Intermediate concepts in DevOps & Cloud, page 13
Golden Paths: The Paved Road for Developers
A golden path is the company-supported 'paved road' for building and shipping software, offering pre-configured tools. It reduces developer cognitive load and enforces standards for CI/CD and security.
Normalization of Deviance
Normalization of deviance is the gradual process by which unsafe practices become accepted as normal because they have not yet caused a visible failure. Each tolerated shortcut lowers the bar, eroding safety margins until a catastrophe finally results.
SPIFFE: Cryptographic Identity for Services
SPIFFE gives every service a cryptographic passport instead of a static secret. It's used in zero-trust networks for services to authenticate each other, like in a Kubernetes service mesh.
Software Catalog: Your Org's Engineering Map
A software catalog is a searchable map of your software ecosystem, tracking ownership and metadata for every service, library, and pipeline. It helps growing orgs discover services and find owners.
Mutual TLS (mTLS): When Services Need to Trust Each Other
mTLS is a two-way ID check for services. Both parties exchange certificates to prove their identity before communicating. Service meshes like Istio use it to secure traffic between microservices.
Team Topologies: Organizing for a Fast Flow of Value
Team Topologies is an organizational design framework for accelerating value. As teams scale or adopt new tech, complexity often slows them down. This model structures teams to maintain a fast flow of delivery and innovation.
Traffic Splitting: Route Live Traffic Between Service Versions
Traffic splitting directs percentages of live user traffic to different versions of a service. It's key for canary releases, letting you test new code on a small user group before a full rollout.
Content-Based Routing: Directing Traffic by Request Details
Content-based routing is a smart traffic cop for your services. It inspects request headers or URIs to direct traffic, enabling canary releases or A/B tests. The footgun is rule order: a broad rule placed first can shadow specific rules below it.
Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE): Your Internal Cloud Guides
A Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) is your company's internal cloud consulting team, centralizing expertise to guide adoption. It creates reusable patterns, manages costs, and ensures security, helping large orgs scale.
Service Mesh Authorization: A Bouncer for Your Microservices
A service mesh authorization policy is a bouncer for your microservices. It moves access control from your app to the mesh, checking service identity and request details like HTTP method and path. Use it for fine-grained, Zero Trust security.
Cloud Landing Zone: A Blueprint for Cloud Environments
A Cloud Landing Zone is a pre-configured, secure foundation for your cloud applications, like a city grid with utilities ready for new buildings. It provides shared services like networking and identity, ensuring consistency for large organizations.
Retry and Timeout Policies: Handling Network Flakes
Retries and timeouts are automated patience for network requests. Instead of failing on a glitch, a service waits (timeout) and tries again (retry). This is key for microservice resilience, but beware of "retry storms" that can amplify failures.
What is Cloud Native Architecture?
Cloud Native refers to a collection of practices and open-source projects, like Kubernetes, governed by the CNCF. It's used by enterprises to build modern products and services.
Visual Regression Testing: Catching Unintended UI Changes
Visual regression testing is a 'spot the difference' game for your UI, comparing screenshots to a baseline to catch visual bugs. It's used in CI/CD to prevent CSS regressions and layout breaks that unit tests miss.
Docker Image Tagging: A Strategy for Reliable Deployments
Think of Docker tags as pointers, not permanent labels. Multiple tags like v1.2.3 and production can point to the same image SHA, enabling reliable CI/CD and rollbacks. The footgun is relying on mutable tags like latest in production.
Hotfix Deployment: Emergency Production Patches
A hotfix is a surgical strike on a production bug, using a dedicated branch to isolate the emergency fix. It's used for critical security flaws or severe defects that can't wait. The footgun: forgetting to merge the fix back into main, causing the bug to.
Configuration Hydration: From Template to Manifest
Configuration hydration turns templates like Helm charts into final Kubernetes manifests. This lets you see the exact YAML diff in a PR, not just a variable change. The footgun is that this adds a build step which, if broken, blocks all deployments.
Private Container Registry: Own Your Image Pipeline
A private container registry is your own personal Docker Hub, giving you full control over image storage and access. It's crucial for secure, in-house CI/CD pipelines.
Cloud Governance: Rules for Your Cloud Kingdom
Cloud governance is like city planning for your cloud, setting automated rules to prevent chaos. It's used to control costs by blocking expensive VMs and enforce security with required settings.
Argo CD: Git as the Source of Truth for Kubernetes
Argo CD makes your Git repo the single source of truth for your Kubernetes cluster's state. It constantly monitors your cluster and compares it to your desired state in Git, flagging any differences.
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