The webinar discusses the complexities of application delivery and the importance of programmability and automation through APIs in enhancing operational agility and security. Key strategies include investing in programming skills, leveraging vendor APIs, building internal frameworks, and iterating solutions for improved application management. By adopting these practices, organizations can achieve faster deployment, reduced business risk, and enhanced productivity in a dynamic application environment.

1. Automate and Customise Application Services and DeploymentF5 Webinar Dec 2014
Robert Healey
Marketing Solutions Director, F5 APJ

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•Application delivery challenges
•Where and how to invest
•Solving the issues
•API and programmability tools for application services
•Benefits
Agenda

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An Application World is Highly Complex

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Responding to Changes
!

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BUSINESS
requires applications to become more agile
SECURITY
must be everywhere, from the network to the applications and the management
OPERATIONS
need visibility of the resources at different levels (app, data center, network)
NETWORK
is changing faster to support new applications and customers
APPLICATIONS
are dynamic and customer aware (profiling)
Programmability: A Key Element of the Application World

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Traditional Programming and “Automation”
Operations
Manual / Scripted Configuration
“The Network”
Application Security
Identity and Access
Local LoadBalancing
Application Performance
Application
Proxies
Web & App Servers
Network State

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Automation via Application Programming Interface (API)
Operations
Scripting and APIs
Application Infrastructure
Application Security
Identity and Access
Local LoadBalancing
Application Performance
Application
Proxies
Web & App Servers
Automation and Orchestration
Network State

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0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
Growth in Web APIs Since 2005
Source: ProgrammableWeb.com

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“High performing organisations deploy code 30 times more often and 8000 times faster than their peers, deploying multiple times a day, versus an average of once a month. [...] The net results are lower business risk and more operational agility.”
—2013 State of DevOps Report, Puppet Labs

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Work with vendors
Leverage your vendor’s APIs
Iterate
You're not going get it right the first time
Build frameworks
Define reusable components
Programming skills
Invest in skills
Where Do You Start Investing to See These Advantages?

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1) Invest in Programming Skills
How to invest in building skills
Make automation part of employee goals
Carve out space and time to write code
Start small and move to larger goals
Investing in programming skills begins with training and perfects through using the skills on a regular basis
Examples of programming skills
Use languages that your vendors use and support
Explore and understand samples that exist within language eco-system
Write programs and have them execute against the APIs

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2) Leverage Your Vendor’s APIs
How do you leverage them?
Look for examples of how the APIs are created
Pick the language that works best for you: REST, SOAP, Perl, Python, PS
Interact with the larger community using the same APIs
Vendor APIs are there to help you get the job done, if the APIs are not good enough, call them out on that fact and make them better
What is a vendor API?
Documented, open, and supported interface into software or hardware
System that supports one or more languages
System with plenty of examples, code samples, and a community

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3) Build Internal Frameworks
How are they built?
Take common groups of tasks and program a block of work out of them
Promote and share the information
Use tools such as github, wikis, or even shared documents to socialise
Frameworks make unities of work reusable, shareable, and create a common set of tools that the entire organisation can benefit from
What is a framework?
Structures that implement units of work
Frameworks encourage collaboration
Frameworks are common tools, written in-house that an be reused

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4) Iterate Towards Perfection
Examples of iteration
Write a small piece of code and then build on it
Write, test, deploy, edit, test, deploy
Functional code solves a business problem
Don’t try to solve all of the problems on the first go-around, your organisation will realise better ways to solve problems and the solutions will improve with time
The myth of perfection
Myth: You are going to get the program right the first time
Myth: You will understand the problem you’re solving
Myth: You need “programmers” to write code

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Network Programmability is the Place to Start
Adapt your environment
to take advantage
Emerging Do it easily
architectures
Programmability in the network enables organisations to act and
react, on demand, to operational and business events
Public
Cloud
Hybrid
Cloud
Private
Cloud
Investments in network programmability pay dividends immediately
DATA PLANE
MANAGEMENT PLANE
CONTROL PLANE

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Fluency
Programmability
Let the ADC Do More of the Heavy Lifting for You
Functionality
Scalability
Scripting languages are a great start, but there’s more to programmability than the data plane

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Provision Application ServicesAutomation of device and application deployment
Speed
Accuracy
Consistency
Free up your team to work on more important tasks
Deploy the architecture that you are interested in
Ensure same setup and parameters every time
PROBLEMS:
•New applications are coming on-line, old ones are changing
•Dynamic infrastructure requiring frequent setup of new ADC units

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Application Services Architecture
Application Proxy
Scalable resource pool delivers application services, policies, and programmable functions
Data Centre
Front-End
Application Servers
Application Proxy
Back-End
Application Servers
Network
High-Performance Services Fabric
Management
F5
Native
Infrastructure
Management
DevOps
Tools
VXLAN
NVGRE
VLAN
Overlay
Underlay
SaaS
IT Ops
Co-lo/Public/Hybrid-Cloud

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Provisioning Application Delivery Controllers
The solutions
SOAP or REST APIs work over the network to provision
Programmable deployments mean every ADC is consistent
Let your experts spell out the details in a program
Testing has shown a reduction from 65 to 6.5 minutesin setup time for ADC with automation in place
The challenges
Cloud: New licensing models mean more ADCs in more places
Inconsistencies: Increasing problems and troubleshooting
Expertise: Not enough time to train all team members

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•Completely open architecture
•Common API across all ADC modules
•REST API for device to device communication
•REST API for management to platform communication
•Value added services
Recommended API Architecture
Management Platform
Intelligent Management Framework
ADC devices
Cisco ACI
VMware NSX
OpenStack
etc.
XaaS
Application Services

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Provisioning Applications
The solutions
Pre-built app services templates solve the settings for you
Using an app template means you get the same settings every time
Building your own templates allows you to bundle ADC knowledge
Several hundred objects are required for a complete Microsoft Lyncdeployment, app templates reduce these to a number of questions
The challenges
Complexity: What are the best settings for enterprise apps?
Inconsistencies: ADCs are setup with different settings
In-house apps: Taking a long time to deploy

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An Easy Button
Rapidly deploy popular applications with verified and supported configurations
Standards Enforcement
Enforce standards, reducing training and operational risk
App Orchestration
Standardise your unique application deployments
A Single View App
Manage all application components in one place
An App Lifecycle Tool
Manage the full lifecycle of the application
Values Provided by Application Services Templates

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Dynamic Application Modification − Automate Changes
React
Resolve
Analyse
Adjust the network settings when conditions change
Fix issues before they get out of hand
Find out the health and performance of your apps
PROBLEM: It’s taking too long to react to application environment changes

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Programmability Architecture
Network [Physical • Overlay • SDN]
Data Plane Scripting
Programmability
Virtual Edition
Chassis
Appliance
High-performance services fabric
VXLAN
NVGRE
VLAN
App Templates
Self Healing
Inbound APIs
Outbound APIs

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Programmability Tools
Rules-based Scripts
• Logical programming
language
• Full control of
incoming or outgoing
packets
External APIs
• Integrated
REST/SOAP/XML API
for ADC
• Make calls from 3rd
party orchestration
engines
Application Templates
• Certified and
supported templates
• Cut application
deployment down
from weeks to
minutes
Internal APIs
• Event driven
automation and
configuration
• Simplify operations
and troubleshooting
for ADC

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Leverage Self-Solve Capabilities and Communities
ADC health
diagnostic tool
Dev community
collaboration
Knowledge base
Advanced diagnostics to help you optimise your system performance
Collaborate and share innovations including code samples, new techniques, and other tips, with other users worldwide
Product guides, release notes, solutions to known issues, how- to and hotfix information, downloads
ASK FOR YOUR VENDOR'S SELF-SOLVE CAPABILITIES

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A survey found that 63% of enterprises that have implemented cloud solutions report an improvement in agility for supporting the needs of the business.
79% of enterprises implementing process automation experienced time savings, while 69% claimed improved productivity.
—Redwood Software, “Manual Madness of Business Processes”

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What Does This Mean for IT?
Better Alignment
Reduced Costs
More Innovation

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And What Does It Mean for the Business?
Improved engagement
Faster to market
Application ROI

30. Solutions for an Application World.