Author: Idexcel Technologies

5 Ways DevOps and Automation Bolster Software Security

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies


The fusion of DevOps and security goes hand in hand; a well groomed DevOps structure ensures faster and smoother software releases. Multiple releases might have been a farfetched dream 10 to 15 years ago; however, the true reality of today is that many software companies are functioning differently now.

DevOps has changed the very existence of how companies develop apps. However, what is important to note is that in the quest to get the software ready for deployment, the security of the launch should not be compromised. Fortunately, DevOps takes care of all the security nuances, since it has been fine tuned to provide risk free deployment, provided the right measures are taken at all times.

By fusing security measures into the working of DevOps, companies can ensure that maximum security measures are taken at all times. At the same time, it is also important to note that as developers and operations people start working together, there are a lot of security controls which can be affected or compromised in the long run. This show why DevOps tools are often met with resistance during the implementation stages.

When it comes to security, DevOps can be configured to secure all the phases of software development:

  • Security right from the start: Security, as a measure, does not have to be implemented at the last development stage only. It can be embedded from the initial stages itself, since it is a quality requirement. Through DevOps, one can incorporate automated security testing procedures efficiently and effectively to achieve compliance listed norms.
  • Automation security: As more and more tests are automated using DevOps, there are lesser risks of security flaws caused by human errors. With automation in place, the tests are more secure and efficient, making the development process more predictable and consistent.
  • Through security – through and through: DevOps security is implemented at every stage, which makes the process all the more consistent and useful. Right from development and testing to ops and security, everything is taken care of by DevOps, making the process simpler yet efficient.
  • Fix things quickly: Unfortunately, even DevOps implementation is not 100% security breach proof. However, since the deployment accelerates the lead time, it helps reduce the errors, since everything is following a consistent setup approach.
  • Enhanced governance for developers: DevOps is all about securing the governance for the developers involved in the production capabilities. Through consistent development, testing and release practices, developers are able to control the governance policies and provide utmost security to the software development and deployment. When everyone is aligned on the procedures and policies, a strict governance regime can be followed, in order to make the production stream more productive and conclusive.

Through DevOps, there are a lot of opportunities which can be explored with respect to software security. Automation, emphasis on software testing, feedback loops, collaboration and consistent release practices, companies are able to secure their software testing lines and provide faster

PuppetConf 2017

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

Date : October 10-12, 2017
Location : Hilton San Francisco Union Square
San Francisco, CA

Event Details

PuppetConf is coming back to San Francisco! You don’t want to miss two-plus days jammed packed with sessions presented by the industries top leaders. Enjoy ample networking with the Puppet community and 35+ sponsors from around the world. If you missed PuppetConf 2016, you won’t want to miss 2017. A lot changes in a year, especially in a fast-paced, thriving and increasingly complex technology world.

Why Attend

Whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced user of Puppet technologies, PuppetConf 2017 will offer a great experience. Sessions will cover topics IT professionals care about most: DevOps, cloud management, next-generation infrastructure, application delivery, security and compliance, career and personal development, continuous delivery and more. With several ticket options to choose from, you have the opportunity to attend in-person training (separate registration required), the one-day Puppet Contributor Summit, PuppetConf 2017 and more!

[Know more about the Conference]

About Idexcel: Idexcel is a global business that supports Commercial & Public Sector organizations as they Modernize their Information Technology using DevOps methodology and Cloud infrastructure. Idexcel provides Professional Services for the AWS Cloud that includes Program Management, Cloud Strategy, Training, Applications Development, Managed Service, Integration, Migration, DevOps, AWS Optimization and Analytics. As we help our customers modernize their IT, our clients should expect a positive return on their investment in Idexcel, increased IT agility, reduced risk on development projects and improved organizational efficiency.

Allolankandy Anand Sr. Director Technical Sales & Delivery will be attending this event. For further queries, please write to anand@idexcel.com

Everything you Need to Know About Docker on Amazon ECS

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

AWS-ECS-docker
ECS is all about building a production scale, auto scaling as well as monitoring the platforms to run different types of containers. In this guide, we will take some time to discuss the different components of EC2 Container Service (ECS) and how they fit in together like the pieces of a puzzle.
The main motive is to understand how to host, scale and load an application using Docker and ECS.

What is Amazon ECS?
Amazon’s ECS service is a container management service, which is not only easy to run, and stop, but also assists in managing Docker containers on a cluster of Amazon EC2 instances.
ECS integrates well with the AWS infrastructure, thereby allowing the users to operate their own cluster of Amazon EC2 instances. ECS is a managed service, which helps assist the deployment of containers without worrying about the infrastructure.

Components of ECS Docker:
• Cluster
• Container Instances: A container instance is ideal for running containers
• Container Agent
• Task Definition
• Service
• Task

How ECS components are connected?
Outside the main components, there are a series of supporting components, which makes it easier to fit in the puzzle.
• Elastic Application Load Balancers
• AutoScaling Groups
• Launch Configurations
• CloudWatch Alarms (for Auto Scaling)

Deploying your first task effectively
• Creating an ECS task
Within ECS, the Docker workloads are often categorized as tasks, which further contain multiple containers. All these task containers are usually located on the same machine.
• Define the service
By defining a service, one can understand how many task instances need to be run within the cluster.
• Create an ECS Cluster
Since tasks run on a container, these instances need to be registered within a cluster. This way, a cluster can be used to scale the cluster up and down, especially when it comes to running more containers.
• Create the stack
The final stack is the final screen of the wizard, which is just a summary of the task created, the service which was defined and the cluster configuration.

DevOps Tools Training Sparks IT productivity

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

Enterprises have a new weapon to combat the IT skills shortage where new hiring and training practices fall short.

Most IT pros agree the fastest path to IT burnout is what Amazon engineers have termed “undifferentiated heavy lifting,” which is repetitive and uninteresting work that has little potential for wider impact beyond keeping the lights on. DevOps tools training, which involves IT automation practices, can reduce or eliminate such mundane work and can compensate against staff shortages and employee attrition.
Read more..

10 Hot Data Analytics Trends — and 5 Going Cold

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

Big data, machine learning, data science — the data analytics revolution is evolving rapidly. Keep your BA/BI pros and data scientists ahead of the curve with the latest technologies and strategies for data analysis.

Data analytics are fast becoming the lifeblood of IT. Big data, machine learning, deep learning, data science — the range of technologies and techniques for analyzing vast volumes of data is expanding at a rapid pace. To gain deep insights into customer behavior, systems performance, and new revenue opportunities, your data analytics strategy will benefit greatly from being on top of the latest data analytics trends.

Here is a look at the data analytics technologies, techniques and strategies that are heating up and the once-hot data analytics trends that are beginning to cool. From business analysts to data scientists, everyone who works with data is being impacted by the data analytics revolution. If your organization is looking to leverage data analytics for actionable intelligence, the following heat index of data analytics trends should be your guide.
Read more..

Amazon’s Tryst with the Cloud Market Determines its Revenues Trending

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

AWS Cloud Market
There is no doubt that Amazon’s web services are an outstanding piece of technology, especially when it comes to generating revenues. However, as recent trends begin to emerge, there has been a lot of commotion when it comes to dealing with competition. Microsoft’s Azure is beginning to overthrow Amazon’s market space, making the market conditions all the more volatile for the larger enterprises in the Cloud segment.

Amazon’s Tryst with the Cloud Market
As per a recent survey, statistics showed that Azure has beat AWS recently. As the Cloud Services grew, Amazon had clearly emerged as the lead and a preferred choice for Cloud Services. But as the survey concluded, with the maturity of the Cloud Services, more and more large enterprises are beginning to develop trust in other Cloud service providers, which caused a paradigm shift in the Cloud industry.

Despite having such a strong market share, there is a lot of attention which is being showered on Azure. Almost 66% of Iaas and PaaS vendors are comfortable with Azure, which highlights the dwindling market share of AWS in the Cloud industry.

Even with declining revenues, Amazon was able to see garner a lot of cash reserves during the first three months of 2017. If one was to compare Q1 of 2016 and Q1 of 2017, it would become relatively clear that the revenues have declined from 69% to 48%. This is the seventh quarter which is seeing a consecutive decline in the company’s Cloud based revenue.

Since Cloud computing is a commodity service, many enterprises search for better services at a lower cost. With competitors offering better services at cheaper costs, Amazon has a huge setback planned for it during this year. With competitors ranging from Microsoft to Google, and IBM to Salesforce, there is a lot which is at stake for the multibillion dollar enterprise.

Beating the Competition to gain a Competitive Edge
Amazon, when compared with its competitors like Google and Azure, is known for providing clean Cloud infrastructure to its customers. In addition to the AWS services, Amazon has also launched the Amazon Chime and the Amazon Connect, which will mean that customers can host online meetings in a much more safe and secure manner.

Having said this, with new centers opening up in France and China, Amazon is partnering with NASA to provide high resolution video broadcast from space. As more and more services get added in the enterprise’s kitty, there is a lot to look forward to with respect to Amazon’s expanding outreach, despite the competition.

As the company still controls 40% of the Public Cloud market, there is still a lot Google, Azure and IBM need to achieve in order to be able to completely overthrow the oligopoly of AWS in the Cloud market. Not only is it difficult to match the outstanding services, but it is equally difficult to be able to match up with the technology. As more and more customers sign up for AWS, there is a lot of expectations from the global enterprise. What is yet to be seen is whether the revenues are going to rise, or will they continue to decline for yet another quarter?

DevOps Jobs: How to win that role

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

For IT job hunters, some of today’s most desirable jobs are DevOps jobs. A company with a strong commitment to DevOps wants people to run fast, experiment, and iterate their way to success. These organizations prize innovation. But the DevOps methodology and culture turns some old rules about IT job hunting upside down.

For instance, your ability to spot trouble and turn around failures now trumps certifications, says Robert Reeves, CTO at Datical, a database release automation company. For DevOps teams, companies need people who can think on their feet – and communicate clearly to all kinds of people, from marketing team members to engineers. Remember, DevOps is all about cross-functional teams.
Read more..

5 AWS Certifications to Boost your Career in 2017

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

AWS-CertificationsBuilding your career and excelling in it is one’s own prerogative. If you are someone with a technical bent of mind, then you would love to know about the AWS certification. In order to excel in AWS and pursue a career laden with the benefits of AWS, you should be well certified, to ensure that you are always on top of your game.

In order to clear the certification, here’s a list which has been penned down exclusively for AWS aspirants. This comprehensive list will give a fair idea on everything you need to know to successfully certify in Amazon Web Services.

Everything you need to know about the AWS certifications

Currently, there are five certifications to choose from, each of which is available in three different tracks. These tracks include Developer, SysOps Administrator and Solutions Architect. Each of these tracks is rather straightforward and can be discussed in detail:

• Solutions Architect: It is focused on building and designing AWS solutions as per the different needs of organizations and clients.
• Developer: It focuses on designing, building and maintaining applications which are usually synced and integrated with AWS.
• SysOps Administrator: It targets design, operations as well as management of the different AWS solutions listed, usually within the same organization.

AWS Certifications – different types

Currently, there are 5 different certifications which are available to the aspirants.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate are apt for those individuals who perform junior level architecture tasks. The certification is split into four parts, namely:

• Ability to design highly cost efficient and scalable systems (60%)
• Deployment and implementation (10%)
• Data security (20%)
• Troubleshooting (10%)

Candidates will be given 80 minutes to complete the test successfully. Aspirants can take a mock test for a price of $20; the main exam costs $150.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional

This certification is ideal for those professionals who provide senior level solutions related to architecture tasks. From a high level, this is what the certification entails:

• High Availability and Business Continuity (15%)
• Costing (5%)
• Deployment Management (10%)
• Network Design(10%)
• Data Storage (15%)
• Security (20%)
• Scalability & Elasticity (15%)
• Hybrid Architecture & Cloud Migration (10%)

Candidates will be given 170 minutes to complete the test successfully. Aspirants can take a mock test for a price of $40; the main exam costs $300.

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

This certification is ideal for people who will perform junior level development tasks. From a high level, this is what the certification entails:

• AWS Fundamentals (10%)
• Designing and Developing (40%)
• Deploying and Security (30%)
• Debugging (20%)

Candidates will be given 80 minutes to complete the test successfully. Aspirants can take a mock test for a price of $20; the main exam costs $150.

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

This certification is ideal for people who will perform junior level single organization deployment, operational and management tasks. From a high level, this is what the certification entails:
• Monitoring and Metrics (15%)
• High Availability (15%)
• Deployment and Provisioning (15%)
• Analysis (15%)
• Security (15%)
• Data Management (12%)
• Networking (13 percent)

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

This certification is ideal for people who will perform senior level single organization provisioning, deployment, management, development and operational tasks. From a high level, this is what the certification entails:

• Continuous Delivery & Process Automation (55%)
• Monitoring, Metrics &Logging (20%)
• High Availability & Elasticity (15%)
• Security, Governance &Validation (10%)

Candidates will be given 170 minutes to complete the test successfully. There is no practice test available. The main exam costs $300.

AWS Certified Big Data – Specialty

The AWS Certified Big Data – Specialty is aimed at validating technical skills and designing experiences required for implementing AWS services to draw inferences from data. The exam needs the candidates to possess any of the three AWS Associate Certifications (AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Certified Developer – Associate and AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate) and is ideal for people who want to be involved in complex data analysis.

The following are some of the requirements for applying for this certification:

• Minimum 5 years of data analytics experience
• Prior experience of designing a cost effective data architecture

The paper has multiple choice questions and the students will be given 3 hours to complete the paper. The fee for taking the exam is $300.

AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty

The certification is aimed at people with advanced technical skills, with experience in implementing AWS and complex IT network architectures. With the completion of the certification, the successful candidates will be able to design and develop cloud based AWS solutions, along with implement AWS related architectural best practices.

Exam overview:

The paper has multiple choice questions and the students will be given 3 hours to complete the paper. The fee for taking the exam is $300.
AWS certifications have become the hot topics for people aspiring to get AWS certified. As Amazon is leading the way for such technologies, there is a lot riding on these certifications. Choose the certification type which suits your requirements.