowledgement that the future of cloud computing is headed in some unexpected directions. IT infrastructures will need to adapt.
The cloud will be a key component in this evolution, a fact that may further stretch our understanding of what -- and where -- cloud computing is.
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Tip
19 Sep 2017
Configuration management processes take down GRC challenges
Configuration management processes speed deployments, but tools that know effective licenses and data storage details aid in another area that businesses are keen to get right. Continue Reading
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Opinion
20 Jul 2017
A serverless architecture could live in your data center
Just because you don't see the server doesn't mean it's not there. Serverless frameworks are superseding containers, but is the extra abstraction worth it? Continue Reading
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Opinion
15 Jun 2017
Machine learning algorithms make life easier -- until they don't
Algorithms govern many facets of our lives. But imperfect logic and data sets can make results worse instead of better, so it behooves all of us to think like data scientists. Continue Reading
- 12 Jun 2017
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Feature
18 May 2017
Deploy patches safely and sanely in a CI/CD workflow
Enterprises engaged in a CI/CD workflow must patch systems and apps strategically. There are multiple technologies to consider, including immutable infrastructure and automation. Continue Reading
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E-Zine
21 Apr 2017
When the big cloud infrastructure providers aren't the right fit
When a business chooses one of the major providers for its cloud services, there shouldn't be a lot of surprises. You do your homework, consider the available services, select instance types, compare costs and then make a decision. At that point, you should know what you are getting. But what if you don't want what you're getting?
There are scenarios where a business seeks out the services of one of the specialty cloud infrastructure providers. These niche providers compete against behemoths such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, but not by trying to match them service for service. Nor can they keep pace on price. Instead, these smaller providers focus on particular niches, trying to offer specialized services, customer care and flexibility that the hyperscale providers may struggle to furnish.
The cover story for this issue of Modern Infrastructure delves into the reasons a business might choose a niche player instead of one of the major cloud infrastructure providers. TechTarget's Kristin Knapp reports on how these situations arise and how businesses respond. The right fit, she finds, might not always be found in one of the expected places.
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E-Zine
17 Mar 2017
Staring down the security issues in cloud computing
Adoption of cloud computing has no doubt been slowed by worries about the security of those out-of-sight servers and resources. While reasonable, those worries have given way over time to acceptance and even optimism.
In this month's Modern Infrastructure cover story, TechTarget’s Trevor Jones writes about why security issues in cloud computing are not the impediment to adoption that they once were. In fact, some organizations are coming to the conclusion that their workloads run more securely in a public cloud than in an on-premises environment. Cloud service providers possess security expertise and experience at levels that aren’t as readily available on a typical IT staff, and certifications give confidence that providers can actually do all they claim to do.
The public cloud is not a risky place to do business, though its safeguards are different from those you've put in place to protect your own data center. These differences are most clearly seen when looking at the shared-responsibility model, which addresses many of the security issues in cloud computing. Users and providers must each do their part. Otherwise, the risks will become apparent, and cloud computing won't be what you need it to be.
This issue also looks at how a new wave of products in development brings memory and storage technologies closer together. Nonvolatile dual-inline memory modules, for example, combine the speed of memory with the persistent qualities of storage in some interesting ways. Also included is an article on how some IT shops that have adopted flash storage are simultaneously impressed and disappointed with the results. Costly flash products invariably improve performance, but they won't solve every problem or clear every bottleneck.
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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
23 Aug 2016
How application scalability works in event-driven vs. IaaS computing
Event-driven computing saves IT admins' time and helps application scalability, compared to managing traditional cloud infrastructure. But IaaS and event-driven computing aren't exclusive. Continue Reading
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Answer
05 Aug 2016
How is runtime as a service different from PaaS or IaaS?
What is runtime as a service and how does it differ from platform as a service and infrastructure as a service? Continue Reading
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E-Zine
16 Jun 2016
OpenStack infrastructure turns to containers
OpenStack is far from perfect. In fact, there are a number of hurdles it needs to clear before widespread adoption in the enterprise becomes a reality. However, a recent technology trend might just be what the OpenStack infrastructure needs, and it's one that many originally thought would be OpenStack's death sentence -- containers.
A recent study from OpenStack's user survey showed that containers generated the most interest among the community, a sign that IT is ready to take the leap from virtualization to containers. OpenStack leaders say containers are the central piece to the underlying cloud framework that OpenStack lives on.
Meanwhile, data analytics continues to drive the next wave of IT ops tools by combining input from various platforms to create predictive information for the enterprise. So where does IT go from here? Read on to find out.
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Tip
10 Jul 2014
Component cloud model powers agile application development
In the future, IT pros see cloud as a place to spin up applications to respond to problems on the fly. The component cloud model is just step one. Continue Reading