Speed up Innovation with No-Ops

Speed up Innovation with No-Ops

In the last twenty years, a new technology emerged that changed the business world completely. The internet and online commerce became a driver for new products, services, and business models. Constant change is the new standard. Innovation is more than ever the key to success. It’s the driving engine of the modern economy. Successful businesses not only use new technology to work more efficiently, but also to stay ahead of the competition as markets shift and new trends arise at an ever-accelerating pace.

Innovation, however, doesn’t just happen overnight. It needs time, dedication and the right mindset. Many innovative ICT projects are delayed because of long decision cycles and the need to eliminate risk. A recurrent theme in this play is the conflict of interest between the development teams and the system operators within the ICT department.

The Battle between Developers and Operators

Most projects begin smoothly. Everyone is enthusiastic and ready to go. The developers deliver their code at a steady pace, the customer is happy with the first results and all seems well. Then the application is handed over to be deployed on a production-like environment by the system operators. This is usually when the trouble begins. In no time, your project can turn into a battlefield that even makes the White Walkers turn pale.

The most critical part of developing a new application is not the development itself but the implementation process. It’s the handover to the operators that drives developers crazy. A system operator doesn’t care about your project’s planning or priorities. His main goal in life is to make sure the infrastructure remains stable. Therefore, every new application or deployment is regarded as a potential threat. As a major risk, that should be avoided at all costs.

This constant clash between developers and operators easily results in muddy projects, endless discussions within the ICT department and a business that is completely at a loss.

The Reconciliation: DevOps

To bridge the gap between development and operations, the agile movement introduced the concept of DevOps (a clipped compound of the two words). This way an environment is created in which applications are released with fewer handovers and without the resulting delays.

The goal is to establish a culture where developers and operators are encouraged to work together and to complete each other. To achieve this the segregation of duties between development and operations become less strict and test- and deployment tasks are partly automated.

How good intended DevOps is, it’s not going to solve the problem. Sure, the world would be a better place if developers and operators stop squabbling on every tiny detail and finally realise they’re on the same side. Nevertheless, the concept of DevOps is a compromise, not a real solution. Developers still can’t focus on their main job: creating innovative solutions. The project is still dependent on an infrastructure that is all too often ill-prepared for change.

The final solution called No-Ops

The term No-Ops is misleading if not insulting to all system operators who are working hard to provide a stable environment. No-Ops  does not mean that operating tasks have become obsolete.

Of course not! The need for a stable environment is self-evident. All operating tasks will still be done, only not locally, but in the cloud.

No-Ops means that responsibility for the stability, performance, and security of the hardware, is taken over by the cloud. Local system operators no longer have to look after security patches or monitoring VM’s. They only thing they have to log or monitor is the software itself.

The developers can focus on creating innovative business solutions with minimal time spent on configuring machines. With Platform-As- A-Service (PAAS), they get everything that is needed to get the code up and running: a well-configured environment to build code, a test environment, automated test- and deployment tools.

Building the future in the Google Cloud

If you want No-Ops to work, you need a platform that can be used without any resource restraints. Now that’s where Google comes in.

What makes the Google Cloud Platform stand out?

  • Great Infrastructure

    The Google Cloud Platform runs on the very same infrastructure as Google Search, Google Maps or YouTube. Unique when it comes to reliability, scalability, and performance.

    GCP provides you with automatic load balancing and scaling. As your cloud provider, Google has the job of provisioning, monitoring and maintaining the infrastructure. This means you never have to worry again about capacity- or server management. The only thing you need to focus on is the software.

  • Google Development Kit

    Google offers a complete development kit to build, test and release software. Some of it’s main components are the Google App Engine, the Cloud Storage, the Cloud Test Lab, Deployment Manager and Identity & Access Management. All advanced tools that are easy to use.

  • Continuous Delivery

    To make innovation work, it should be possible to constantly release new software. The ultimate goal of Google is not only to reduce the time-to- market of your software but to make real-time deployment possible. This can only be done by fully automating the unit- and integration tests, packaging and release process. The Google Development Kit provides all tools to do so.

  • Reduction of Costs

    Developing new apps on the Google Cloud Platform is relatively inexpensive. Because of the advanced options to automate all test and deployment activities, only a few resources are needed for release management, deployments, and maintenance.

  • Ready for the future

    If you want to build your business on a future-proof platform, Google is your best friend. The company is generally regarded as one of the most innovative in the world. In the last decades, Google has proven to be always ahead of its time. With the implementation of GCP, you can use this innovative power to the benefit of your business. It is up to you to decide if you want to join the ride.

Xinox-Apps

We are specialized in the Google Cloud Platform. We build solutions that give you a taste of the future. Small, inexpensive and fast apps that run like clockwork in the Google Cloud.

At Xinos-Apps we work in a group of young creative minds that like to think forward. Innovation just runs in our blood. We are always looking for new technologies and business opportunities.

If you’d like to know more about our services or the opportunities GCP offers, please get in touch with us at support@xinox-apps.com.

Wendel de Witte
Senior Cloud Architect at Xinox Apps
wendel.de.witte@xinox-apps.com

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