Silicon Valley Tech Giant partners with FP Complete to deploy modern immutable infrastructure and enable weekly application deployments
FP Complete saves Silicon Valley Tech Giant time, money and resources by implementing cutting-edge DevSecOps principles giving them the ability to deploy weekly software updates and features.
Deploying Kubernetes using DevSecOps Principles
FP Complete began working with a well known Silicon Valley Tech Giant who needed to deploy Kubernetes using sound DevSecOps principles and procedures. This tech giant had recently acquired a start-up, and was having difficulties bridging the technology gap between the two.
Since this global project involved new start-up technologies it required the use of specialized, open-source tools considered bleeding edge. The goal was to implement DevSecOps best practices — including infrastructure as code and CI/CD — in their deployment.
When FP Complete was introduced into this project, they worked with both teams to deploy Kubernetes clusters. As part of their DevSecOps mission, FP Complete worked to knock down the technical barriers between the two teams. FP Complete did this by helping both teams navigate the complexities of the technologies and the new corporate environment by:
- Utilizing specific technologies including Kubespray, Ansible, Terraform, Kubernetes, and AWS;
- Incorporating DevSecOps best practices and principles; and
- Ensuring a policy of over communication where previously there was little to none between the two groups.
The FP Complete team was engaged to keep the project on schedule and train both teams in DevSecOps best practices. The customer even requested that FP Complete create the first version of the infrastructure code for them due to tight project deadlines.
The key focus would be to ensure the customer had an integrated, tested, and working version of a cluster. Furthermore, since the code was modular and reusable, it could also be easily deployed with different versions for the components and in different environments
Corporation Type
Fortune 100 Hardware and Software Technology Company
Industry
Consumer Products
Project Type
Consumer Product with Associated e-Commerce Platform
Business Issues
- Client needed to deliver updates and new features quickly to their customers
- Client needed to ensure HIPAA compliance for their customers
- Client needed to deploy fast, scalable, reliable, secure and compliant applications into the cloud
Project Outcome
Created versioned, blue-green deployments of Kubernetes clusters using the CI/CD pipeline.
This project had four components to the cluster creation process: the cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes cluster with basic Kubernetes functionality, Kubernetes add-ons, and microservices to deploy in various clusters created by the development team. Along with cluster creation, the project needed to create four classes of cluster environments: Development, Testing, Staging, and Production.
Project Outcome
Created cloud independent code to support a future multi-cloud infrastructure.
FP Complete accomplished this by choosing Kubespray as the Kubernetes creation tool as it enabled the project team to use one tool for the deployment of multiple infrastructure environments. FP Complete leveraged this opportunity to put DevSecOps best practices to work. It’s important to note that Amazon’s EKS was not yet available at the time of this project. When Amazon EKS eventually became best practice, FP Complete migrated the customer over to an EKS based deployment.
TECHNOLOGY USED
Kuberspray, Ansible, Terraform, Kubernetes, AWS
FP Complete’s Solution
- Created AWS infrastructure from FP Complete’s own Terraform modules that could be replicated and tested
- Restructured and modularized the Ansible code in Kubespray to handle the constant version changes of Kubernetes and its add-ons
- Created integration tests so the components could be tested together before deployment to ensure there was always a baseline, working version of the cluster
- Made an overall modularization of the code to easily reuse and deploy the same code base to the three different environments
NEW CHALLENGES FOR FP COMPLETE
- Getting the proper infrastructure in place in both on-premise and cloud environments
- Integrating a unique set of necessary Kubernetes add-ons to meet the client’s needs
- Creating an on-ramp for easily deploying applications into the Kubernetes cluster
The Conclusion
FP Complete paired their specialized approach with expert technical “know-how” to work with the customers in-house teams. Together, they defined, designed, and implemented a new and modern DevSecOps infrastructure to improve the company’s time to market for application enhancements.
FP Complete integrated new “state of the art” DevSecOps tools without disrupting the existing infrastructure needed to support and run the platform across multiple deployments at global scale. The net result was a modern, maintainable infrastructure setup with cloud agnostic code to support a future multi-cloud infrastructure.