Because of the shift to continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) and agile development methodologies, application development now necessitates collaboration between network IT operation teams (NetOps) and security operation teams (SecOps), putting additional strain on developers and engineers.
When you factor in heterogeneous computing environments, it's no surprise that the role of application delivery services and security within DevOps has never been more critical. It is vital to choose an application delivery system that maximizes automation and connects with your existing DevOps environment.
Here are the top reasons why application delivery services are essential for DevOps support.
Automation that is ready for production
To deploy new application services and their associated policies, CI/CD and agile development approaches necessitate the participation of IT specialists from several domains (for example, application, storage, network security, and application delivery). Traditionally, they've had to spend in time-consuming provisioning and programming operations that are frequently repetitive and require subject expertise to do.
This is no longer conceivable in a DevOps-driven environment. Workflow automation is required in IT so that even nontechnical specialists can construct and design application delivery and security workflows. According to our study, more than half of enterprises (53%) do not incorporate application protection into their CI/CD procedures.
This is why IT operations must evolve from simple scripts to standard-based, production-ready modules. What is the goal? Allow anyone from the aforementioned teams to deploy and manage services, regardless of domain expertise.
ADC Automation and Security
The application delivery services and security solution markets are as diverse as their capabilities. It is crucial to choose one that connects with your application provisioning and deployment tool, such as Ansible, to enable end-to-end automation.
Deploying a new application delivery service has traditionally entailed building and managing a massive script to automate the procedure. Each application deployment necessitates a distinct methodology and, as a result, a different script. To accelerate development and deployment, DevOps demands these monolithic scripts to be broken down into discrete operations.
This rule applies to the underlying application delivery and security services that underpin these apps. To enable non-technical users to spin up and deploy application and security services, an enterprise-grade ADC should provide pre-defined/production-ready modules as well as interface with DevOp orchestration tools.
Traditionally, if an error occurs, the code must be reviewed and tested. Errors become more visible and separated in a module-based environment. If only the application security policy is faulty, for example, the problem can be recognized and changed, and only the security policy can be rerun, rather than the complete script-based procedure.
Reuse & Repurpose
Production-ready modules allow for reuse and repurposing. If a particular module, such as the aforementioned application security module, has to be updated, SecOps can do so, build a subversion if necessary, and apply it to other application operations. Changes are limited to a single module and have no effect on other areas of the workflow.
Finally, rather than an ADC expert, an application owner can make changes to the application security module or other modules. While application servers and security policies may be the responsibility of the application owner, VLAN operations may be the responsibility of a network administrator. Now, a single individual may handle these formerly different roles, saving time to market.
This modularized approach also allows for seamless transitions from staging to production and back. Changes to workflow parameters made in staging can be pushed to production after staging. These features help CI/CD operations by lowering downtime and minimizing human errors.
Capabilities of an Enterprise-Grade ADC
Finally, any application delivery solution must combine user-friendliness with complex application delivery features, such as optimizing Layer 7 load balancing and establishing and managing application security policies. This adds to the capabilities of any DevOps orchestration tool.
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