Over the last few years, we have definitely gotten continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) down. We now can maintain a relatively constant flow of deployable code sitting and waiting for the actual deployment step to take them to production.
Moving to production has been the point at which caution is introduced into the system, though, and that’s certainly not always a bad thing. Deployment to production seems to be following the motto our parents taught us: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” In many environments, multiple deployments a day would be a ridiculous goal; in some, even multiple deployments a month are unreasonable.
Let’s face it, in an enterprise that had 18-month waterfalls for even mid-level projects, the ability to deploy at any time (and, thus, near-continuous test) is an improvement of nearly unimaginable proportions. And deploying three times in a day makes little sense if you need user input to adjust the project.
Other Reasons Exist
But there are other reasons that continuous deployment is not as pervasive as the other portions of a continuous pipeline. We’ve talked a bit about security, but let’s cover another bit today: the network.
There are several reasons why networking slows deployment efforts, and all of them are real reasons that an organization that aims to increase deployments over time should consider.
First, the network is the corporate lifeblood. Operations is naturally very careful about changing settings and loads rapidly, which can result in problems for the corporate network. This concern is lighter for products deployed to the cloud, because things such as virtual private clouds (VPCs) can isolate the impact network changes have on the overall production architecture. But there are still security concerns around making rapid, automated changes to the network environment, even in the cloud. The network (and the apps it exposes) is the point of entry for a large number of security compromises, and we’ve seen some whoppers in the cloud of late.
Second, and only barely behind standard ops network concerns is integration of networking into standard CI/CD tools. It’s coming, but we’re not there yet. On the Ops side, things have moved along better: Puppet, for example, can plug commands in to networking devices from stalwarts including Cisco Systems and F5 Networks. But the support is still somewhat limited, partially by the level of APIs the vendors offer, partially by the maturity of those APIs and partially by the implementation on the DevOps tool side.
And That’s a Good Thing
Even if automation came along full-bore, it is likely that networking concerns would still slow the CD pipeline, as admins want to make certain changes are not going to leave them spending the night trying to put things right.
And I think that’s a good check on DevOps. I love DevOps and the increased delivery timelines it enables. In the end, the entire business becomes more agile because IT is able to deliver at a faster rate. But sometimes it—the pace at which things go out—feels reckless. In certain areas—security and networking primarily, but also load distribution on servers—there should be sanity-checking before rolling out. Anything that can impact the entire application, or even the entire infrastructure, is worthy of a last double-check.
I know I’m not in the majority on this one. DevOps fever can have people saying nothing should slow the pipeline, but I know from experience. Long weekends fixing what could have been caught on the way to production have taught me to be cautious. Save rush deployments for a time when there’s a reason to rush. Sometimes it’s necessary to get it out the door today, but talking about slower deployment in a continuous environment as if it’s a fault ignores the strengths it offers as the last stop to public-land.
Do What’s Best for Your Org
Networking vendors will continue to improve the programmability of their devices, and what software-defined networking (SDN) has grown/is growing into will offer a different place to flip the levers for continuous deployment. So if you need to deploy many times a day, and make changes to networking, focus on security and let networking support grow on its own. If you don’t need multiple deployments per day, then relax and don’t get all pressured about how long deployment might take. You’re faster than you were, and if you need more speed, take advantage of the growing support of automation tools.
