AppFlow - Application Deployment Engineering

Following our Application Deployment Review we know what we should engineer to deploy your application. Based on your exact needs, we engineer CI/CD pipelines, implement container image version and dependency maintenance, write Kubernetes manifests, implement base monitoring and persistent data backup and write documentation. We document the deployment workflow, data recovery procedures and developers instructions.

Included Services

You get a running application with continuous deployment, including provisioning and integration of required backend services and other involved components. Ready to use as a production service. All of the following aspects are engineered primarily by VSHN, in close collaboration with your developers.

These aspects also fulfill the prerequisite for VSHN to take over VSHN Application Hosting Operations (AppOps).

Deployment Configuration (YAML)

The deployment of your application and other needed services are written in Kubernetes manifests. This can be a manual process, or we might use further abstraction tooling for this, to make the process even easier.

Continuous Deployment Pipeline

Your code repository has a working CI/CD Pipeline that deploys your main branch, tags and / or dev branches automatically - often using GitLab CI/CD or GitHub Actions.

Application Deployed on Kubernetes
  • The result is your application running production ready on Kubernetes - usually on Managed OpenShift or APPUiO.

  • Backend services like databases, search and caches are provisioned either from the Cloud Provider or run in Kubernetes as-well - usually done through VSHN Application Catalog.

Image Version Maintenance

Dependencies in your applications' build process are scanned for new versions, and you can update them using automatically created Merge Requests - usually using renovate.

Implement Base Monitoring

We ensure that the containers are monitored, base metrics are available for debugging and defined alerts can be sent to you or VSHN, should the plan be that VSHN takes over operations.

Persistent Data Backup & Restore

We ensure that persistent data, be it databases or files on persistent volumes, are periodically backed up and that there is a known and tested restore procedure. We usually use K8up for this.

Documented Deployment Workflow

We document the whole development to deployment procedure as part of our CI/CD Engineering and make it easily available to your developers to use.

Instructions for Developers or Application Owners

Optionally, we can deliver hands on instructions and training for your developers or application owners.

Pricing

Epics and stories, estimated and offered via sales offer. You pay the time billed-by-the hour, based on effective effort. Hourly packages at reduced rates are available.

How We Work Together

Based on the concepts coming out of Application Deployment Review we define the concrete scope of work, create an estimation of work offer that you can order, and then start to engineer the above configuration for you. We deliver iterative results to you in sprints and give you the chance to see results early and be part of this journey as a developer or application owner.

Prerequisites

The Application Deployment Review is a prerequisite for us to be able to start engineering.

Scope

  • We work on one deployment (or multiple of the same application), one business case - as offered and ordered.

  • No operational responsibility yet - this is a one-off effort, we’re happy to continue on this journey, but at this point, we’ll only provide on-demand support for deployments we continuously are maintaining together, in the scope of VSHN Application Hosting Operations (AppOps).

Enabling Conditions

The small print that we emphasize, because this is our way to ensure successful collaboration.