By 2028, the global DevOps market will reach $25.5 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 19.7%, according to a MarketsandMarkets report. Today, DevOps is actively used to address various challenges, bringing together all participants in developing and deploying high-quality software into a single, highly automated workflow while maintaining the integrity and stability of the entire system. To fully participate in this process, professionals must be proficient in tools like Terraform, Kubernetes, Ansible, and Docker. We asked Diana Kutsa, a DevOps Engineer at BMC Software, to share how this approach is applied in specific situations. Diana has successfully worked with deploying and managing centralized logging and event monitoring in Kubernetes clusters using FluentBit, Helm, and the Kubernetes API, scaling infrastructure as code with Terraform and Ansible, configuring and optimizing open-source tools like Terraform, Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes, and implementing SRE practices with intelligent automation to achieve 99.99% uptime.
Diana, you’ve excelled with Terraform and Kubernetes, enabling you to deploy and optimize fault-tolerant Kubernetes clusters on AWS, Oracle, and GCP and automating deployment processes using modular solutions based on Helm and Terraform.. Do you see any alternatives to these technologies today?
While Terraform and Kubernetes remain key tools for infrastructure management and containerization, I also see potential in solutions like Pulumi for infrastructure as code and OpenShift for managing containers in enterprise environments. In container orchestration, solutions like Docker Swarm and Red Hat OpenShift provide alternatives to Kubernetes, each with its features and advantages. Additionally, serverless architectures and platforms such as AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Functions offer different paradigms for deploying applications without managing the underlying infrastructure, which can be an attractive alternative for certain use cases.
By implementing SRE practices and using automation with Ansible and Terraform, you’ve achieved a 99.99% uptime for Kubernetes clusters and cloud solutions. Do you see a way to reach 100%? What accounts for the remaining 0.01%?
The remaining 0.01% refers to incidents that may occur due to external factors such as network or cloud provider failures, making 100% uptime a very difficult goal to achieve. However, we can strive to minimize the impact of these factors through multi-cloud architecture and advanced resilience strategies. Implementing self-healing systems is another key practice. This involves automating the detection and resolution of issues in real time through monitoring and alerting systems. Automation with tools like Ansible and Terraform can be extended to automatically recreate or reroute failed components within minutes, thus reducing downtime. While 100% uptime may be virtually impossible due to the unpredictability of external events, by focusing on continuous monitoring, robust failover plans, and architecture that embraces redundancy, we can significantly reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents, making service disruptions minimal and nearly invisible to users.
As an expert who has successfully automated Kubernetes cluster deployments using Terraform and optimized CI/CD processes through Jenkins, Ansible, and Helm, what other relevant areas for automation do you see?
First, I’d highlight areas such as security and compliance management, as well as incident monitoring and prediction based on artificial intelligence. Additionally, using Docker to standardize environments and deploy applications can reduce debugging time and speed up the release of new versions. In the future, implementing machine learning and AI for infrastructure load prediction, automatic scaling, and cost optimization will greatly improve resource management and system stability overall.
Using automation with Ansible and CI/CD through Jenkins and GitHub Actions, you’ve reduced manual efforts by 40% in infrastructure deployment and management. On one hand, this sounds inspiring, but on the other, today there are concerns about replacing manual labor with robots and AI. Do you share these concerns?
I don’t share the concerns about automation and AI replacing manual labor because I believe it allows people to focus on more creative and strategic tasks, leaving routine operations to robots and algorithms. Using technologies like Docker, Terraform, and Kubernetes, automating processes with Ansible, and implementing AI/ML solutions for data analysis and monitoring helps speed up development and operations while reducing human error.
Where does your passion for innovation and automation come from?
It stems from a desire to simplify teams’ work as much as possible and improve service quality. Technologies help achieve meaningful results faster and with fewer resources while also opening up new opportunities for business growth.
As a mentor, you teach your team the basics of working with Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD tools, helping them understand the principles of infrastructure as code and automation. What do you think the next generation of engineers needs to learn?
My role is to share my experience and support the team when needed. It’s essential to master modern tools, such as Helm for release management, and strive to learn new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning for automated log analysis and monitoring. It’s important to stay flexible and ready to learn because technologies are constantly evolving. Additionally, developing soft skills like teamwork and effective communication is crucial to quickly adapt to new challenges and succeed in a DevOps environment.
