Deployment Manager: Powering continuous integration
While continuous integration has improved software development processes in tech-companies around the world, the deployment of software often does not get as much attention as other processes do.
With over 250 services in production and more than 100 software upgrades happening in Infobip at any moment in time, it’s easy to see why building an automated software deployment tool was an important achievement for the quality of service we deliver to companies and developers all over the world.
So it was no wonder that our developers Aleksandar Dostic and Emir Dzaferovic put on quite a show at the recent JavaCro’14, by introducing audience with Deployment Manager, our in-house developed tool for managing multiple services in our data centres using automated deployment and controlling load balancing software (Apache, HaProxy).
– We described our approach to the efficient cloud deployment of a highly distributed system which can be quite complex to deal with, but it’s much easier when using the right tools, says Emir.
With the Deployment Manager, it’s possible to deploy a build in any environment (Windows, Linux etc.) in just 5 minutes, simplifying and speeding up continuous delivery of various system upgrades.
What does this mean for thousands of business clients and developers that use our professional SMS messaging capacity every day? It means that all the improvements and new capabilities, constantly developed by Infobip’s engineers, are going live in a faster and safer way.
Our experts have created a tool that through its unique GUI can easily deploy various types of applications, such as Tomcat, NET, NodeJS, and Java services. Switching the connection between the balancer and a server, setting up a new configuration, and running the app itself, becomes a five-minute process that can be done from any Internet-connected device.
Due to less man-hours spent on deployment, new features are implemented much earlier and potential bugs are solved almost instantaneously, even from mobile. In addition, quickly switching between versions results in less downtime for our services. Security, which is always our top priority, is enhanced by allowing exclusive access through the Development Manager.
– Infobip developers perceive innovation as much more than simply trying to implement modern development processes. We realise that innovation also comes from trying to perfect those process, which is exactly what we aimed to accomplish with Deployment Manager, added Aleksandar.
Aleksandar and Emir were voted the best presenters in the Methodologies & Tools category, and were also chosen among the best lecturers of the entire two-day conference, which saw 206 registered attendants from 11 countries, and over 50 presentations.
