Why Automate Application Lifecycle?

One of the things we do at Zefflin is help IT organizations to automate the lifecycle of complex, N-tier applications. This means defining applications once (blueprinting), deploying and upgrading them automatically in heterogeneous hybrid cloud environments and auto-scaling up/down based upon demand.
This type of automation is being adopted widely. The reason is that it pays off in a big way.
Application automation ROI:
This type of automation is being adopted widely. The reason is that it pays off in a big way.
Application automation ROI:
- Productivity - the same group can manage many more apps in a more complex cloud-based environment
- Agility - app dev groups can respond faster to business needs or market changes, enabled by improved application portability
- Speed - by enabling continuous integration and continuous delivery, application development cycles are accelerated because the time between code --> build --> test --> QA --> migrate to production is dramatically reduced
- Cost Reduction - by utilizing a hybrid cloud model and adopting modern DevOps practices, customers can reduce both infrastructure and application development costs

Because of the maturity of tools, the cost of automation is now lower than it has ever been. In order to get the full benefits of application lifecycle automation, however, it must be fully integrated into an operational environment. IT Service Management and ITIL in particular, has been widely adopted by IT organizations. That means IT support processes are delivered in a consistent way, from the way IT interacts with its users, to responding to environment failures, to managing changes to the production environment.
Many of our customers are telling us: "We need to integrate application automation with our ITSM processes". For example, when an application deployment does not go as planned, an incident should be opened so the failure can be tracked and the right people assigned to fix the issue. When the same application is deployed successfully, it represents a change to the production environment. As a result, a change request should be opened so ITIL-compliant audit requirements are met. In addition, the Configuration Management Data Base (CMDB) should be updated, so applications can be mapped to the infrastructure on which they run.
What if all of that could be done automatically?
What if all of that could be done automatically?
Market Leading Software Tools
ServiceNow is a SaaS based IT Service Management tool that has captured a large share of the market in the last 10 years. It has become the de facto standard for ITSM solutions. Cloudify is an open source software product distributed by GigaSpaces, and is an industry leading application lifecycle automation tool. |
Integrating Application Automation with ITSM
To fill a need expressed to us often by our customers, Zefflin has developed a Cloudify plugin that supports integration with ITSM tools like ServiceNow. We have applied years of experience in ITSM and application automation to develop an out-of-the-box integration that will:
- Auto open an incident if an application deployment or upgrade errors out
- Auto update the CMDB upon successful application deployment, upgrade, scale up/down or tear down
- Auto open/close a change request upon successful deployment of an application
- Accommodate customer-specific policies for application mapping and CMDB
The Cloudify plug-in for ServiceNow is designed to enable fast, reliable integration with standard ITIL processes with minimal implementation effort. Customization can be done to accommodate variations of business process for specific needs such as:
- Specific CMDB governance policies
- Incident Management assignment rules
- Specific CMDB application mapping requirements
- Diagnostic information passed to an incident on auto open
The Difference Between Application Orchestration and Operations Orchestration
In evaluating various solutions for application lifecycle automation, customers must confront a confusing array of orchestration solutions. Orchestration comes in two flavors: application, and operations. Many times the two are confused, but they are very different. Operations orchestration products are designed as general purpose, event driven process automation tools. They are excellent for automating repeatable IT operations processes like onboarding employees, granting access or integrating disparate systems like monitoring and ITSM. Application orchestration tools are designed for apps only, and all the processes associated with their lifecycle, like define-once (Blueprinting), deploy, upgrade, auto-scale and tear down. They are not Cloud Management Platforms (CMPs), but augment and compliment CMP functionality. Application orchestration tools are procedurally focused (as opposed to event driven). They can be event driven, but only for very specific events, like those that trigger auto scaling.
Choosing the wrong tool to solve your business problem will result in a very long, expensive implementation.
Choosing the wrong tool to solve your business problem will result in a very long, expensive implementation.
About Zefflin

IT organizations need to continually drop operational cost, increase quality of service and support their growing businesses, all at the same time. The number of technologies that can be leveraged to fulfill these objectives and the pace at which they emerge is overwhelming and impossible to keep up with for the CIO who oversees day to day IT operations.
Zefflin's focus is exclusively on Data Center Automation and Cloud Management solutions implementation and integration. As a world-class, agile, center of excellence, our aim is to work with best of breed software, combined with the industry's best technical consulting and integration talent. We cut through the hype, identifying which tools can be implemented and integrated to effectively automate application development and IT operations. We offer high quality, cost effective solutions addressing the automation of the entire lifecycle of complex computing environments, from request/catalog management, automated provisioning (OS, application, database, storage, network), to policy governance and compliance.
Our vision is to bring to market consulting/software solutions that enable the lights-out data center. This will allow our customers to implement fully automated, private, public and hybrid cloud systems, delivering low cost, high quality services to their customers while minimizing personnel cost.
www.zefflin.com
Zefflin's focus is exclusively on Data Center Automation and Cloud Management solutions implementation and integration. As a world-class, agile, center of excellence, our aim is to work with best of breed software, combined with the industry's best technical consulting and integration talent. We cut through the hype, identifying which tools can be implemented and integrated to effectively automate application development and IT operations. We offer high quality, cost effective solutions addressing the automation of the entire lifecycle of complex computing environments, from request/catalog management, automated provisioning (OS, application, database, storage, network), to policy governance and compliance.
Our vision is to bring to market consulting/software solutions that enable the lights-out data center. This will allow our customers to implement fully automated, private, public and hybrid cloud systems, delivering low cost, high quality services to their customers while minimizing personnel cost.
www.zefflin.com