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Service-Centric Mapping for Agile Software Deployments

Tom Molfetto

If you've spent any time at all on industry websites, you've probably seen a couple of statistics that support of service-centric mapping: 80% of unplanned business service downtime is due to change (and therefore a failure in IT change control), and that more than 50% of unplanned downtime is the result of human error. It's a simple fact, and there's no way of getting around it. And in today's landscape, there can be more impactful issues than downtime on the business, such as security vulnerabilities, especially where personal information or sensitive data is at stake.

This fact becomes especially important to consider in organizations and amongst teams that operate in an agile development environment, where fast and regular iterations of the core product – which is that which serves to distinguish the company in the marketplace and is imperative along the pathway to market leadership – are being released to introduce new features or otherwise improve performance.

In this type of environment, where the development team is generally rolling out new builds on a monthly basis, and perhaps even more regularly to address minor issues, problems often arise in the gap that exists between the development and operations teams. Fast and short iterations of the core service require rapid and sometimes automated deployment procedures from IT teams, who are being pressed to ensure that the production environment is stable, functional and performing optimally. And as development continues to push new builds towards production, IT is oftentimes introducing new components into the infrastructure to support various aspects of the core product.

DevOps is a software development method that stresses communication, collaboration and integration between software developers and information technology (IT) professionals that aims to help an organization rapidly produce software products and services. It is a method that effectively combines and accounts for: product development, technology operations, and quality assurance. In short, DevOps is a method that seeks to bridge the gap between development and operations teams in a way that allows for greater efficiency for the operation, and a better experience for the end-user of the core service.

In order to promote DevOps harmony, it is important that the operations team responsible for managing the production environment begins to manage from the perspective of the business service(s) being powered by the IT infrastructure as opposed to managing the components of the IT infrastructure without a sense of context for the service(s) that it underlies.

With the advent of virtualization, organizations that rely on agile development to stay ahead of the competition run the risk of a fragmented and disorganized infrastructure with VMs spread out all over the place. It can be difficult to keep track of the physical locations of each VM, many of which are powering mission-critical pieces of the core product. In this sort of environment, having an up-to-date, service-centric map that makes sense out of the increasingly complex IT infrastructure powering many of today's most powerful applications is critical.

In a landscape where a single business service may have dozens of distinct virtualized IT components, it is critical that the traditional approach taken by IT organizations of managing disparate technology silos shifts towards managing the business services that are running in the data center. Otherwise IT is not supporting the business in an optimal manner.

Tom Molfetto is Marketing Director for Neebula.

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Service-Centric Mapping for Agile Software Deployments

Tom Molfetto

If you've spent any time at all on industry websites, you've probably seen a couple of statistics that support of service-centric mapping: 80% of unplanned business service downtime is due to change (and therefore a failure in IT change control), and that more than 50% of unplanned downtime is the result of human error. It's a simple fact, and there's no way of getting around it. And in today's landscape, there can be more impactful issues than downtime on the business, such as security vulnerabilities, especially where personal information or sensitive data is at stake.

This fact becomes especially important to consider in organizations and amongst teams that operate in an agile development environment, where fast and regular iterations of the core product – which is that which serves to distinguish the company in the marketplace and is imperative along the pathway to market leadership – are being released to introduce new features or otherwise improve performance.

In this type of environment, where the development team is generally rolling out new builds on a monthly basis, and perhaps even more regularly to address minor issues, problems often arise in the gap that exists between the development and operations teams. Fast and short iterations of the core service require rapid and sometimes automated deployment procedures from IT teams, who are being pressed to ensure that the production environment is stable, functional and performing optimally. And as development continues to push new builds towards production, IT is oftentimes introducing new components into the infrastructure to support various aspects of the core product.

DevOps is a software development method that stresses communication, collaboration and integration between software developers and information technology (IT) professionals that aims to help an organization rapidly produce software products and services. It is a method that effectively combines and accounts for: product development, technology operations, and quality assurance. In short, DevOps is a method that seeks to bridge the gap between development and operations teams in a way that allows for greater efficiency for the operation, and a better experience for the end-user of the core service.

In order to promote DevOps harmony, it is important that the operations team responsible for managing the production environment begins to manage from the perspective of the business service(s) being powered by the IT infrastructure as opposed to managing the components of the IT infrastructure without a sense of context for the service(s) that it underlies.

With the advent of virtualization, organizations that rely on agile development to stay ahead of the competition run the risk of a fragmented and disorganized infrastructure with VMs spread out all over the place. It can be difficult to keep track of the physical locations of each VM, many of which are powering mission-critical pieces of the core product. In this sort of environment, having an up-to-date, service-centric map that makes sense out of the increasingly complex IT infrastructure powering many of today's most powerful applications is critical.

In a landscape where a single business service may have dozens of distinct virtualized IT components, it is critical that the traditional approach taken by IT organizations of managing disparate technology silos shifts towards managing the business services that are running in the data center. Otherwise IT is not supporting the business in an optimal manner.

Tom Molfetto is Marketing Director for Neebula.

Hot Topics

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E-commerce is set to skyrocket with a 9% rise over the next few years ... To thrive in this competitive environment, retailers must identify digital resilience as their top priority. In a world where savvy shoppers expect 24/7 access to online deals and experiences, any unexpected downtime to digital services can lead to significant financial losses, damage to brand reputation, abandoned carts with designer shoes, and additional issues ...

Efficiency is a highly-desirable objective in business ... We're seeing this scenario play out in enterprises around the world as they continue to struggle with infrastructures and remote work models with an eye toward operational efficiencies. In contrast to that goal, a recent Broadcom survey of global IT and network professionals found widespread adoption of these strategies is making the network more complex and hampering observability, leading to uptime, performance and security issues. Let's look more closely at these challenges ...

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The 2025 Catchpoint SRE Report dives into the forces transforming the SRE landscape, exploring both the challenges and opportunities ahead. Let's break down the key findings and what they mean for SRE professionals and the businesses relying on them ...

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The pressure on IT teams has never been greater. As data environments grow increasingly complex, resource shortages are emerging as a major obstacle for IT leaders striving to meet the demands of modern infrastructure management ... According to DataStrike's newly released 2025 Data Infrastructure Survey Report, more than half (54%) of IT leaders cite resource limitations as a top challenge, highlighting a growing trend toward outsourcing as a solution ...

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The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating across the telecoms industry, with 88% of fixed broadband service providers now investigating or trialing AI automation to enhance their fixed broadband services, according to new research from Incognito Software Systems and Omdia ...

 

AWS is a cloud-based computing platform known for its reliability, scalability, and flexibility. However, as helpful as its comprehensive infrastructure is, disparate elements and numerous siloed components make it difficult for admins to visualize the cloud performance in detail. It requires meticulous monitoring techniques and deep visibility to understand cloud performance and analyze operational efficiency in detail to ensure seamless cloud operations ...

Imagine a future where software, once a complex obstacle, becomes a natural extension of daily workflow — an intuitive, seamless experience that maximizes productivity and efficiency. This future is no longer a distant vision but a reality being crafted by the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence ...

Enterprise data sprawl already challenges companies' ability to protect and back up their data. Much of this information is never fully secured, leaving organizations vulnerable. Now, as GenAI platforms emerge as yet another environment where enterprise data is consumed, transformed, and created, this fragmentation is set to intensify ...

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