The blog
Inside DevOps
Industry insights about DevOps, DevSecOps, and cloud-native from the Releaseworks team.
23 Sep 2024
Why You Need a Cloud Disaster Recovery Plan Now
Many companies operate under the assumption that disaster won’t strike them. It’s easy to think, “It hasn’t happened yet, so why would it happen now?” But this kind of thinking is risky. Disasters are unpredictable and can happen to anyone, at any time. Read on to discover how you can build a disaster recovery plan now.
Read article →9 Sep 2024
The Cloud, GDPR, and You
GDPR is designed to protect the personal data of EU citizens, ensuring it is processed lawfully, transparently, and securely. For many businesses, the fear of non-compliance and hefty fines makes cloud adoption seem daunting. But let’s clear up some misconceptions about the cloud and GDPR compliance.
Read article →26 Aug 2024
A Brutally Honest Guide to Building a DevOps Team
Let’s be honest: the path toward an effective DevOps team is often littered with failed initiatives, misaligned strategies, and culture clashes. So, how do you build a DevOps team that actually works Here’s a brutally honest guide to creating a DevOps team that doesn’t just survive, but thrives.
Read article →12 Aug 2024
How to Ensure Lower Environments Reflect Production
Struggling with discrepancies between lower environments and production? Discover practical strategies to ensure consistency, reduce deployment risks, and streamline your DevOps processes. Learn how to bridge the gap and achieve seamless, reliable software delivery.
Read article →5 Aug 2024
CloudFormation vs Terraform: Which is Right for Your IaC?
If you’re looking to streamline your workflow and scale, infrastructure as code is non negotiable. But which tool should you use to manage it? CloudFormation and Terraform are two great options. We’ll discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each one, and find out which one is the best choice for you.
Read article →29 Jul 2024
Global IT Meltdown: Lessons We Can't Ignore
The recent global IT outage had eye-opening consequences, bringing industries from airlines to hospitals to a standstill. Today we are exploring what we can learn from this catastrophe - how it might have been prevented, and five essential takeaways to make us stronger in the face of future incidents.
Read article →23 Jul 2024
The Secret to Quick Market Entry
Future-proofing your system does not mean falling into the trap of over-engineering. Learn when to think about scalability, the pitfalls of premature optimisation and how to avoid them, and the best approach for setting up your MVP infrastructure. Read on for practical tips to validate your product idea and prepare for growth.
Read article →22 Jul 2024
Cloud Infrastructure: The Ultimate Guide for 2024
Explore the essentials of cloud infrastructure in 2024. Understand its components, types (public, private, hybrid, multi-cloud), and the benefits for businesses. Learn about scalability, flexibility, performance optimisation, and what it means to build resilient cloud infrastructure. Discover why it’s indispensable for modern business success with this comprehensive guide to cloud infrastructure.
Read article →15 Jul 2024
Create On-Demand Environments with Terraform and GitHub Actions: A Step-by-Step Guide
Discover how to streamline your development process with on-demand environments. Learn step-by-step how to use Terraform and GitHub Actions to create efficient, isolated environments at the push of a button. Save time, reduce costs, and ensure consistency across all stages of your workflow with this technique.
Read article →8 Jul 2024
Shift Left to Prevent Downstream Issues
Does your software break at the worst possible moment? Or maybe you’ve discovered a security vulnerability after deployment, and had to stop everything to fix it? “Shift left” could be the answer you are missing. By catching issues earlier in the development cycle, you can save time, money, and a heap of frustration. Read on for what it means, the benefits and how to get started.
Read article →1 Jul 2024
Deployment Delays? Consider Feature Toggles
Have you ever felt pressured by looming deadlines with features not quite ready for production? Feature toggles let you hide half-baked features while gathering real-time user feedback and running A/B tests. Read on to discover how these clever switches can revolutionise your deployment process, enhance collaboration, and keep your releases smooth and risk-free.
Read article →1 Jul 2024
DevOps Dogma: Are We Missing the Point?
DevOps is the heartthrob of modern software development: everyone's clamouring to adopt it, to integrate it, to live and breathe it. But in our rush to embrace DevOps, have we developed an unhealthy obsession with the “how” rather than the “why”? In the fixation on processes, tools, and rituals, have we lost sight of the real goal? And what is the real goal again?
Read article →27 May 2024
DevOps vs Platform Engineering: What's the Difference?
Discover the key differences and synergies between DevOps and Platform Engineering, and how they enhance software development, developer experience, and security.
Read article →25 Jun 2024
What’s Your DevOps Maturity Level?
We're excited to share something special with you today! At Releaseworks, DevOps isn't just what we do—it's who we are. We have decided to distill our many years of expertise into a free quiz, designed to help you assess your DevOps maturity level and provide personalised recommendations based on your result. You’ll get specific actions that you can take right away to improve your software development process.
Read article →17 Jun 2024
Why Data Sovereignty Matters in Cloud Computing
Discover the importance of data sovereignty in cloud computing, understand its meaning, and learn how to ensure compliance with data sovereignty laws. Explore how different cloud providers approach data sovereignty and see how Releaseworks can help you navigate these complexities.
Read article →10 Jun 2024
Are DevOps Consultants Worth it? 5 Ways They Can Save You Money.
Have you considered bringing in DevOps consultants, but decided that you couldn’t afford it? After all, your in-house team can probably figure it out right? The hard truth is that this “economising” could actually be costing you much more than you realise. Here are 5 hidden costs you’re signing up for, without the help of DevOps experts.
Read article →31 May 2024
Is Your Release Cycle Too Slow? Here’s Why It Matters.
Forget big, cumbersome releases that turn into nerve-wracking ordeals. Discover why smaller, frequent deployments are the key to reducing risk, boosting agility, and building user trust. If your releases are still causing pain, you're missing out on the true benefits of agile development. Ready to make software releases a non-issue? Find out how.
Read article →20 May 2024
3 Signs You're Not Maximising Cloud Potential
Are you confident you’re squeezing every drop of value out of your cloud strategy, or could you be leaving potential on the table? Here are three tell-tale signs that your cloud strategy might be underwhelming compared to the powerful impact you were expecting. We'll help you identify where your cloud ecosystem could use a tune-up, in order to make the most out of your investment.
Read article →20 May 2024
Introducing DevOps Express
At Releaseworks, we are experienced in supporting large and well established platforms. However, we know that not everyone is ready for this kind of specialised support. Recognising that startups and SMEs have unique needs and smaller budgets, we're thrilled to announce DevOps Express—our streamlined service designed to turbocharge emerging online businesses.
Read article →1 Apr 2024
How to Prevent Configuration Drift
Configuration drift slows teams down and creates risk. Here is how to spot it and prevent it from spreading.
Read article →30 Apr 2024 · Eamus Halpin
Monolithic vs Microservices: De-risking Software Development
In the past, even minor modifications to a software code base required testing the entire application, an extremely inefficient process. This type of large, complex, and singular software design is often referred to as a "monolith." Here's where Microservices come into play, transforming the game by breaking down an application into many independent components.
Read article →14 Apr 2024
SRE vs DevOps: What's the Difference?
SRE and DevOps share goals but differ in scope, origin, and practices. Here is how they relate and why teams benefit from both.
Read article →27 Mar 2024
Navigating Security Vulnerabilities in Containers
Learn best practices for enhancing the security posture of containerised applications by proactively addressing vulnerabilities through robust scanning, signing and monitoring solutions.
Read article →11 Mar 2024
Infrastructure as code pitfalls
Infrastructure as Code pitfalls like lack of version control, testing, security, cost management and more can derail projects. Steer clear of these 9 IaC pitfalls.
Read article →24 Mar 2024
Database Schema Migrations in DevOps
Managing database schema migrations in a DevOps environment is complex. But, with careful planning and the right strategies and tools, it's possible to navigate these challenges effectively. The strategies discussed here will protect your data and ensure service continuity, allowing you to evolve your database schema as quickly and safely as your application demands.
Read article →12 Mar 2024
Meet the Team: Ben Davie
In our latest team member spotlight, we introduce Ben Davie, the newest member of the Releaseworks cloud engineering team. Ben shares about his journey from web development to cloud computing, his role at Releaseworks, and his commitment to automating processes to enhance client delivery.
Read article →11 Mar 2024
Appointment of Eamus Halpin as Fractional COO
Releaseworks, the trusted DevOps and cloud engineering partner for the world’s leading software engineering teams, has today appointed Eamus Halpin as Fractional COO. Mr Halpin also joins the Releaseworks board of directors.
Read article →4 Mar 2024
3 Reasons You're Missing Deadlines in Your DevOps Projects
Missing a deadline has consequences. It not only disrupts project flow but can also lead to additional blockers, delays, and, worst of all, damage the reputation of your organisation. In this blog post, we'll explore three common reasons why deadlines are missed and provide actionable strategies to overcome these hurdles.
Read article →26 Feb 2024
After Funding, What Next? A Tech Startup's Guide to Strategic Growth
Securing funding is a milestone for tech startups, but what comes next? This guide explores the transition to strategic growth, emphasizing the early adoption of cloud architecture and DevOps. It's a roadmap for startups ready to scale, focusing on the critical steps needed to turn capital into capability and vision into reality.
Read article →26 Feb 2024
Empowering Your Team: A Diverse Collection of DevOps Tools Tutorials
DevOps tools and technologies play a key role in streamlining workflows and boosting efficiency. To help your team excel, we've gathered a range of practical tutorials covering common DevOps tasks. Whether you're a novice or seasoned developer, these resources address various aspects for effective DevOps implementation.
Read article →26 Feb 2024
Safeguarding secrets in CI/CD pipelines
In a prior blog post where we outlined three essential methods to secure your AWS platform, we underscored the prevalent issue of secrets management as a leading security vulnerability. Building upon that insight, this blog post delves deeper into the challenges surrounding the management and security of sensitive data within a CI/CD pipeline.
Read article →26 Feb 2024
Winning more business with DevOps
DevOps is a game-changer for business growth. It simplifies how companies handle development, operations, and customer satisfaction by making software delivery faster and more efficient. Here's how DevOps strategies directly contribute to winning more business:
Read article →12 Feb 2024
Building a Reliable Cloud Platform: Navigating Stability and Resilience
The best products are always available. To achieve this, stability and resilience play a crucial role in maintaining performance and access. Stability ensures constant availability, while resilience helps handle different workloads and unexpected challenges.
Read article →5 Feb 2024
Aligning your DevOps vision with operational reality
As DevOps practices become more prevalent, many organisations find themselves grappling with the challenge of aligning their DevOps vision with the practical realities of implementation. In this post, we explore common challenges and practical solutions to bridge the gap between DevOps ideals and reality.
Read article →26 Jan 2024
A practical guide to intelligent alerting
With the proliferation of monitoring tools, it's easy to fall into the trap of alert overload—drowning in a sea of notifications that can lead to alert fatigue and decreased operational efficiency. In this blog post, we'll explore strategies to tackle the challenge of too many alerts.
Read article →23 Jan 2024
How to overcome container orchestration scaling issues
Containerisation has revolutionised the way we develop, deploy, and manage applications. However, as applications grow and evolve, scaling becomes a critical concern. In this blog post, we'll delve into the challenges of scaling containerised applications and explore strategies for effective horizontal and vertical scaling.
Read article →18 Dec 2023
Three easy steps to secure your AWS platform
The beginning of the year tends to be a busy time for information security professionals, and this year is turning out no different: the CircleCI breach over the holiday period is making waves among companies using the platform, and anecdotal evidence suggests that phishing attackers are expectedly taking advantage of staff members returning from the extended break. Therefore this is a great time to consider implementing the three easiest security controls for your AWS platform.
Read article →18 Dec 2023
Three facts every CTO needs to know about DevOps
As a technology leader, DevOps and cloud engineering are likely to be central to your organisation's success. As DevOps is playing an increasingly crucial role, staying informed about the latest trends and best practices is essential.
Read article →18 Dec 2023
What is DevOps? - A Christmas Story
Whether we’re doing business or creating joy and wonder, we need to build and deliver solutions that bring smiles and delight to those eagerly awaiting. More often than not this means delivering a set of features by a certain date - the essence of festive success.
Read article →13 Dec 2023
Boost your business with CI/CD pipeline optimisation
In the realm of software development, where agility and efficiency take centre stage, your CI/CD pipeline is the heart of your operations. It's the engine that drives innovation and delivers value to your customers.
Read article →11 Dec 2023
How to get your AWS account Cyber Essentials certified
As cloud and DevOps experts, one of the questions we hear from our clients often is: “Is my AWS account in scope of Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus certifications”? The answer is: Yes, most likely.
Read article →1 Dec 2023
Dodging data disasters - an overview of backup and recovery on AWS
Unforeseen disruptions can occur at any time. Whether it’s a deleted file oopsie or a system hiccup, we’ve all been there. In this blog post, we'll explore the essentials of backup and recovery on AWS - your safety net in the cloud:
Read article →27 Nov 2023
Make or break - navigating holiday cover shortages
Picture this: it's Christmas Eve, and your team members are enjoying a well-deserved break. Meanwhile, your systems and applications are still running 24/7, serving customers and generating revenue. But what happens when something goes wrong?
Read article →20 Nov 2023
How to achieve scalability with DevOps
Scalability isn't just a buzzword; it can transform modern business operations. Let's explore what scalability means in the context of DevOps and why it's a crucial factor in achieving success.
Read article →9 Nov 2023
Don’t build data centres in the cloud - here’s why
As organisations increasingly embrace cloud computing, one common misconception is the idea of "building data centres in the cloud". In this blog post, we'll explore why building data centres in the cloud is not the right approach and what alternatives are more suitable.
Read article →8 Nov 2023
State of DevOps Report: Gaining Clarity and Direction
Despite investing time and resources in DevOps practices, you might be wondering if it’s paying off. Here’s why a State of DevOps report can be a game-changer for CTO’s seeking clarity and direction:
Read article →7 Nov 2023
94% are still wasting money in the cloud
As HashiCorp’s 2023 State of Cloud Strategy Survey reveals that a staggering 94% of organisations are still wasting money in the cloud, we follow up on our previous blog post on how to reduce your cloud spend.
Read article →30 Oct 2023
Five reasons your DevOps team is falling short
Is your DevOps team not quite hitting the mark? Let's delve into the common pitfalls that can hinder your DevOps initiatives. From misaligned strategies to inadequate tooling, understanding the reasons behind your team's challenges will set the stage for improvement.
Read article →17 Oct 2023
Infrastructure as Code and the cloud agnosticity myth
One theme tends to surface quite often in discussions with technology leaders in the beginning of their cloud journey: “We’d like to use Infrastructure as Code, because it helps us become cloud agnostic.” Unfortunately, this is usually not the case.
Read article →3 Oct 2023
Vendor lock-in - is it a problem?
When considering cloud-native technologies, one of the most common concerns of technology leaders is vendor lock-in. Here is why it is likely not as big a problem as you think.
Read article →25 Sep 2023
The 4 most important DevOps metrics
Unless you know what to improve, every change you make is just shooting in the dark. This is why feedback loops are so important - the faster you know if something works or not, the sooner you can point your efforts in the right direction.
Read article →6 Jul 2023
Got your CI/CD/DX tangled? This is your introduction to DevOps terms and acronyms
In the world of two and three-letter acronyms, it’s easy to get lost. Here are the DevOps terms and acronyms all technology leaders should know:
Read article →5 Apr 2023
What is DevOps? Here’s what it means to us
I like to say “if you speak with a hundred people about DevOps, you’ll get 100 different opinions of what it is”. For us at Releaseworks, DevOps is first and foremost a way of working.
Read article →17 Feb 2023
Everyone in your development team should know DevOps
In our experience, one of the most successful DevOps methodologies is creating cross-functional development teams who own their product from ideation to production. I think everyone in your development team should know DevOps. Here’s why:
Read article →17 Feb 2023
Top 3 ways to save money in AWS
The cloud offers many advantages to enterprises, but it’s not cheap. Fortunately, there are ways to save money while using AWS, including combining AWS services to attain greater functionality than any one service could provide on its own.
Read article →8 Feb 2023
Hybrid Cloud vs. Multi Cloud vs. Cloud Native - which one to choose?
With a handful of strong cloud providers on the market, more and more teams are choosing to deploy their products on multiple platforms. While high availability is a goal for some, many more are choosing a hosting approach to take advantage of combining the benefits of different platforms. In this blog post we explore the various options available, and typical use cases for them.
Read article →30 Jan 2023
Why migrating to the cloud is just the beginning
One of the most common patterns for cloud migrations is “lift-and-shift”, and for good reason: this approach minimises the number of variables in the initial migration process.
Read article →26 Jan 2023
How much are you overpaying for cloud?
In a world where it only takes seconds to spin up virtual machines or other cloud resources, you are almost guaranteed to be paying for something you don’t need.
Read article →25 Jan 2023
Is DevOps a problem in your team?
According to our research, over 40% of software teams struggle with DevOps.
Read article →23 Jan 2023
Here’s What Good Looks Like In DevOps
A healthy DevOps culture is one of the key ingredients of high-performing software teams. Here are some signs that you’re doing it right.
Read article →18 Jan 2023
How to build software 60% faster and 80% cheaper
Ask any established software delivery team about what’s slowing them down, and one topic that is bound to come up is “environments”. Whether there are too few of them, or they are vastly different from each other, environment-related issues tend to be the #1 cause for unexpected bottlenecks in the software delivery lifecycle of modern web applications. It is also a fact that for many teams, more than half of the total cloud spend is on testing environments.
Read article →10 Jan 2023
Top 3 considerations when choosing a cloud provider
If you are planning a cloud migration project, you will have a lot of variables to evaluate when choosing your target cloud provider. Here are the top 3.
Read article →19 Dec 2022
3 Steps to Improve Your Incident Response Capability
A robust incident response capability is key for any web application product team who takes their craft seriously. Whether it’s an incident affecting the stability, availability or reliability of the product, the speed and expertise with which it is resolved makes all the difference in keeping your customers happy. Then there are other operational incidents, like information governance or cybersecurity incidents, which you simply cannot afford to get wrong. In this article we’ll explore three steps to take to improve your incident response capability.
Read article →9 Dec 2022
Do you really want to have your developers on call 24/7?
Traditionally, many organisations have interpreted the DevOps ‘shared responsibilities’ principle to mean that the developers in your team should man the 24/7 out-of-hours schedule in addition to their daytime duties. This approach does have its benefits: getting developers to feel the pain of running the product first hand is a sure way to ensure operability is front and centre in sprint planning conversations. Plus, who is better positioned to deploy a hotfix overnight than your lead developer?
Read article →6 Dec 2022
Top 3 AWS security tools you should be using right now
With cybercrime on the rise, it’s imperative that businesses take the necessary steps to secure their data and workloads. Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a suite of powerful security tools to help protect against malicious actors. In this article, we’ll take a look at the top three AWS security tools that you should be using right now to protect your cloud infrastructure. From real-time security posture management to API resource logging, these tools will help you ensure your data and workloads are secure. Let’s get started.
Read article →2 Dec 2022
The first 3 steps to take on your DevSecOps journey
DevSecOps is all about increasing security awareness and controls throughout the software delivery lifecycle. This is also known as ‘shifting left’ security. In a traditional software development world where security is an afterthought, DevSecOps aims to move security as early on in the development cycle as possible. Here are the first three steps to take on your DevSecOps journey.
Read article →29 Nov 2022
The difference between AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances
In AWS, there are two main mechanisms for getting savings in exchange for a period of commitment. The traditional way, purchasing Reserved Instances, has been around for over a decade. The more recent and more flexible way is AWS Savings Plans. In this blog post, we’ll compare the benefits of the two - and give you our recommendation on which one to choose.
Read article →17 Nov 2022
Three most common security mistakes in the cloud
Having worked with hundreds of cloud-based application architectures, we’ve seen a lot of applications where security has been a key design principle. Unfortunately, we’ve also seen more than a few where security seems to have been forgotten completely.
Read article →15 Nov 2022
Software supply chain is not a security risk - it’s an imminent security disaster
Many of the high-profile security incidents we’ve seen lately have a common attack vector: a compromise of the software supply chain. Here’s what it means for your business.
Read article →1 Nov 2022
Top 3 qualities of a DevOps support partner
Not all cloud support partners are created equal.
Read article →