The "Big DevOps" Bottleneck
October 11, 2016

Barry Phillips
Panzura

DevOps discussions typically center around process, culture, and technology. But if you work for a global financial institution or a high-end game developer, you probably wish someone would talk about scale.

In fact, the differences between DevOps and "Big DevOps" are non-trivial. Two scale-related attributes in particular make Big DevOps susceptible to bottlenecks that organizations working at smaller scale are far less likely to encounter:

1. The massive size of the application codebases

2. The need to distribute those massive codebases across multiple globally dispersed dev and test teams

Together, these two attributes can result in some pretty serious process bottlenecks that impede their digital agility and seriously undermine their ability to compete in today's fast-moving markets.

That's why anyone leading a Big DevOps enterprise has to solve their Big DevOps codebase distribution problem.

Unfavorable Code-to-WAN Ratios

The primary cause of Big DevOps code distribution bottlenecks is the network. Enterprise WAN connections are just too narrow to accommodate massive codebases. Even if you spend lots of money on additional bandwidth and network acceleration, the ratio between your bits of code and your bits-per-second of network will invariably result in unacceptably slow transfers. The result is software delivery that keeps getting delayed with every distribution of every large code artifact.

Of course, code distribution bottlenecks aren't the only cause of DevOps delays. Large, complex software projects can fall behind schedule for many reasons. But the code distribution bottleneck adds a chronic impediment that makes it impossible to ever make up lost time. So, as the saying goes, the hurrier you go, the behinder you get.

By itself, the cloud cannot address this Big DevOps bottleneck. Your teams simply can't work on codebases hosted in the cloud. They have to work locally. So the cloud presents two problems. First, all your teams all over the world have to keep downloading and uploading massive files. Second, you have to make sure everything everybody does everywhere stays in synch.

That's why Big DevOps requires an entirely different approach to codebase distribution.

For Global DevOps, Try Global Dedupe

Big DevOps will ultimately require you to adopt a hybrid hub-and-spoke model that lets you maintain a "gold copy"of your codebase in the cloud — while giving everyone everywhere a local copy that gets continuously updated with any changes to the current build. This model eliminates network-related bottlenecks while allowing your geographically dispersed teams to collaborate without tripping over each other's work.

This hybrid cloud hub-and-spoke model has actually been used for year by CAD/CAM teams for years to address a very similar file distribution problem. And it does more than just eliminate process delays. It can also save you considerable sums of money — because you can spend less on your network and your local storage infrastructure.

Time, however, is the real enemy when it comes digital deliverables. So if you're doing Big DevOps, take a hard look at your codebase distribution bottleneck. The future of your company may depend on it.

Barry Phillips is CMO of Panzura.

Share this

Industry News

March 28, 2024

Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. announced a collaboration with Microsoft that utilizes the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to enhance Check Point Infinity AI Copilot, marking a significant advancement in cyber security AI applications.

March 28, 2024

ArmorCode announced ArmorCode Risk Prioritization, providing a 3D scoring approach for managing application security risks.

March 28, 2024

AppViewX and Fortanix announced a partnership to offer cloud-delivered secure digital identity management and code signing.

March 27, 2024

WaveMaker has updated its platform in response to customer demand for more sophisticated API and code management tools.

March 27, 2024

Vercara announced the launch of UltraAPI™, a product suite that protects APIs and web applications from malicious bots and fraudulent activity while ensuring regulatory compliance.

March 27, 2024

Legit Security announced the launch of its standalone enterprise secrets scanning product, which can detect, remediate, and prevent secrets exposure across the software development pipeline.

March 26, 2024

Progress announced a strategic partnership with Veeam® Software, the #1 leader by market share in Data Protection and Ransomware Recovery, to provide customers with an enterprise-ready cyber defense solution that strengthens the security of their business-critical data.

March 26, 2024

GitGuardian released its Software Composition Analysis (SCA) module.

March 26, 2024

DataStax announced a milestone in its journey to simplify enterprise retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for developers by integrating with Microsoft Semantic Kernel.

March 25, 2024

Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. is collaborating with NVIDIA to enhance the security of AI cloud infrastructure. Integrating NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, which feature a broad range of purpose-built, innovative security capabilities, the new Check Point AI Cloud Protect solution will help prevent threats at both the network and host levels.

March 25, 2024

Sentry announced the release of Autofix, an AI-powered feature to debug and fix code in minutes, saving important time and resources.

March 25, 2024

Apiiro announced a product integration and partnership with Secure Code Warrior, the agile developer security training platform, to extend its ASPM technology and processes to the people layer.

March 21, 2024

Progress announced that Progress® Semaphore™, its metadata management and semantic AI platform, was named a Champion in SoftwareReviews’ 2024 Metadata Management Emotional Footprint Awards.

March 21, 2024

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®) has partnered with Udemy, an online skills marketplace and learning platform.

March 21, 2024

GitLab has acquired Oxeye, the provider of a cloud-native application security and risk management solution.