DevOps.com

  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Features
    • Most Read
    • News
    • News Releases
  • Topics
    • AI
    • Continuous Delivery
    • Continuous Testing
    • Cloud
    • Culture
    • DevSecOps
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • Leadership Suite
    • DevOps Practice
    • ROELBOB
    • DevOps Toolbox
    • IT as Code
  • Videos/Podcasts
    • DevOps Chats
    • DevOps Unbound
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming
    • On-Demand Webinars
  • Library
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • On-Demand Events
  • Sponsored Communities
    • AWS Community Hub
    • CloudBees
    • IT as Code
    • Rocket on DevOps.com
    • Traceable on DevOps.com
    • Quali on DevOps.com
  • Related Sites
    • Techstrong Group
    • Container Journal
    • Security Boulevard
    • Techstrong Research
    • DevOps Chat
    • DevOps Dozen
    • DevOps TV
    • Digital Anarchist
  • Media Kit
  • About
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Continuous Testing
  • DevSecOps
  • Leadership Suite
  • Practices
  • ROELBOB
  • Low-Code/No-Code
  • IT as Code
  • More Topics
    • Application Performance Management/Monitoring
    • Culture
    • Enterprise DevOps

Home » Blogs » Automation is Needed for Reliable Cloud Platforms

automation microservices cloud

Automation is Needed for Reliable Cloud Platforms

By: Mike Tria on May 24, 2021 Leave a Comment

From six to 1,400 microservices in less than five years? At first glance, that sounds like overwhelming complexity. Can you actually see the entire system across all of the microservices? This is the key to highly available and reliable SaaS cloud platforms. But what does this mean, and how can SaaS providers achieve it?

Over the past decade, the cloud has become the virtual space where the majority of companies’ business processes and communications take place. Considering the accelerated digitization processes of the last year alone, cloud computing plays an increasingly crucial role when it comes to making distributed teams more productive. As a result of these developments, the number of applications, microservices and interfaces is increasing, creating a more complex IT infrastructure.

DevOps/Cloud-Native Live! Boston

The reliability and availability of cloud services must, therefore, be a high priority for providers. Weak services and downtime not only cause frustration among customers, but can also lead to considerable financial losses on the customer side. Accordingly, SaaS providers must establish processes and methods that help them provide secure and highly reliable cloud infrastructures, or risk losing their customers.

Microservices as the Foundation for Reliability

Complexity is implied with every SaaS cloud platform. This can be managed in two different ways. On one hand, management can be done via a centralized monolith. Through this, complexity arises from a single system with only one interface to external systems. On the other hand, complexity can be distributed via smaller system units in the form of microservices. This means that the various functions of an application or service are broken up and assigned to several individual instances that communicate with each other. The advantage of this is that if a microservice fails, the entire application is not necessarily affected.

Microservices in cloud environments have been enjoying steadily growing popularity for some time now. In fact, 76% of the companies surveyed as part of a 2019 Forrester study stated that microservices will be high on the business agenda for many companies in the future. Only 4% disagreed with this statement at the time. In 2020, a TechRepublic survey found that the majority of experts surveyed (73%) have already integrated microservices into their application processes, and 66% of respondents use them in the form of cloud services. Microservices are everywhere!

Service Level Objectives and Automation

Due to the numerous interfaces that arise with microservices and the need to be monitored, this architecture appears, at first glance, to be more error-prone than traditional monolithic systems. Some companies already rely on service level objectives (SLOs) – i.e., targets and measurable KPIs to ensure service quality – for a higher level of security. However, these are often limited to the outer layer of the entire system.

Formulating appropriate SLOs for each microservice with additional alerts can counteract this. In combination, these provide profound protection of the system against creeping errors.

In order to maintain an accurate overview with regard to security and security-related incidents, and thus ensure the reliability of the system, the microservices and their respective SLOs must be closely monitored and continuously tested. When we surveyed software and IT professionals back in 2019, we found that 71% of respondents reported that microservices-based architectures are much easier to test than monoliths. And with the help of automation, operational teams can ensure that the overall reliability level is close to 100% in every single instance of the systems, no matter how complex. A separate, centralized automation tool monitors all microservices in use and is able to alert appropriate teams about any abnormal activity with respect to individual breached SLOs. In addition, this tool should be linked to an incident management platform so that any breach can be remediated directly. By following this framework, software developers will enjoy the benefits of a more manageable and scalable microservices system.

We live in a time when consumers expect technology to be updated regularly and run reliably. If this is not the case, they will simply opt for better alternatives. To prevent this, companies need to invest in more effective service structures. Microservices, combined with a central platform that automates testing and management, is the foundation for achieving reliability and scalability.

Related Posts
  • Automation is Needed for Reliable Cloud Platforms
  • Using Event-Driven Architecture With Microservices
  • IBM Acquires Instana to Advance Observability Strategy
    Related Categories
  • AI
  • Application Performance Management/Monitoring
  • Blogs
  • Continuous Testing
  • DevOps in the Cloud
    Related Topics
  • automation
  • cloud
  • microservices
  • SLOs
Show more
Show less

Filed Under: AI, Application Performance Management/Monitoring, Blogs, Continuous Testing, DevOps in the Cloud Tagged With: automation, cloud, microservices, SLOs

Sponsored Content
Featured eBook
The Automated Enterprise

The Automated Enterprise

“The Automated Enterprise” e-book shows the important role IT automation plays in business today. Optimize resources and speed development with Red Hat® management solutions, powered by Red Hat Ansible® Automation. IT automation helps your business better serve your customers, so you can be successful as you: Optimize resources by automating ... Read More
« The Importance of NetSecOps in Network Management
Imperva Launches New Product to Secure Serverless Functions with Visibility into the Application Layer and Code-Level Vulnerabilities »

TechStrong TV – Live

Click full-screen to enable volume control
Watch latest episodes and shows

Upcoming Webinars

Accelerating Continuous Security With Value Stream Management
Monday, May 23, 2022 - 11:00 am EDT
The Complete Guide to Open Source Licenses 2022
Monday, May 23, 2022 - 3:00 pm EDT
Building a Successful Open Source Program Office
Tuesday, May 24, 2022 - 11:00 am EDT

Latest from DevOps.com

DevOps Institute Releases Upskilling IT 2022 Report 
May 18, 2022 | Natan Solomon
Creating Automated GitHub Bots in Go
May 18, 2022 | Sebastian Spaink
Is Your Future in SaaS? Yes, Except …
May 18, 2022 | Don Macvittie
Apple Allows 50% Fee Rise | @ElonMusk Fans: 70% Fake | Microsoft Salaries up by 100%?
May 17, 2022 | Richi Jennings
Making DevOps Smoother
May 17, 2022 | Gaurav Belani

Get The Top Stories of the Week

  • View DevOps.com Privacy Policy
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Download Free eBook

Hybrid Cloud Security 101
New call-to-action

Most Read on DevOps.com

Top 3 Requirements for Next-Gen ML Tools
May 13, 2022 | Jervis Hui
15 Ways Software Becomes a Cyberthreat
May 13, 2022 | Anas Baig
Why Over-Permissive CI/CD Pipelines are an Unnecessary Evil
May 16, 2022 | Vladi Sandler
Apple Allows 50% Fee Rise | @ElonMusk Fans: 70% Fake | Micro...
May 17, 2022 | Richi Jennings
Making DevOps Smoother
May 17, 2022 | Gaurav Belani

On-Demand Webinars

DevOps.com Webinar ReplaysDevOps.com Webinar Replays
  • Home
  • About DevOps.com
  • Meet our Authors
  • Write for DevOps.com
  • Media Kit
  • Sponsor Info
  • Copyright
  • TOS
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Techstrong Group, Inc.

© 2022 ·Techstrong Group, Inc.All rights reserved.