Nine Ways To Fail at Cloud Native

A presentation at FlowCon by Holly Cummins

I’m a consultant with the IBM Garage. These are my scary stories #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

what is cloud native? #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

Credit to @bibryam #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

(a great article, btw) #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

microservices containers dynamically orchestrated 2019 #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

e v i t a n d u o l c “the n o i t a d n u o f g n i co mput is wrong … .” e v i t a n d u o l c t abo u #IBMGarage Dr Holly @holly_cummins

born on the cloud IBM Garage @holly_cummins

microservices born on the cloud IBM Garage @holly_cummins

born on the cloud IBM Garage microservices @holly_cummins

kubernetes born on the cloud IBM Garage microservices @holly_cummins

born on the cloud IBM Garage microservices kubernetes @holly_cummins

devops born on the cloud IBM Garage microservices kubernetes @holly_cummins

born on the cloud IBM Garage microservices kubernetes devops @holly_cummins

born on the cloud IBM Garage microservices kubernetes devops modern and nice @holly_cummins

born on the cloud microservices kubernetes devops modern and nice IBM Garage @holly_cummins

synonym for ‘cloud’ born on the cloud microservices kubernetes devops modern and nice IBM Garage @holly_cummins

born on the cloud microservices kubernetes devops synonym for ‘cloud’ modern and nice IBM Garage @holly_cummins

?? IBM Garage ?? ?? ?? idempotent ?? ?? @holly_cummins

born on the cloud kubernetes microservices IBM Garage 12-factor just ‘cloud’ modern and nice rerunnable @holly_cummins

© 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

cloud native is not © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

cloud native is not a synonym for ‘microservices’ © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

if ‘cloud native’ has to be a synonym for anything, it would be ‘idempotent’ © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

if ‘cloud native’ has to be a synonym for anything, it would be ‘idempotent’ which definitely needs a synonym © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

microservices stack containers 2019 #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

immutable infrastructure microservices exemplify 2020 IBM Garage @holly_cummins

build great products faster © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

make high-impact changes frequently and predictably with minimal toil 2020 IBM Garage @holly_cummins

what problem are we trying to solve? © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“everyone else is doing it?” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

wishful mimicry #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

cost © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

cost el a s t i c i t y © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

s cost pee d © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

exotic capabilities © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

why cloud native? © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

2011 12 factors © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

2011 12 factors how to write a cloud application so you don’t get electrocuted © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

2010 the dawn of cloud native © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

are we all agreed on the goal? © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

why are there no microservices in this cloud native app Alice? #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

why is the cloud only saving us money, Alice? #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

microservices are not the goal #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

microservices are not the goal they are the means #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we’re going too slowly. we need to get rid of COBOL and make microservices!” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we’re going too slowly. we need to get rid of COBOL and make microservices!” “… but our release board only meets twice a year.” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

se a b od o g a e r a s r e n i a t con © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

it’s not a competition to see how many you can have © 2019 IBM Corporation se a b od o g a e r a s r e n i a t con #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

distributed monolith #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

distributed monolith but without compile-time checking … or guaranteed function execution #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

reasons not to do microservices small team not planning to release independently don’t want complexity of a service mesh - or worse yet, rolling your own domain model doesn’t split nicely #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“every time we change one microservice, another breaks” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

cloud-native spaghetti is still spaghetti (Image: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.) © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

distributed != decoupled © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“each of our microservices has duplicated the same object model … with twenty classes and seventy fields” © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

Microservice © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

Microservice Domain © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

Courtesy NASA/ JPL-Caltech © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

metric units imperial units distributing did not help

microservices need consumer-driven contract tests © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

fail the not-actually-continuous continuous integration and continuous deployment

“we have a CI/CD” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

CI/CD is something you do not a tool you buy #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“i’ll merge my branch into our CI next week” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“CI/CD … CI/CD … CI/CD … we release every six months … CI/CD …. ” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

continuous. I don’t think that word means what you think it means. #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you push to master? #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you push to master? integrate? #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you push to master? integrate? every character #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you push to master? integrate? every character actually continuous … but stupid #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you push to master? integrate? every character every commit (several times an hour) actually continuous … but stupid #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you push to master? integrate? every character every commit (several times an hour) every few commits (several times a day) actually continuous … but stupid #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you push to master? integrate? every character every commit (several times an hour) every few commits (several times a day) once a day actually continuous … but stupid #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you release? every push (many times a day) every user story every epic once a sprint once a quarter #IBMGarage once every two years @holly_cummins

deploy? how often should you release? every push (many times a day) every user story every epic once a sprint once a quarter #IBMGarage once every two years @holly_cummins

deploy? how often should you release? every push (many times a day) every user story every epic once a sprint once a quarter once every two years (need a good handle on feature flags) #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

deploy? how often should you release? every push (many times a day) every user story every epic once a sprint once a quarter ok once every two years (need a good handle on feature flags) #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

deploy? how often should you release? every push (many times a day) every user story every epic once a sprint once a quarter ok (need a good handle on feature flags) #IBMGarage once every two years oldschool @holly_cummins

deploy? how often should you release? every push (many times a day) every user story every epic once a sprint once a quarter ok once every two years sigh (need a good handle on feature flags) #IBMGarage oldschool @holly_cummins

deploy? how often should you release? every push (many times a day) every user story every epic once a sprint once a quarter ok ok once every two years sigh (need a good handle on feature flags) #IBMGarage oldschool @holly_cummins

how often should you test in staging? #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you test in staging? deliver? #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how often should you test in staging? deliver? every push my favourite #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we can’t actually release this.” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

what’s stopping more frequent deploys? #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we can’t release this microservice… we deploy all our microservices at the same time.” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we can’t ship until every feature is complete” © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

if you’re not embarrassed by your first release it was too late - Reid Hoffman #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

speed © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

what’s the point of architecture that can go faster, if you don’t go faster? © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

how not to drive a car © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

feedback is good engineering © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

feedback is good business © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

deferred wiring #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

A/B testing canary deploys #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“our tests aren’t automated” © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we don’t know if our code works” © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

systems will behave in unexpected ways © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

dependency updates can change behaviour © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we can’t ship until we have more confidence in the quality” © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

microservices need automated integration tests © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

not a good CI/CD indicator a good CI/CD indicator “we don’t know when the build is broken” © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

a good build radiator © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“oh yes, that build has been broken for a few weeks…” © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

fail the lockeddown totally rigid inflexible un-cloudy cloud

“we’ve configured our network! #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we’ve configured our network! you can either access the cloud servers … or access jira. #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we’ve configured our network! you can either access the cloud servers … or access jira. to access both you’d need two machines.” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“it takes us a week to start coding.” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“it takes us a week to start coding.” “two days to get a repo … two days to get a pipeline …” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we’ve scheduled the architecture board review for a month after the project is ready to ship” © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“this provisioning software is broken” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

10 minute provision-time what we sold “this provisioning software is broken” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

what the client thought they’d got 10 minute provision-time what we sold 3 month provisiontime “this provisioning software is broken” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

what the client thought they’d got 10 minute provision-time the reason 3 month provisiontime 84-step pre-approval process what we sold “this provisioning software is broken” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

old-style governance isn’t going to work #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

Provider A Provider B “we’re going to change cloud provider to fix our procurement process!” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

if the developers are the only ones changing, cloud native is not going to work #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

there is a cost: developers leave #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

the cloud makes it so easy to provision hardware. IBM Garage @holly_cummins

that doesn’t mean the hardware is free. IBM Garage @holly_cummins

Hey boss, I created a Kubernetes cluster. IBM Garage @holly_cummins

Hey boss, I created a Kubernetes cluster. I forgot it for 2 months. IBM Garage @holly_cummins

Hey boss, I created a Kubernetes cluster. I forgot it for 2 months. … and it’s £1000 a month. IBM Garage @holly_cummins

2017 survey 25% of 16,000 servers doing no useful work #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

2017 survey 25% of 16,000 servers doing no useful work “perhaps someone forgot to turn them off” #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all. — Peter Drucker IBM Garage @holly_cummins

“we have no idea how much we’re spending on cloud.” IBM Garage @holly_cummins

cloud to manage your clouds IBM Garage @holly_cummins

site reliability engineering #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

make releases deeply boring @holly_cummins

how to brick a spaceprobe Phobos 1 © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

“we couldn’t get the automated checks to work, so we bypassed them” © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

recoverability © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

unrecoverable © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

back in ms no data loss manual intervention bricked fast, but data lost handoffs © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

handoffs bad automation good © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

ways to succeed at cloud native © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

be clear on what you’re trying to achieve © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

optimise for feedback © 2019 IBM Corporation #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

if you automate something, change the processes around that assume that the previously manual process is expensive or error prone. #IBMGarage @holly_cummins

Holly Cummins
@holly-cummins

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As a developer in IBM’s Cloud Garage, Holly Cummins works with customers who are trying to shift their businesses to the cloud, and to cloud native in particular. Their dream is more effort higher up the value chain, more innovation, and greater adaptability. What they really want is to beat their competitors to market, with something that’s better than their competitors, and then evolve it to beat any new competitors. What’s getting in their way isn’t the technology—wrapping something in a docker container (usually) isn’t that hard. Instead, it’s the structures that have been put in place to manage risk and the relationships between teams that trip companies up.

Holly shares stories of customers struggling to get cloud native and explains how IBM applied its methodology to turn things around. You’ll learn the ideal team size, the ideal microservice size, what skills a team needs, the role of architects, how to know if something is ready to ship, and whose fault everything is (joke).

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Another accessible #tech talk at #flowcon, tonight offered by @holly_cummins (a humble thread from what I understood) pic.twitter.com/uo92jgwXow
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
So WHAT does "cloud native" actually mean?
Everyone has their definition.

" If #cloud native has to be a synonym for anything, it should be 'idempotent'*. "#flowcon

* That's latin for "having the same power". (I knew this literary background would come in handy someday) pic.twitter.com/AnoTGdBGfM
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
.@CloudNativeFdn's definition keeps changing, so often that it's now hosted on a Git: https://t.co/fJnAyLJehZ

Bottom line is: something that allows you to "make high-impact changes frequently & predictably with minimal toil, to build great products faster".#ProductManagement pic.twitter.com/dPK2mo3QnK
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
Holly sees 4⃣ major benefits from a #cloud native architecture:
—money
—elasticity
—speed to market
—exotic capabilities

But very often, a #transformation is social-driven: "everyone's doing it so we should too". Many orgs know they want to be CN but don't know what pb to solve.
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
And just as anything else, a copy-paste from another organization won't work —it's just wishful mimicry.#frametheproblem #customize #flowcon
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
#microservices are not a goal—there are a means.#flowcon #CloudComputing #tech pic.twitter.com/tySQZ1h6hT
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
"#Cloud-Native spaghetti is worse than regular spaghetti!" @holly_cummins

4⃣ reasons NOT to do #microservices ⬇️#flowcon pic.twitter.com/CqlYn8QnVl
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
The "not-actually-continuous" CI/CD... 😑

CI/CD is a verb —not a tool—, it's something you DO!

Feedback is good #engineering and good #business.#cicd #tech #flowcon #ProductManagement pic.twitter.com/78xok6tgfh
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
Another reason for failure: lack of automation... #flowcon pic.twitter.com/rIpw7Xrzsc
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
A locked-down totally rigid inflexible un-cloudy #cloud is not a good option.
If the #developers are the only ones changing, cloud native is not gonna work.#culture #transformation #change #flowcon pic.twitter.com/iBrIgo5hyf
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
💸 There's also the mystery money pit... #finops #flowcon #tech #CloudNative #climate pic.twitter.com/LRhQbkotea
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
Old governance won't work. You also need to #change the process around #cloud. #flowcon pic.twitter.com/O42lx3IA5w
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
🌩️ Going #cloud-native, 5⃣ tips to avoid most common pitfalls:
—Identify the main pain point.
—Align on a clarified goal.
—Look at the whole system.
—Ensure psychological safety.
—Optimize feedback.

Very good talk by @holly_cummins at #flowcon, thank you.
— Sara Dufour (@ComSaraDufour) November 20, 2020
#flowcon Microservices are not the goal, they are the means. @holly_cummins
— Thierry de Pauw (@tdpauw) November 20, 2020
#flowcon What is Cloud Native not? it is not a synonym for 'microservices' @holly_cummins
— Thierry de Pauw (@tdpauw) November 20, 2020
#ContinuousInteration and #ContinuousDelivery is not something you buy, it is something you do! @holly_cummins #flowcon
— Thierry de Pauw (@tdpauw) November 20, 2020
OH: "CI/CD ... CI/CD ... CI/CD ...
... we release every six months
... CI/CD ..."

That is not continuous!@holly_cummins #flowcon
— Thierry de Pauw (@tdpauw) November 20, 2020
reasons not to do micro services
- small team
- not planning to release independently
- don't want complexity of service mesh - or worse yet, rolling your own
- domain model doesn't split nicely !!! 👈

#flowcon @holly_cummins
— Thierry de Pauw (@tdpauw) November 20, 2020
It _could_ be #ContinuousDelivery if your product demand is really 6 months. If it is, you have a constraint in sales/marketing more serious than technology
— Steve Smith (@SteveSmith_Tech) November 20, 2020
#flowcon If cloud native has to be synonym for anything, it would be for 'idempotent' @holly_cummins
— Thierry de Pauw (@tdpauw) November 20, 2020

Nine Ways To Fail at Cloud Native

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