Devops, the process of creating code internally in an effort to streamline the functions of the administrative processes within the framework of the functions of the sysadmin, are still emerging within IT departments across the globe. These tasks have traditionally revolved around the mechanical functions the sysadmin has under their purview. However, another whole category of administration is now becoming far more vital in the role of the sysadmin, and that’s the deployment of applications and their components within the environment.

Application Development is taking on a big change. The utilization of methods like MicroServices, and containers, a relatively new paradigm about which I’ve spoken before, makes the deployment of these applications very different. Now, a SysAdmin must be more responsive to the needs of the business to get these bits of code and/or containers into production far more rapidly. As a result, the SysAdmin needs to have tools in place so as to to respond as precisely, actively, and consistently as possibly. The code for the applications is now being delivered so dynamically, that it now must be deployed, or repealed just as rapidly.

When I worked at VMware, I was part of a SDDC group who had the main goal of assisting the rollouts of massive deployments (SAP, JDEdwards, etc.) to an anywhere/anytime type model. This was DevOps in the extreme. Our expert code jockeys were tasked with writing custom code at each deployment. While this is vital to the goals of many organizations, but today the tools exist to do these tasks on a more elegant manner.

So, what tools would an administrator require to push out or repeal these applications in a potentially seamless manner? There are tools that will roll out applications, say from your VMware vCenter to whichever VMware infrastructure you have in your server farms, but also, there are ways to leverage that same VMware infrastructure to deploy outbound to AWS, Azure, or to hybrid, but non-VMware infrastructures. A great example is the wonderful Platform9, which exists as a separate panel within vCenter, and allows the admin to push out full deployments to wherever the management platform is deployed.

There are other tools, like Mezos which help to orchestrate Docker types of container deployments. This is the hope of administrators for Docker administration.

But, as of yet, the micro-services type of puzzle piece has yet to be solved. As a result, the sysadmin is currently under the gun for the same type of automation toolset. For today, and for the foreseeable future, DevOps holds the key. We need to not only deploy these parts and pieces to the appropriate places, but we also have to ensure that they get pushed to the correct location, that they’re tracked and that they can be pulled back should that be required. So, what key components are critical? Version tracking, lifecycle, permissions, and specific locations must be maintained.

I imagine that what we’ll be seeing in the near future are standardized toolsets that leverage orchestration elements for newer application paradigms. For the moment, we will need to rely on our own code to assist us in the management of the new ways in which applications are being built.