Beyond the Scripts: Harnessing the Power of ‘Change as Code’ in your environment

Navigating the changing face of IT environments

Today's IT environments are evolving at an unprecedented pace to meet the growing demands of rapidly changing digital landscapes. As organizations adopt hybrid cloud architectures, modernize data centers, and expand network interconnectivity, these environments become increasingly complex and interdependent. Traditional infrastructure operations and management practices that are reliant on manual processes or siloed tools often fall short in addressing this complexity. The result is slower response times, operational inefficiencies, and higher risk of errors.

The need for efficient and effective approaches to change management, essential for maintaining a reliable and resilient environment, has always been crucial. However, this need remains largely unmet, leaving organizations vulnerable to disruptions and inefficiencies.

Imperatives for Change Management

Infrastructure state change management has long faced challenges related to reliability, agility, and traceability. Studies suggest that approximately 60-70% of incidents in IT environments, or a significant portion of issues and problems, can be attributed to changes made to the environment. These incidents arise not only from failed changes but also from those changes that were initially deemed successful. This underscores the hidden complexity and risk inherent in change management, where seemingly localized modifications can trigger widespread downstream impacts due to interconnected systems.

Changes made directly to a system manually, even when they pass through all required approvals, are often not traceable. When something goes wrong, reverting to a previously stable state is nearly always impossible.

Addressing these vulnerabilities is no longer optional; it is essential for ensuring stability, resilience, and operational excellence in today’s dynamic IT landscapes.

The concept of “Changes as Code,” combined with the integration of DevOps practices in change management, is specifically designed to tackle these challenges.

The rise of DevOps is further demonstrated by the growing adoption of Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) practices in infrastructure automation and orchestration. This trend is fueled by the demand for continuous connectivity and the complexities of dynamic IT environments. By integrating CI/CD, organizations can minimize bottlenecks and optimize the building, integration, and testing of infrastructure configurations.

According to GigaOm’s 2024 NetDevOps Radar Report, there is a significant shift toward adopting DevOps methods to manage enterprise networks and the hybrid and multi-cloud environments they connect. The report highlights that this approach enables organizations to manage applications and assets across diverse environments, including both on-premises and cloud infrastructures.

Embracing “Change as Code” for Controlled and Reliable Changes

Changes are almost always made to the configuration state of a system. In the realm of system configuration, the shift toward treating all aspects of the system, parameters, patches, OS versions, settings, routes, state, etc. “As code” is a fundamental transformation. This approach involves representing the configuration state either declaratively or as a snapshot, managing it through version control, and subjecting it to rigorous testing, quality reviews, and controlled releases. The "As code" philosophy ensures that system configurations are only modified by updating and releasing the code, with changes enforced through DevOps pipelines.

Figure 1: Foundation elements of Intelligeni Change

A platform-based approach to change management can further strengthen this process by introducing change templatization. Changes expected in the current configuration state are templatized and subjected to a series of pre-programmed tests tailored to the specific change, based on resource attributes. This process also includes defined success criteria and post-validation checks while abstracting the technological complexities.

The Power of DevOps Pipeline

Ensuring that the configuration of an environment can only be changed through code is a critical aspect of this approach. The strength of this method lies in its traceability and compliance, as it prevents ad-hoc changes and ensures alignment with established standards. However, the most significant benefit comes from the ability to write and execute test cases. By subjecting the configuration code to comprehensive testing, organizations can identify and resolve potential issues before they reach production. This not only reduces incidents caused by human error but also establishes a proactive approach to preventing recurring problems. The concept of "Change-as-a-Transaction" ensures system stability while providing flexibility to roll back changes if necessary, fostering a controlled and reliable environment.

What’s in it for Enterprises?

• Accelerated Deployment: DevOps enables faster fulfillment of change requests from application development teams by bringing infrastructure management closer to application development. This reduces delays and improves the overall speed of service delivery. According to a Cisco report, enterprises that adopted DevOps practices saw a 50% reduction in change deployment times.
• Compliance: A survey conducted by IDC found that enterprises implementing DevOps saw a 25% improvement in compliance with policies and standards, thanks to better documentation and automated workflows.
• Scalability: By leveraging automation and collaborative workflows, DevOps facilitates the rapid scaling of infrastructure and teams. A Forrester report revealed that companies implementing DevOps achieved 30% cost savings in IT operations by reducing manual interventions and errors.
• Efficiency: A study by Gartner found that enterprises using DevOps experienced a 40% reduction in downtime, attributed to fewer incidents caused by errors from improper changes and the acceleration of change processes.
• Collaboration: DevOps fosters enhanced collaboration between software development, application support, and infrastructure teams, leading to more efficient and cohesive operations.

Microland’s Intelligeni Change module, part of the Intelligeni platform, begins by representing a managed environment’s configuration as code. It applies software management principles to this code, establishes a DevSecOps model to operate it, and ensures that every change action is executed through these pipelines. Finally, it wraps all changes in a Change-as-Transaction framework to guarantee reliability and stability. Integrated with Intelligeni Observe, Intelligeni Change can assess the device and overall IT performance pre- and post-change. If any performance degradation is detected, the changes can be rolled back to the previous stable configuration.

Intelligeni Change represents a unified approach to managing IT environments. organizations can achieve consistency, agility, and resilience in their operations using Intelligeni Change

Value delivered with Intelligeni Change:

• Consistent and Controlled: Standardized code templates drive and control all configuration and policy changes, ensuring uniformity and reliability.
• Accelerated Deployment: The Intelligeni platform enables exponential flexibility and agility, significantly speeding up bulk changes.
• Reliable & Traceable: Comprehensive testing capabilities, combined with detailed telemetry and logs, allow for easy tracking and troubleshooting of change transactions.
• Near-Zero Failed Changes: Rigorous testing and pipeline-based configuration changes help achieve a substantial reduction in failed changes, ensuring near-zero failures.

This transformational approach is not just another automation solution, it’s a powerful evolution with the potential to deliver exponential benefits for organizations.

Let’s embrace change with rock-solid confidence through Intelligeni Change. It’s not merely a trend, it’s the future of IT environment management.

References:

• https://intelligeni.com/
• 2024 State of DevOps Report | Google Cloud
• Gartner Magic Quadrant for DevOps Platforms
• Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for DevOps Platforms 2024: Key Insights
• Summary Translation: Predicts 2021: Value Streams Will Define the Future of DevOps
• Benefits of DevOps | Atlassian
• NetDevOps: A modern approach to AWS networking deployments | Networking & Content Delivery
• What is NetDevOps and how can it help IT meet business goals? | Network World
• NetDevSecOps to modernize AWS networking deployments | Networking & Content Delivery