
By Dalibor Siroky | Article Rating: |
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January 4, 2018 09:45 AM EST | Reads: |
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How often is an environment unavailable due to factors within your project's control? How often is an environment unavailable due to external factors? Is the software and hardware in the environment up to date with the target production systems? How often do you have to resort to manual workarounds due to an environment?
These are all questions that you should ask yourself if testing environments are consistently unavailable and affected by outages. Here are three key metrics that you can track that can help avoid costly downtime.
Metric: Availability and Uptime Percentage
QA and staging environments seldom require the same level of uptime as production, but tell that to a team of developers working 24/7 on a project that has an aggressive deadline and you will have a very unhappy team. As a test environment manager, you know that when a QA system is unavailable, you get immediate calls from developers and managers.
Understanding why an outage happened is critical for communicating with a development team. If you follow a problem management process for production outages, similar to the process throughout the rest of your IT environment, then you should also follow this process with test environment management. Very often a QA environment will become unavailable due to a factor outside the control of a test environment manager. If one team pushes bad code that interrupts the QA process for all teams you need to be able to identify this clearly.
How to measure availability and uptime?
To truly understand availability and uptime, you must keep track of system availability with a standard monitoring tool such as Zabbix or Nagios. If your systems are visible to the public internet, you can also use hosted platforms like Pingdom to measure system availability.
An uptime of 95% is usually sufficient for a QA or staging environment. If your development is limited to a few time zones, you can also further qualify this by only measuring availability during development hours. While production availability commitment is often closer to 99% or 99.5%, you don't have to treat every QA outage as an emergency. But, be aware that developers may have other opinions-95% uptime still allows for eight hours of downtime a week, so it may be best to aim higher.
How does this metric motivate concrete action?
When you measure system availability and make these numbers public, you encourage test environment managers to make a commitment to uptime. This results in fewer obstacles for QA and development, allowing them to deliver software faster. There's nothing more debilitating to an organization than disruptions in QA and testing. Keeping a close eye on availability and tracking as a metric also encourages movement towards always-available QA systems.
Metric: Mean Time Between Outages
If a system has a 95% availability, then almost 75 minutes of downtime is acceptable every day. If the system fails for ten minutes every hour during an eight-hour work day due to a build or deployment, you'll be creating a QA or staging environment that has a 5% chance of losing developer and QA confidence. To get an accurate picture of system availability you need to couple an availability percentage metric with the mean time between outages (MTBO).
How to Measure MTBO?
If you follow a process that keeps track of outages and strives to understand the root causes of these outages, you'll amass a database of issues that can be used to derive the MTBO. With a monitoring system configured to calculate availability percentages automatically, you can use this same system to record your MTBO.
Example Metric: Goal for MTBO
A goal for MTBO, depends greatly on your availability goal. The lower your availability goal, the higher your MTBO should be. For example, if you have a 95% uptime commitment then your outages need to be spaced over a day or a week. You might have eight hours of downtime each weekend to perform system upgrades or a nightly build and deploy process that takes about an hour, but what you can't have is an MTBO of 45-60 minutes. This will mean that QA and staging systems will be unavailable for a few minutes every hour, which will result in dissatisfied customers.
How does this metric motivate concrete action?
If your MBTO is very short, this suggests that build and deploy activity from a continuous integration environment is frequently interrupting both development and QA. If your MBTO is very high, but your availability is very low (95% or lower) this means that you are experiencing multi-hour downtime at least once a day.
When measuring MBTO, encourage your release engineers and test environment managers to work together to create build and deployment scripts that don't affect availability, and encourage staff to approach QA and staging uptime with care. Without this metric, you run the risk of having teams grow complacent with frequent, low-level unavailability as long as they satisfy overall availability metrics.
Metric: Downtime requirement for a test environment build and deploy
When software is deployed to any system, there is a natural tendency for disruption. If new code is being deployed to an application server, that server often requires a restart so that new code can be loaded. If a web server, such as Apache or Nginx, is being reconfigured this often requires a fast restart measured in seconds.
Some of these build and deploy related disruptions can be avoided through the use of load balancers and clusters of machines. On the largest projects, this is essential in both production as well as staging and QA systems.
An example is a QA system for a large bank's transaction processing system. There are so many teams that depend on this system to be up and running 24/7 that causing any disruption would run the risk of freezing the QA process across the entire company.
Other build and deploy downtimes are unavoidable. A frequent example is when there are changes to a database schema. Certain changes to tables and indexes require systems to be stopped and rebooted to reach a state where database activity isn't competing with DDL statements.
The downtime requirement for a given build and deploy to a test environment is a central measure that is directly related to the availability metrics already discussed.
How to Measure Build/Deploy Downtime?
It's simple: run a build and deployment and keep track of the downtime that falls into the timespan of each build and deploy function. If you have a continuous integration system, such as Jenkins or Bamboo, grab the timestamps of the last few builds and look at your monitoring metrics on QA and staging to see if there is a system impact.
Example Metric: Goal for Build/Deploy Downtime
Your goal for this metric depends on your level of availability. If you are working on a shared service, build and deploy downtime requirements should be as close to zero as possible. If you are working on a less critical application, then build and deploy downtime should be measured in minutes or seconds.
How does this Metric Motivate Concrete Action?
This metric encourages release engineers and test environment managers to drive build and deploy downtime to zero. With the tools available to developers and DevOps professionals, it is possible to achieve zero-downtime deployments to QA and staging systems. Doing this will give internal customers more confidence in the systems you are delivering.
CloudExpo | DXWorldEXPO have announced the conference tracks for Cloud Expo 2018, introducing DXWorldEXPO.
DXWordEXPO, colocated with Cloud Expo will be held June 5-7, 2018, at the Javits Center in New York City, and November 6-8, 2018, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA.
Digital Transformation (DX) is a major focus with the introduction of DXWorld Expo within the program. Successful transformation requires a laser focus on being data-driven and on using all the tools available that enable transformation if they plan to survive over the long term.
A total of 88% of Fortune 500 companies from a generation ago are now out of business. Only 12% still survive. Similar percentages are found throughout enterprises of all sizes.
Cloud Expo | DXWorldEXPO 2018 New York
(June 5-7, 2018, Javits Center, Manhattan)
Cloud Expo | DXWorldEXPO 2018 Silicon Valley
(November 6-8, 2018, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA)
Full Conference Registration "Gold Pass" and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here (Register ▸ Here via EventBrite)
DX World EXPO, LLC., a Lighthouse Point, Florida-based startup trade show producer and the creator of DXWorldEXPO® - Digital Transformation Conference & Expo has announced its conference agenda, with three major themes:
* Technology - The Revolution Continues
* Economy - The 21st Century Emerges
* Society - The Big Issues
"DX encompasses the continuing technology revolution, and is addressing society's most important issues throughout the entire $78 trillion 21st-century global economy," said Roger Strukhoff, Conference Chair. "DXWorldExpo has organized these issues along 10 tracks with more than 500 of the world's top speakers coming to Istanbul to help change the world."
There are 10 tracks running throughout the event and following the major themes. More than 500 breakout sessions will be featured, along with keynotes and general sessions from some of the world's top technology, business, and societal leaders. The event will be held over five days in Istanbul, reflecting the global nature of Digital Transformation and the city's long and historic role as a key business and intellectual center and linchpin between East and West.
Full Conference Registration "Gold Pass" and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here (Register ▸ Here via EventBrite)
DX World Expo's Global Themes and Tracks are as follows:
Technology - The Revolution Continues
DX Tech: Data-Driven Global 2000
DX Tech: The Blockchain Challenge
DX Tech: AI and Cognitive
DX Tech: The Global Cloud
Economy - The 21st Century Emerges
DX Econ: Software is Rewriting the World
DX Econ: Smart Cities, Nations, and Regions
DX Econ: FinTech and the Token Economy
DX Econ: The Industrial Internet and Industrie 4.0
Society - The Big Issues
DX Society: Environment
DX Society: Education
DX Society: Agriculture
DX Society: Health Care
Call for Papers -speaking opportunities- as well as sponsorship and exhibit opportunities will open on November 1, 2017.
World's Most Important Tech Event
DXWorldEXPO® will be the world's most important tech event with 1,000 exhibitors in its first year and 2,000 exhibitors in its second year, as it guides Global 2000 companies through their Digital Transformation journey for the next two decades. The global event is set to launch September 17-20, 2018 in Istanbul. It will be sponsored by Fortune 50 companies, and more than 30 international banks will be among sponsors of its FinTech/InsurTech track.
Gaining a better understanding of customers and acting upon this information is the foundation of Digital Transformation (DX) in the enterprise. Applying the latest technologies in this area is the key to driving new topline revenue opportunities.
Global 2000 companies have more than US$40 trillion in annual revenue - more than 50% of the world's entire GDP. The Global 2000 spends a total of US$2.4 trillion annually on enterprise IT. The average Global 2000 company has US$11 billion in annual revenue. The average Global 2000 company spends more than $600 million annually on enterprise IT.
Governments throughout the world spend another US$500 billion on IT - much of it dedicated to new Smart City initiatives. There are more than a dozen Global 2000 companies in Turkey, including Isbank, Garanti Bank, other financial institutions, Turk Telecom, Turkcell, Turkish Airlines, and ENKA.
Cloud Expo | DXWorldEXPO 2018 New York
(June 5-7, 2018, Javits Center, Manhattan)
Cloud Expo | DXWorldEXPO 2018 Silicon Valley
(November 6-8, 2018, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA)
Full Conference Registration "Gold Pass" and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here (Register ▸ Here via EventBrite)
More Management Quotes
"For the past 10 years at Cloud Expo, we've helped drive the migration to modern enterprise IT infrastructures, built upon the foundation of cloud computing. Today's hybrid, multiple cloud IT infrastructures integrate Big Data, analytics, blockchain, the IoT, mobile devices, and the latest in cryptography and enterprise-grade security," said Fuat Kircaali, Chairman and founder of DX World Expo, LLC.
"As a report from the World Economic Forum and Accenture recently stated, 'Companies need to fundamentally change the way they identify, develop and launch new business ventures.' We agree," said Carmen Gonzalez, president of DX World Expo, LLC.
"Digital Transformation is the key issue driving the global enterprise IT business," said Roger Strukhoff, Conference Chair and Executive Director of the Tau Institute for Global ICT Studies. "DX is most prominent among Global 2000 enterprises and government institutions. Our new event in Istanbul brings together the top companies and delegates from around the world, who are transforming the world."
2018 Conference Agenda and Tracks, June 5-7, Javits Center
Track 1 | Cloud Expo - Enterprise Cloud
Track 2 | DXWorld Expo - Digital Transformation (DX)
Track 3 | The API Enterprise | Mobility & Security
Track 4 | DevOps | Containers & Microservices
Track 5 | Cognitive Computing | AI, ML, DL
Track 6 | Big Data | Analytics
Track 7 | IoT | IIoT | Smart Cities
Track 8 | Hot Topics | FinTech | WebRTC
Cloud Expo covers all of these tools, with the most comprehensive program and more than 120 top world-class speakers throughout our Industry presenting Keynotes, General Sessions, Breakout Sessions along eight focused tracks, as well as our signature Power Panels. Our expo floor brings together the world's leading companies throughout the world of Cloud Computing, DX, and all they entail.
As your enterprise creates a vision and strategy that enables you to create your own unique, long-term success, learning about all the technologies involved is essential. Companies today not only form multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures, but create them with built-in cognitive capabilities. Cloud-native thinking is now the norm in financial services, manufacturing, telco, healthcare, transportation, energy, media, entertainment, retail and other consumer industries, as well as the public sector.
Cloud Expo is the world's most important, independent event where technology buyers and vendors meet to experience and discuss the big picture of Digital Tranformation and all of the strategies, tactics, and tools they need to realize their goals.
Full Conference Registration "Gold Pass" and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here (Register ▸ Here via EventBrite)
Only Cloud Expo brings together all this in a single location:
- Cloud Computing
- Big Data & Analytics
- Software-Defined Infrastructure
- Industrial IoT
- Industry 4.0
- Artificial Intelligence
- Cognitive Computing
- Microservices
- Machine Learning
- DevOps
- WebRTC
- FinTech
- Digital Transformation
Attend Cloud Expo. Build your own custom experience. Learn about the world's latest technologies and chart your course to Digital Transformation.
21st International Cloud Expo, taking place October 31 - November 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world.
Download Show Prospectus ▸ Here
Full Conference Registration "Gold Pass" and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here (Register ▸ Here via EventBrite)
Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday's debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy. Meanwhile, 94% of enterprises are using some form of XaaS - software, platform, and infrastructure as a service.
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend 21st Cloud Expo, October 31 - November 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, CA, and June 12-14, 2018, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation.
2018 Conference Agenda and Tracks, June 5-7, Javits Center
Track 1 | Cloud Expo - Enterprise Cloud
Track 2 | DXWorld Expo - Digital Transformation (DX)
Track 3 | The API Enterprise | Mobility & Security
Track 4 | DevOps | Containers & Microservices
Track 5 | Cognitive Computing | AI, ML, DL
Track 6 | Big Data | Analytics
Track 7 | IoT | IIoT | Smart Cities
Track 8 | Hot Topics | FinTech | WebRTC
Cloud Expo | DXWorldEXPO 2018 New York
(June 5-7, 2018, Javits Center, Manhattan)
Cloud Expo | DXWorldEXPO 2018 Silicon Valley
(November 6-8, 2018, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA)
Full Conference Registration "Gold Pass" and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here (Register ▸ Here via EventBrite)
Download Show Prospectus ▸ Here
Every Global 2000 enterprise in the world is now integrating cloud computing in some form into its IT development and operations. Midsize and small businesses are also migrating to the cloud in increasing numbers.
Companies are each developing their unique mix of cloud technologies and services, forming multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures and deployments across all major industries. Cloud-driven thinking has become the norm in financial services, manufacturing, telco, healthcare, transportation, energy, media, entertainment, retail and other consumer industries, and the public sector.
Cloud Expo is the single show where technology buyers and vendors can meet to experience and discus cloud computing and all that it entails. Sponsors of Cloud Expo will benefit from unmatched branding, profile building and lead generation opportunities through:
- Featured on-site presentation and ongoing on-demand webcast exposure to a captive audience of industry decision-makers.
- Showcase exhibition during our new extended dedicated expo hours
- Breakout Session Priority scheduling for Sponsors that have been guaranteed a 35-minute technical session
- Online advertising in SYS-CON's i-Technology Publications
- Capitalize on our Comprehensive Marketing efforts leading up to the show with print mailings, e-newsletters and extensive online media coverage.
- Unprecedented PR Coverage: Editorial Coverage on Cloud Computing Journal.
- Tweetup to over 75,000 plus followers
- Press releases sent on major wire services to over 500 industry analysts.
For more information on sponsorship, exhibit, and keynote opportunities, contact Carmen Gonzalez by email at events (at) sys-con.com, or by phone 201 802-3021.
The World's Largest "Cloud Digital Transformation" Event
@CloudExpo | @ThingsExpo 2017 Silicon Valley
(Oct. 31 - Nov. 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA)
@CloudExpo | @ThingsExpo 2018 New York
(June 12-14, 2018, Javits Center, Manhattan)
Full Conference Registration "Gold Pass" and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here (Register ▸ Here via EventBrite)
Sponsorship Opportunities
Sponsors of Cloud Expo | @ThingsExpo will benefit from unmatched branding, profile building and lead generation opportunities through:
- Featured on-site presentation and ongoing on-demand webcast exposure to a captive audience of industry decision-makers
- Showcase exhibition during our new extended dedicated expo hours
- Breakout Session Priority scheduling for Sponsors that have been guaranteed a 35 minute technical session
- Online targeted advertising in SYS-CON's i-Technology Publications
- Capitalize on our Comprehensive Marketing efforts leading up to the show with print mailings, e-newsletters and extensive online media coverage
- Unprecedented Marketing Coverage: Editorial Coverage on ITweetup to over 100,000 plus followers, press releases sent on major wire services to over 500 industry analysts
For more information on sponsorship, exhibit, and keynote opportunities, contact Carmen Gonzalez (@GonzalezCarmen) today by email at events (at) sys-con.com, or by phone 201 802-3021.
Secrets of Sponsors and Exhibitors ▸ Here
Secrets of Cloud Expo Speakers ▸ Here
All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020. This number will continue to grow at a rapid pace for the next several decades.
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @CloudExpo | @ThingsExpo, October 31 - November 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, CA, and June 12-4, 2018, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation.
Delegates to Cloud Expo | @ThingsExpo will be able to attend 8 simultaneous, information-packed education tracks.
There are over 120 breakout sessions in all, with Keynotes, General Sessions, and Power Panels adding to three days of incredibly rich presentations and content.
Join Cloud Expo | @ThingsExpo conference chair Roger Strukhoff (@IoT2040), October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA, and June 12-14, 2018, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, for three days of intense Enterprise Cloud and 'Digital Transformation' discussion and focus, including Big Data's indispensable role in IoT, Smart Grids and (IIoT) Industrial Internet of Things, Wearables and Consumer IoT, as well as (new) Digital Transformation in Vertical Markets.
Full Conference Registration "Gold Pass" and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here (Register ▸ Here via EventBrite)
Financial Technology - or FinTech - Is Now Part of the @CloudExpo Program!
Accordingly, attendees at the upcoming 21st Cloud Expo | @ThingsExpo October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA, and June 12-14, 2018, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will find fresh new content in a new track called FinTech, which will incorporate machine learning, artificial intelligence, deep learning, and blockchain into one track.
Financial enterprises in New York City, London, Singapore, and other world financial capitals are embracing a new generation of smart, automated FinTech that eliminates many cumbersome, slow, and expensive intermediate processes from their businesses.
FinTech brings efficiency as well as the ability to deliver new services and a much improved customer experience throughout the global financial services industry. FinTech is a natural fit with cloud computing, as new services are quickly developed, deployed, and scaled on public, private, and hybrid clouds.
More than US$20 billion in venture capital is being invested in FinTech this year. @CloudExpo is pleased to bring you the latest FinTech developments as an integral part of our program, starting at the 21st International Cloud Expo October 31 - November 2, 2017 in Silicon Valley, and June 12-14, 2018, in New York City.
@CloudExpo is accepting submissions for this new track, so please visit www.CloudComputingExpo.com for the latest information.
Speaking Opportunities
The upcoming 21st International @CloudExpo | @ThingsExpo, October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA, and June 12-14, 2018, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY announces that its Call For Papers for speaking opportunities is open.
Submit your speaking proposal today! ▸ Here
About @CloudEXPO and @DXWorldEXPO
SYS-CON Media (www.sys-con.com) has since 1994 been connecting technology companies and customers through a comprehensive content stream - featuring over forty focused subject areas, from Cloud Computing to Web Security - interwoven with market-leading full-scale conferences. The company's internationally recognized brands include among others Cloud Expo® (@CloudExpo), Big Data Expo® (@BigDataExpo), DevOps Summit (@DevOpsSummit), @ThingsExpo® (@ThingsExpo), and DXWorldEXPO® (@ExpoDX).
@CloudExpo® and @ThingsExpo® are registered trademarks of CLOUD EXPO INC.
DXWorldEXPO® is a registered trademark of DX WORLD EXPO LLC.
Published January 4, 2018 Reads 745
Copyright © 2018 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
More Stories By Dalibor Siroky
Dalibor Siroky, CEO and Co-Founder, Plutora: Dalibor has close to 15 years of leadership, consulting, enterprise product, and operations experience in Australia, Asia, and Europe. Before co-founding Plutora, Dalibor was the founder and managing director of Finotaur, a leading provider of independent management consulting services to Wealth Management, Investment Management, Private Banking, and Payment institutions within the Asia Pacific region. Earlier in his career, Dalibor served as the CIO of financial advisory software at Macquarie Bank, head of solution architecture at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and as a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Dalibor holds an MS in Software Engineering with distinction from the University of Oxford and an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago. Dalibor is also a graduate of the Royal Military College of Australia and served as a Captain in the Army.
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