One of the most significant enablers of IT and software automation has been the shift away from fixed infrastructure to flexible infrastructure. Virtualization, process isolation, resource sharing and other forms of flexible infrastructure have been in use for many decades in IT systems. It can be seen in early Unix systems, Java application servers and… Continue reading
Kubernetes vs. Docker Datacenter
I found this article on serverwatch today: http://www.serverwatch.com/server-trends/why-kubernetes-is-all-conquering.html It’s not technically deep, but it does highlight the groundswell of interest for and adoption of kubernetes. It’s also worth noting that GCE and Azure will now both have a native, fully managed kubernetes offering. I haven’t found a fully managed docker datacenter offering, but I’m sure… Continue reading
JWT based authentication in Python bottle
May applications require authentication to secure protected resources. While standards like oAuth accommodate sharing resources between applications, more variance exists in implementations of securing the app in the first place. A recent standard, JWT, provides a mechanism for creating tokens with embedded data, signing these tokens and even encrypting them when warranted. This post explores… Continue reading
High level view of Container Orchestration
Container orchestration is at the heart of a successful container architecture. Orchestration takes as input a definition of how a deployed application should look. This usually includes how many containers for a certain image are needed, volumes for persistent data, networking for communication between containers and awareness of various discovery mechanisms. Discovery may include such… Continue reading
Use oAuth to Register Users on My Site using Social Media Credentials
I’m interested in allowing a user to register on my site/app using their social account credentials (e.g. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). It should also be possible to register using an email address. Since the site/app will be composed of a handful of microservices, I would want to provide my own identity service, which might includes… Continue reading
Do Humans or Machines consume IaaS (REST API)
Infrastructure as a Service, like OpenStack and AWS, have made it possible to consume infrastructure on demand. It’s important to understand the ways in which both humans and machines interact with IaaS offerings in order to design optimal systems that leverage all possible automation opportunities. I drew the diagram below to help illustrate. Everything is… Continue reading
HEAT or Ansible in OpenStack? Both!
Someone asked me today whether he should use HEAT or Ansible to automate his OpenStack deployment. My answer is that he should use both! It’s helpful to understand the original design decisions for each tool in order to use each effectively. OpenStack HEAT and Ansible were designed to do different things, although in the opensource… Continue reading
Deploy MongoDB using Ansible
I’ve recently had some people ask how I deploy MongoDB. For a while I used their excellent online tool to deploy and monitor my clusters. Unfortunately they changed direction and I couldn’t afford their new tools, so I turned to Ansible. In order more easily share the process, I posted a simple example that you… Continue reading
Create better software by starting on paper
Today I read an article on the Wall Street Journal about the benefits of taking handwritten notes over taking notes electronically. It’s a great article and I have seen parallels in my own professional work. For years I have trained computer programmers and others in various technology roles. I have observed a similar effect which… Continue reading
What is Cloud Native?
I hear a lot of people talking about cloud native applications these days. This includes technologists and business managers. I have found that there really is a spectrum of meaning for the term cloud native and that two people rarely mean the same thing when they say cloud native. At one end of the spectrum… Continue reading