News
Das Neuste aus der Welt von Adfinis SyGroup
You have a vision: you want the development of your infrastructure to be as scalable and agile as the development of your applications. Infrastructure as code will help you achieve that goal. So you’ve found the right tool – Terraform – but is your organization ready for the transformation? We’ll show you the four cultural and organizational elements you need to successfully adopt infrastructure as code.
It goes without saying that to build the foundation for a successful infrastructure as code practice you need the right tool. But do you know how to use that tool properly? And have you thought about how that tool will sit in your IT ecosystem? Which clouds do you want to support with that tool? The answers to these questions will bring you up to speed. However, they won’t make a long-lasting difference until you look at the impact of infrastructure as code on your team and culture.
A shared vision – supported by leadership
Just implementing a potentially successful tool won’t help if you don’t have a vision. You need to know what you’re actually looking to achieve in order to know what tool suits your organization best. Of course, sometimes you just want to jump on the bandwagon. You’ve thought about DevOps and you’ve heard that infrastructure as code is a great first step to embracing this philosophy. But what do you want to achieve?
Or perhaps you’ve got a clear vision of what you want, but have you shared that vision with the rest of the organization? You need a vision that is supported by leadership, so you can have a top-down approach, inspire teams, including the necessary operation engineers, to dive into all things ‘code’ and have all the resources in place to make the transition. Once you’ve got everyone working towards the same goal, it’s time to look at how you can create the right culture.
A testing culture
The right culture is the translation of the infrastructure as code philosophy for your organization. The right culture is built up from different elements. Such as having a testing culture. Testing is a fundamental step for application developers: in order to know what to build and to check whether the feature actually does what it’s supposed to do, they’ll write tests and execute them before the application goes live.
Infrastructure as code is no different from application development: it should do something and once you’ve coded a certain automation, it should do what it was designed for. Makes sense, right? Well, that means you need to think about testing before you code your infrastructure, so you can checkmark your way through your day. It’s oddly satisfying of course, but it’s also a matter of hygiene.
A versioning culture
Since the development of your infrastructure occurs a lot faster today than before, when you were manually building your machines, it’s vital that you know when you did what. We recommend using any type of GIT program to keep track of your versions. GIT doesn’t only help you keep track of who did what, but it also helps you revert to specific versions, just in case something major goes wrong.
A culture of collaboration
What GIT version management also supports is collaboration: code is shared and can be worked on simultaneously. And since all parts of the infrastructure are built and managed with the same code, work can actually be shared or transferred. Which is also great if your engineer decides to leave the company or becomes ill. With GIT, new staff can easily see how the structure is built, what changes were made, and make any corrections.
Of course, change is always difficult. If you’ve been working a certain way for a long time, it’s often hard to see the value in anything else. However, you also need a more agile way of managing your infrastructure and easily scaling up or sizing down any cloud in order to support your business. See it like this: when you’re building the playground, make sure it’s safe and big enough for all the kids to play in. That’s a big deal, because your role saves lives. Bearing this piece of wisdom in mind might make stepping into the unknown a little easier.
And don’t forget – we can help you with just this challenge: how to prepare your organization for the infrastructure as code revolution with Terraform. We offer a Terraform training, tailor-made for your organization. In other words: it doesn’t matter how far you are on your infrastructure as code journey, we’re here to help.
Die Chemie stimmt – Nachdem Adfinis erst im Januar dieses Jahres GitLab “Open” Partner wurde, ist Adfinis bereits im Mai zum “Select” Partner aufgestiegen. Adfinis konnte sich im Markt behaupten und hat die letzten Monate gezeigt, dass eine noch nähere Zusammenarbeit für alle Parteien eine florierende Zukunft verspricht.
GitLab ist die moderne Lösung mit der Entwickler-Teams alle Werkzeuge zur Implementierung von DevSecOps Workflows aus einem Guss erhalten. Egal ob on-premise, via SaaS oder hybrid – GitLab ist die flexible Lösung, mit der Teams schneller an ihr Ziel kommen. Die integrierten Security- und Quality-Scans sorgen nicht erst in nachgelagerten Prozessen für die nötigen Analysen, sondern sind integraler Bestandteil der Arbeitsschritte. Von der Planung, über die Verwaltung des Codes, bis hin zu den CI/CD Pipelines zum Testen und Deployen der Builds bringt Gitlab alles mit, was das Entwickler-Herz begehrt. Mit Gitlab setzen Organisationen auf eine sichere, moderne und intuitive Lösung, mit der die Time-to-Market beschleunigt und das Qualitäts- und Sicherheits-Management gestärkt wird.
Wie Kunden von der neuen Select Partnerschaft profitieren
Mit der Select Partnerschaft hat Adfinis den direkten Zugang zu den GitLab Engineers, wodurch ganz spezifisch auf die Anliegen der Kunden eingegangen werden kann und Wartezeiten drastisch verkürzt werden. Zudem können GitLab Subscriptions über Adfinis bezogen werden. Adfinis und GitLab Kunden profitieren also gleich auf zwei Ebenen von höherer Geschwindigkeit: technisch und administrativ
Warum GitLab und Adfinis?
Viele Organisationen sehen sich mit diversen Herausforderungen, die mit der zunehmenden Digitalisierung einhergehen, konfrontiert. Sie wollen ihre internen Development Prozesse automatisieren, dadurch ihre Time to Market minimieren und auf offene und transparente Tools setzen. Das breite Partnernetzwerk der Adfinis ermöglicht es, diese Herausforderungen gezielt und individuell mit ihren Kunden anzugehen. So brilliert GitLab in den Bereichen DevOps und DevSecOps vor allem im Zusammenspiel mit HashiCorp, SUSE und Red Hat Technologien, was Adfinis wahrlich zum Nährboden für Innovation gedeihen lässt.
Michael Moser, CCO bei Adfinis, weiss was die Kunden wollen “In den letzten Monaten haben wir bereits ein grosses Wachstum rund um DevSecOps beobachten können. Zusammen mit GitLab bieten wir unseren Kunden den Rundum-Service: von der Planung über die Implementation bis zum Betrieb.”
Adfinis setzt selber seit Jahren auf GitLab und ist der ideale Partner, um Unternehmen bei der Planung, der Einführung und dem Betrieb von GitLab in Ihrer IT-Organisation zu unterstützen.
“Mit Adfinis haben wir einen Partner, der wie die Faust aufs Auge passt. Sowohl die technische Ausrichtung, wie auch die Vision der Adfinis sind wie für die GitLab gemacht. Dank dem Einfallsreichtum und dem 24/7 Support der Adfinis, haben wir hier ein Fundament geschaffen, welches unseren Kunden Innovation auf allen Ebenen ermöglicht.” Ilaria Pazienza, Channel Sales Manager DACH, GitLab
Über Adfinis
Unsere Mission ist es, Open-Source-Technologien zu fördern, qualitativ hochwertige Arbeit zu liefern und unternehmenskritische Systeme rund um die Uhr zu betreiben, damit sich unsere Kunden auf ihr Kerngeschäft konzentrieren können. Durch die Zusammenarbeit mit uns werden Kunden vom Vendor lock-in befreit und sind ihrer Konkurrenz einen Schritt voraus.
Adfinis ist ein Dienstleistungsunternehmen mit Sitz in der Schweiz, den Niederlanden und Australien, das Kunden aus dem privaten und öffentlichen Sektor bei der Planung, der Implementierung und dem Betrieb von massgeschneiderten Infrastruktur- und Softwareprojekten unterstützt. Die Kernkompetenzen von Adfinis sind Open Source Engineering, 24/7 Managed Services und Softwareentwicklung.
Als Unternehmen gestalten wir eine Welt innovativer, nachhaltiger und widerstandsfähiger IT-Lösungen, die auf vertrauenswürdiger Open Source Technologie basieren, um das volle Potenzial unserer Kunden zu erschliessen.
Mehr Informationen zu Adfinis unter www.adfinis.com
If you’re looking to implement Terraform, are you aware that Terraform alone isn’t going to cut it? Sure, it’s a great tool, but have you thought about how it integrates with your IT landscape? And about retraining your operational engineers? To help you, we present 5 building blocks to really future-proof your infrastructure with a successful implementation of Terraform.
We’ve tried it all before, haven’t we: in order to reduce complexity, we introduce another piece of technology and think we’ve found the holy grail. Only to discover a few months later that the technology in itself is just another piece of equipment. You’re not going to repair any leaks just by having a wrench in your shed. However, it is a great tool if you know what you’re trying to achieve and if you know how to use it effectively.
The same’s true for HashiCorp’s Terraform. It is a great piece of equipment for managing your infrastructure, lean and mean. Nevertheless, if you just buy the tool, but have no clue how it best serves your business, you’ll be wasting your money. Which of course, is a shame, because the opportunities Terraform offers are a game-changer for any company wanting to safely provision, and easily manage and scale a multi-cloud infrastructure using only code.
But not to worry, we’ve got you covered. We offer you the five building blocks for successful implementation and use of any Terraform roll-out:
1. Coding your infrastructure with Terraform
It’s a bit of an open door of course, but in order to work with Terraform, you’ll need to learn how to work with it. Obviously, you could experiment yourself, it’s that easy; but if you want someone to show you the ropes, you can always follow our training. We’ll teach you how to build, change, and destroy infrastructure. But you won’t just learn how to work with the easy, human-readable configuration language, because the training will also cover the following aspects.
2. The role of testing in successful infrastructure as code
Thinking about testing before you embark on your infrastructure as code journey is important for two distinct reasons. First: your developers have a clear idea about the goals you want to achieve and the requirements the infrastructure needs to meet. They’ll be checkmarking their way through their work and that’ll be very satisfying. Secondly: you’ll make sure the written code actually does what it should do, and you’re ensuring that connected, previously written code isn’t negatively impacted.
3. Knowing what you did and when with GIT version control
It’s not only testing that ensures that your infrastructure as code works, we encourage you to use GIT for version control as well. GIT enables you to track the changes you’ve made to your code. This is essential if you want to know exactly what you have changed over time. Reverting to specific versions is also possible with GIT. When you’re working as a team on the code, GIT can combine changes made by multiple people, merging them into one version. In other words: GIT helps you keep control over your infrastructure as code.
4. How does Terraform land in your ecosystem?
Terraform is never a standalone product but is often integrated with other on-prem and cloud technologies. Therefore, before you deploy Terraform, you need to know its dependencies and how well it all works together. Plus: have you considered the open source nature of Terraform and your journey to the cloud? Terraform is not only a fine tool for managing your single-cloud infrastructure, but it’s also ideal for managing all your clouds. You’ll be able to match different workloads with different clouds, making it possible to build a vendor-independent infrastructure, ensuring that your company is agile, flexible and scalable.
5. Building a developers’ culture
Last, but certainly not least: when you’re adopting infrastructure as code and Terraform, you have to think about retraining your operational engineers and building a culture in which thinking in code is encouraged. For example: a machine is not a pet, but more like a herd of cattle. This means that you don’t manually manage each machine, but use code to manage all your machines. Future-proof your company by thinking like a developer, solving issues with code, and scaling up as you grow.
How we can help
These 5 building blocks will help you successfully implement Terraform and use it to achieve your goals. As we’ve said, our Terraform training will not only help you understand its syntax, it will help you with all the other steps as well: start with testing, learn how to use GIT, let it land in your ecosystem and build a developers’ culture. Are you ready to take the next step towards a future-proof infrastructure?
If you’re looking to implement Terraform, are you aware that Terraform alone isn’t going to cut it? Sure, it’s a great tool, but have you thought about how it integrates with your IT landscape? And about retraining your operational engineers? To help you, we present 5 building blocks to really
future-proof your infrastructure with a successful implementation of Terraform.
We’ve tried it all before, haven’t we: in order to reduce complexity, we introduce another piece of technology and think we’ve found the holy grail. Only to discover a few months later that the technology in itself is just another piece of equipment. You’re not going to repair any leaks just by having a wrench in your shed. But, it is
a great tool if you know what you’re trying to achieve and
if you know how to use it effectively.
The same’s true for HashiCorp’s Terraform. IT Is a great piece of equipment for managing your infrastructure, lean and mean. Nevertheless, if you just buy the tool, but have no clue how it best serves your business, you’ll be wasting your money. Which of course, is a shame, because the opportunities Terraform offers are a game-changer for any company wanting to safely provision, and easily manage and scale a multi-cloud infrastructure using only code.
But not to worry, we’ve got you covered. We offer you the five building blocks for successful implementation and use of any Terraform roll-out:
1. Coding your infrastructure with Terraform
It’s a bit of an open door of course, but in order to work with Terraform, you’ll need to learn how
to work with it. Obviously, you could experiment yourself, it’s that easy; but if you want someone to show you the ropes, you can always follow our training. We’ll teach you how to build, change, and destroy infrastructure. But you won’t just learn how to work with the easy, human-readable configuration language, because the training will cover the following aspects.
2. The role of testing in successful infrastructure as code
Thinking about testing before
you embark on your infrastructure as code journey is important for two distinct reasons. First: Your developers have a clear idea about the goals you want to achieve and the requirements the infrastructure needs to meet. They’ll be checking their way through their work and that’ll be very satisfying. Second: you’ll make sure the written code actually does what it should do, and
you’re ensuring that connected, previously written code isn’t negatively impacted.
3. Knowing what you did and when with GIT version control
It’s not only testing that ensures that your infrastructure as code works, we encourage you to use GIT for version control as well. GIT enables you to track the changes you’ve made to your code. This is essential if you want to know exactly what you have changed over time. Reverting to specific versions is also possible with GIT. When you’re working as a team on the code, GIT can combine changes made by multiple people, merging them into one version. In other words: GIT helps you keep control over your infrastructure as code.
4. How does Terraform land in your ecosystem?
Terraform is never a standalone product but is often integrated with other on-prem and cloud technologies. Therefore, before you deploy Terraform, you need to know its dependencies and how well it all works together. Plus: have you considered the open source nature of Terraform and your journey to the cloud? Terraform is not only a fine tool for managing your single-cloud infrastructure, but it’s ideal for managing all your clouds. You’ll be able to match different workloads with different clouds, making it possible to build a vendor-independent infrastructure, ensuring that your company is agile, flexible and scalable.
5. Building a developers’ culture
Last, but certainly not least: when you’re adopting infrastructure as code and terraform, you have to think about retraining your operational engineers and
building a culture in which thinking in code is encouraged. For example: a machine is not a pet, but more like a herd of cattle. This means that you don’t manually manage each machine, but use code to manage all
your Machines. Future-proof your company by thinking like a developer, solving issues with code, and scaling up as you grow.
How we can help
These 5 building blocks will help you successfully implement Terraform and use it to achieve your goals. As we’ve said, our Terraform training will not only help you understand its syntax, it will help you with all the other steps as well: start with testing, learn how to use GIT, let it land in your ecosystem and build a developers’ culture. Are you ready to take the next step towards a future-proof infrastructure?
Free Software and Open Source never was “just a technology thing”, it’s a cultural shift; that’s why the movement also has a role model function
When I first got exposed to F/OSS, the world was mostly powered by proprietary software and I didn’t have access to the ‘source’ of the technology that powered my computer. I had no clue how a compiler worked, how a kernel was created or how a photo got rendered onto my screen. Then my good friend Lukas showed up with a bunch of SUSE Linux CDs, and the journey down the rabbit hole began. Countless nights of experimenting, reading manuals, building ‘Linux from Scratch’ and posting on Usenet evolved into being part of one of the leading F/OSS services providers in Switzerland.
Attending conferences, meetups, events, trainings, being involved in non-profit organizations like CH Open, TDF as well as working on a small Linux distribution have all been very rewarding experiences. I made countless friends from all over the world, who showed me new tricks and opened my horizon to new ideas. Through conversations, I also learned to see the world through their eyes. It became clear to me, that F/OSS is not just a technology thing: the movement is about bringing people together, removing barriers and making IT more useful for society.
At Adfinis we try to create an environment where people interested in working on F/OSS find a place where inclusion is one of the main pillars. No matter your gender, age, cultural background, sexual-orientation, political or religious orientation: we welcome you at Adfinis!
Inclusiveness is common sense, and we believe it should be something every organization should not only strive for, but actually fight for. There is no place for toxicity, mobbing and exclusion.
Whilst we are not involved in the current FSF discussions, we urge the board of FSF to find a solution to the severe impact their actions have had on the global free software and open source community.
With Leadership comes responsibility. If leaders do not fully embrace inclusion, they damage their cause and weaken their organization. We therefore ask FSF to take a clear stand on being an inclusive and friendly organization and to live up to its own role model function.
Written by Nicolas Christener, CEO & CTO at Adfinis
