Managing mission-critical environments with DevOps
In this section, we will discuss DevOps for mission-critical environments and why it can be done to manage core applications. Let's first define mission-critical.
A very straightforward definition would be: any software that an enterprise needs to remain in business. If a mission-critical system were to fail, the enterprise would potentially lose a lot of money, either due to direct missed transactions or through things that are less tangible, such as reputation damage. These systems are identified through the process of business impact analysis (BIA).
When we start with DevOps projects, the first thing that an architect does is gather the business and technical requirements. That would include the outcomes of the BIA process, which is typically done in cooperation with internal auditors and business stakeholders. From the BIA, critical systems or system components are identified that need to be restored very quickly in...