We are at an inflection point??

Welcome to BlakYaks' monthly newsletter about all things cloud native. Expect a mix of insights and updates covering everything from cutting-edge solutions to best practices and real-world examples shared directly by our team.

Containers represent a significant leap forward in how we develop, deploy, and manage software applications. Their rise to prominence signaled a new phase in digital innovation, reshaping the expectations of what is possible in this area.

The drive for digital transformation

In an increasingly digital world, businesses are scrambling to keep up, and digital transformation programmes have become the norm rather than the exception. Companies are adopting an 'adapt or perish' philosophy, and this shift towards digitalisation is creating a high demand for containers. The ability to package an application along with its runtime dependencies provides the agility businesses need to keep pace with the rapid changes in the digital space.

Speed is of the essence

Application Development (App Dev) teams are under mounting pressure to accelerate their pace and roll out new features to stay competitive.

Here, containers prove their worth. They are considerably faster than Virtual Machines (VMs) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), potentially reducing the time taken to deploy applications from weeks to minutes.

In the race against time, containers are an App Dev team's best ally.

What is an ECP (Enterprise Container Platform)?

An Enterprise Container Platform (ECP) is a holistic solution enabling businesses to build and run applications securely and efficiently with a high degree of portability. It offers a consistent environment across different infrastructures, simplifying development and operations processes.

??Consistency and ubiquity

One of the key advantages of an ECP is its ability to maintain environment consistency across different stages of the application lifecycle. This means that an application built and tested in one environment will function the same way in another, eliminating "it works on my machine" type issues.

??Reduced cost

ECPs can significantly lower operational costs. By efficiently running multiple containers and services on clusters with elastic scaling, they help maximise resource utilisation. Also, the nature of fully automated platforms minimise manual intervention, further decreasing operational expenses.

??Isolation and no noisy neighbours

Containers in an ECP are isolated from each other, ensuring that they do not interfere with their 'neighbours.' This separation enhances application security and prevents a single misbehaving application from affecting others, ensuring optimal performance.

??Supporting CI/CD and microservices architecture

ECPs play a crucial role in supporting Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines and facilitating the transition to a microservices architecture. By offering a consistent and isolated environment for each service, ECPs make it easier to build, test, and deploy microservices.

??Automation all around

ECPs facilitate full automation of infrastructure, core services and applications within a secure supply chain. This automation includes things such as secret leakage protection, code testing, and identifying Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), reducing the risk of security breaches.

??Governance and security

ECPs also provide governance capabilities, including enforcing Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks, company policy compliance, and overseeing cost management. They help to ensure a secure supply chain adding an extra layer of security to your applications.

??The Kubernetes Advantage

Most ECPs leverage Kubernetes (K8s) for container orchestration, offering several benefits. These include resource optimisation, self-healing capabilities, auto-scaling, and simplified management of DNS, networking, and IP addressing. These features make Kubernetes an the defacto orchestrator for managing containerised applications at scale.

Why BlakYaks: Our Building Blocks

At BlakYaks our approach and building blocks set us apart, ensuring customers get the most out of their investment in their digital transformation journey.

Here's how we do it:

??Accelerating time to value and ROI

We place a strong emphasis on streamlining processes and driving value swiftly through the use of our modular IP library.

Our IP library comprises reusable code and components, which can be quickly and efficiently tailored to specific business needs. This means we don't have to start from scratch for each project, which significantly reduces the development time and allows us to deliver solutions faster.

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??Designs & Patterns

We use best practice designs and patterns that have been proven effective in the industry. By leveraging these, we can create robust, scalable, and efficient solutions that cater for specific business needs.

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??Modular code and re-usable components

Our solutions are built on modular code and re-usable components. This approach not only promotes code efficiency, quality and maintainability but also allows us to quickly compose pipelines based on Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) best practices.

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??Integration with Microsoft, CNCF and third-party tools

We understand that the best solutions often come from collaboration. That's why we ensure seamless integration with tools from industry leaders like Microsoft and selected Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) technologies, as well as other third-party tools. This interoperability allows us to leverage the strengths of various software solutions and provide tailored platforms for our customers.

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YakChat - Enterprise containers on Azure ?????

Our second YakChat podcast episode is now available:

BlakYaks Chief Engineer, Stuart Anderson and CEO Dirk Anderson discuss the growth of container technology and explain "Why containers & Why now?".

Learn why #AKS is the go-to for robust enterprise container platforms and hear some great insights shared by Stuart into the essentials for delivering production services using container technologies at scale??

??Listen or watch "Enterprise Containers on Azure":

?? Youtube: https://lnkd.in/eaSaDcTN

?? Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eH_DrYg7

?? Apple Music: https://lnkd.in/eZTMRdX7

See you next week!

Come to DevOps Live next week and visit us at ??Booth L80??Say hello, meet the team and grab some cool swag! Also don't miss our special guest ????

Grab your free ticket here ?? https://lnkd.in/d6Ym32nu

What should we cover next?

Is there a specific topic you'd like us to explore in upcoming newsletters? Drop your suggestions in the comments below & If you’ve got any questions or are looking to partner with us, we're all ears!

Simply leave a message below or let’s chat and discuss how we can collaborate to accelerate your cloud native journey.?

You can reach out to us at [email protected]?

Book a call here: https://www.blakyaks.com/bookings?

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