The document discusses the use of Cloud Foundry for continuous delivery, highlighting that effective deployment infrastructure is only part of the equation. It emphasizes the need for a cultural shift towards automated testing and deployment, where the aim is to deliver production-ready software from the start. Key strategies include minimizing manual processes, adopting feature flags, and utilizing blue/green deployment for zero downtime.

1. ©2014
Elisabeth Hendrickson
Using PaaS for Continuous Delivery

2. Spoiler
Cloud Foundry is perfect for
Continuous Delivery.
The hard part about Continuous
Delivery probably isn’t your deployment
infrastructure.

3. What is CI?
Hint: it’s not a server

4. Culture Change: Stop the Line
If just one single test out of thousands fails, the whole build failed.
We stop the line and fix the issue.

5. What is CD?
Hint: it’s not just a lot of CI

6. Continuous Delivery Defined
Continuous delivery means
that your software is
production-ready from day
one of your project (even
when it's not "feature
complete") and that you can
release to users on demand at
the push of a button.
– Jez Humble
“

7. Preconditions
• Fully automated tests at unit / integration /
system levels
• Continuous integration infrastructure
• Scripted, automated deployment to each
needed environment

8. From Build to Pipeline
Deploy
Config A
to Test
Env A
Deploy
Config B
to Test
Env B
Unit Tests
System
Tests
System
Tests
Promote
checkin

9. Culture Changes: Overcoming Resistance
What do you
mean there’s
no manual QA
phase?
Deliver half-
done
features?
Can’t possibly
work.
What’s the
point?
Customers
don’t want
stuff that fast
anyway.
Automation is
expensive.

10. (Yes, change is hard.)
All checking is
automated.
Develop in slices.
Aim for MVP. Try
feature flags.There is a
strategic
advantage in
being
continuously
deliverable even
if you don’t ship.
Error-prone manual
processes are more
expensive.
(Try TDD.)

11. CD with Cloud Foundry

12. Cloud Foundry Supports CD
• Promotion path: environment variables
support running identical code in test and
prod environments
• Automated deploys: cf v6 is scriptable
• Zero-downtime deploys: the blue/green
deploy pattern

13. Promotion: Same Code, Different Space
Testing Space
Your App
Promote*
“Automated Promotion” isn’t a feature yet. You can automate
promotion in your build pipeline with the cf cli.
*
Production Space
Your App
Test DB Production DB
Connect to the DB with
VCAP_SERVICES

14. Zero Downtime: Blue/Green Deploys
http://docs.cloudfoundry.org/devguide/deploy-apps/blue-green.html
app-green
stopped
app-blue
started
app-green
started
app-blue
stopped
v2
v3
push new code to app-green
stop blue, start green
app-green
stopped
app-blue
started
v2
v1
v3
v2

15. Example: Cloud Foundry Docs

16. What About the Automated
Tests?
Sorry, Cloud Foundry
can’t help you there.
But it can get deployment
and configuration yaks out
of your way so your team
can focus on the hard
things that only they can
solve.
Hint: there are still no magic bullets.

17. ©2014
Elisabeth Hendrickson, @testobsessed
Thank You!