There’s a lot of buzz these days about Application Release Automation (ARA) and what it is exactly. From CloudBees’s perspective, ARA is the process of packaging and deploying applications (or updates to applications) in an automated, repeatable and consistent way. Our own Anders Wallgren, CTO, takes this topic a step further and outlines some helpful tips for CIOs looking to build deployment quality in their software in today’s
DevOps.com .
While many software deployments are still being done manually (a survey we ran last year found that over 75 percent of deployments are still done manually, despite the many problems with this model, which is extremely brittle and error prone), it is a truth that many organizations and CIOs need to face. Even in the lower environments (such as testing or pre-production), 66 percent of respondents report its very time-consuming just to troubleshoot why a failure occurred. The reality is there’s no question that the implications of failed deployments can put a major dent in your bottom line, and with some companies – failed deployments have literally
put them out of business.
Ultimately, a successful ARA strategy eliminates the need to build and maintain custom scripts for application deployments, while simultaneously reducing configuration errors and downtime. It allows strategic allocation of resources, giving users the most “bang for their buck” from their developers and other IT professionals. Because of all these factors, Application Release Automation is a hugely effective strategy for increasing both the quality and speed of your deployments.
Read on to find out more