At Chef, we believe that the most successful organizations are those that can outperform their peers on metrics of speed, efficiency, and risk. While there are clear benefits to be had by making measurable improvements on any of these outcomes, taken individually those benefits can only go so far. The ability to deploy code more quickly without removing error-prone processes can uncover new bottlenecks. Efficient deploys without a way to assess the risks of any new updates or features can lead to costly rollbacks when issues are uncovered later. To ensure we don’t lose momentum as we increase our operational velocity, the question becomes: how can we improve all three of these outcomes in tandem? Individual organizations might have their own unique technical challenges, but whatever their size or specific goals, implementing Continuous Automation can help achieve the velocity their stakeholders demand by improving the speed and efficiency of deployments all without losing sight of the risks involved.
Continuous Automation can be achieved by putting in place a simple, standardized cycle of iterative improvement that can be summarized in three distinct steps: Detect, Correct, and Automate. If we have the means to detect deviations from our standards, correct those issues where they arise, and automate both processes, we have the ability to publish changes as often as our customers and colleagues require, with the confidence that we haven’t sacrificed its quality along the way. Below is a recording of a live webinar we presented on December 7, 2017. In it, we dive into this development cycle in greater detail, and give a brief demonstration of how Chef Automate can assist in implementing Continuous Automation in our environments. Afterwards, keep watching for a Q&A session with the webinar audience.
Ready to start your own Continuous Automation journey? Here are some resources to get you started!