At this stage, the automation of cloud computing infrastructure has become a “necessary measure” for enterprises. The rapid automation process is driven by the proliferation of effective and useful IT/cloud automation tools in the market. However, there are many challenges when choosing a tool, such as a lack of powerful computing power, inconsistent data monitoring, network issues, and troubleshooting.
Since multiple aspects of the infrastructure need to be managed alongside these key pain points, no one tool can do it all. A lack of the right tools will increase downtime and impact business operations. According to PagerDuty’s digital operations survey report, 40.4% of respondents said that the sales department has been greatly affected in terms of losses caused by IT problems, which will directly affect the company’s profits.
Many companies see the use of infrastructure automation technology before container technology as a temporary response. Standardization and automation are not new concepts in the IT industry, but infrastructure automation is a hotkey technology today as containers, orchestration, and other modern technologies expand the capabilities to automate infrastructure.
The enterprise’s standard operating environment (SOE) and configuration management tools can automate the configuration of the operating environment and monitoring. However, in order to complete a specific task, many servers are still required, even with configuration management software. Deployed container images still move over time in an attempt to stay compliant.
Note that in the long-term quest for effective infrastructure automation, “containerization” and “orchestration” have breathed new life into the process.
Containers and Orchestration
The cloud-native ecosystem is already huge and still growing. In this context, there are two main aspects of infrastructure automation that deserve attention, and that are containers and Kubernetes.
When running multiple containers or multiple orchestration options, using Kubernetes as the default is a good choice, as Kubernetes has become the clear “leader” for container orchestration, which is an essential part of modern infrastructure automation.
Immutable infrastructure
Cloud-centric technologies pave the way for infrastructure, meaning that once the infrastructure is deployed, it is not subject to changes in production, but is replaced with new versions as needed. Using tools like Kubernetes, administrators can declare the desired state for their applications and infrastructure, and then the orchestration platform manages that state in a highly automated fashion.
Microservice Architecture
The essence of a microservices architecture is to decompose an application into smaller discrete components that can work together as part of a larger system. A microservices architecture allows operations teams to independently manage smaller services without having to re-enter and deploy the entire application every time they change. Microservices are a good match for containers because each service can be containerized independently. But it’s worth noting that not every application is suitable for a microservices architecture.
Don’t view infrastructure automation as a short-term project if you’re deploying a single portfolio of applications in the early stages. Instead, think of it as a single process, especially when an enterprise needs to decompose an existing application into microservices.
The journey to ‘immutable infrastructure can take a lot of time, especially for enterprises deploying applications before container-based applications proliferate and become commonplace. But despite this, It does not mean that the architecture planning and R&D team can be in a stagnant state, the R&D team will reconfigure the application so that it can run independently on the micro front-end and back-end. The enterprise’s R&D team will iteratively update the service and Make prioritization and containerization improvements until the entire application is fully transformed.
Innovative approaches to infrastructure automation depend on corresponding shifts in cloud platforms and tools. Michael Fisher sees this transition phase as an innovation process. “This process is not just about innovation in technology, it also requires an understanding of what’s containerized and familiarity with the core services and building blocks of an application.
There are many paths for containerization to evolve, especially when an enterprise refactors one or more applications into microservices. “One of the best ways to implement application refactoring is to understand where end users are most frequently visited in the user interface (UI), user experience (UX), and then move down,” Fisher said. This approach is called “Micro-frontends,” once an enterprise understands the need to implement containerization, has access to a plethora of tools that can help it scale out the infrastructure that runs services.”
Continuous Integration, Delivery, Build Pipelines, Artifacts
If your enterprise has already containerized workloads and is using a commercial Kubernetes platform, you’ll need to stop using traditional terms like servers, even though they remain technically relevant. Instead, enterprises need to consider how to build pipelines and artifacts, which are the basis for automating deployments, scaling up or down, and replacing content with “immutable infrastructure.” Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) have become key practice tools, and pipelines and artifacts are key stages in a CI/CD pipeline.
The concept of pipelines is generally seen as an effective means of automating the construction of infrastructure. Once in place, code and everything else needed to run it should flow through the pipeline at each stage (from building to testing to secure deployment), with only those designated steps or content that doesn’t meet standards being actively involved. At its core, a continuous integration/continuous delivery pipeline is the process of containerizing an application from code to the repository to production, a process that doesn’t require much manpower. Managing containerized applications and immutable infrastructure is an important method that demonstrates how containers and orchestrations can prevent the drift that can still occur in standard operating environments (SOEs).
Container images should be based on trusted, minimal containers, with repeatable, automated pipelines that use private image repositories as the build output. When enterprises need more control, the base image can also be replicated to a private registry, and access to the public registry can be blocked. The build system should also monitor for new versions of the base image in real-time, so that image configurations can be reviewed, changed, and updated in a timely manner. Key elements of continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline also include testing and validation/compliance.
“Enterprise container registries should perform scans on their known, vulnerable software, and block the upload of bad images from external sources. They should also use static analysis of image configurations and deployment manifests to detect common misconfigurations.”
Cloud-native tools
A single tool and process will not necessarily enable a business to achieve the desired results when it comes to automating infrastructure. This status quo is similar to network security, which is difficult to achieve if businesses use perimeter firewalls and endpoint antivirus software from a decade ago and do not update them.
Coincidentally, the same is true of infrastructure. Today, more and more enterprises are using hybrid cloud, which can solve both cloud-native development problems and adaptation problems of many private clouds and on-premises infrastructure workloads. And there are plenty of mature tools to help businesses manage.
“This technological revolution has led to a rethinking of the layout of infrastructure automation in enterprises, as Kubernetes has become the standard for container orchestration, and automation tools designed specifically for the ‘containerized world’ have been invented.”
In the age of cloud computing, from build to security to deployment, one project or platform depends on another, especially when it’s open source. This creates a “snowball” effect for infrastructure automation. “Many enterprises are considering using Kubernetes-native development patterns and processes to build and deploy pipelines for their projects in the continuous integration, continuous delivery space. “This includes Tekton pipelines as well as newer projects focused on deployment automation.”
