Paved Paths to Production – There and Back Again

There’s no place like production. Any idea, any code change will not deliver value until it reaches production. How can we go there fast and securely? A path to production includes all the activities to deliver a new idea to the software users.

The first challenge will be to provide application developers with a compelling experience that enhances the inner development loop, improves their productivity, and reduces their cognitive load. You’ll see how to design such an experience using Backstage, Buildpacks, and Knative.

The second challenge will be establishing secure and reusable CI/CD pipelines while ensuring a clear separation of concerns. You’ll see how to do that by building on top of the inner loop and adding Tekton, Trivy, and Argo CD. Application operators and security engineers will be responsible for those pipelines and the supply chain, taking care of all the activities for building, testing, securing, configuring, and ultimately deploying workloads.

The third challenge will be to offer paved paths to production as a coherent service via a platform based on different tools from the cloud native ecosystem. You’ll learn about the concept of golden paths enabled by Backstage and see how to implement them using Cartographer, a framework to build paths to production.

Transcript

1. Thomas Vitale
   Cloud Native Rejekts
   Apr 16th, 2023
   Paved Paths to Production
   @vitalethomas
   There and Back Again
   

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2. Systematic
   • Software Engineer and Cloud
   Architect.
   
   • Author of “Cloud Native Spring
   in Action” (Manning).
   
   • OSS contributor (Java, Spring,
   Cloud Native Technologies)
   Thomas Vitale
   thomasvitale.com @vitalethomas
   

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3. Problem
   @vitalethomas
   

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4. Value
   @vitalethomas
   

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5. Delivering Value
   From idea to production
   Developer
   Production
   Idea
   @vitalethomas
   ?
   

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6. Goals
   2 Reduced cognitive load
   3 Clear and safe path to production
   1 Rapid and continuous feedback loop
   @vitalethomas
   

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7. Development Workflow
   @vitalethomas
   

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8. Cloud Native
   @vitalethomas
   

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9. @vitalethomas
   Runtime (Language)
   Application (Executable)
   Cloud Native Applications
   

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10. Containers
    @vitalethomas
    

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11. Moving to Containers
    @vitalethomas
    Runtime (Language)
    Application (Executable)
    Runtime (OCI)
    Application (Container)
    

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12. Cloud Native Buildpacks
    @vitalethomas
    

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13. Image
    pack build
    Cloud Native Buildpacks
    From source code to container image
    @vitalethomas
    

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14. Kubernetes
    @vitalethomas
    

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15. Moving to Kubernetes
    @vitalethomas
    Runtime (Language)
    Application (Executable)
    Runtime (OCI)
    Application (Container)
    Runtime (OCI)
    Middleware
    
    
    (Kubernetes)
    Application (Container)
    

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16. Tilt
    @vitalethomas
    

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17. Tilt
    Continuous development on Kubernetes
    @vitalethomas
    CODE
    BUILD
    RUN
    TEST
    

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18. Goals
    2 Reduced cognitive load
    3 Clear and safe path to production
    1 Rapid and continuous feedback loop
    @vitalethomas
    

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19. CI/CD Pipeline(s)
    @vitalethomas
    

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20. CI/CD Pipeline (Imperative)
    Check out
    
    
    source code
    Build
    
    
    container image
    Con
    fi
    gure
    
    
    workload
    Deploy
    
    
    workload
    Orchestrator
    Tightly coupled
    Rigid system
    No clear separation of concerns
    Hard to maintain
    @vitalethomas
    

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21. Delivering Value
    From code to production
    Developer
    Production
    Application
    
    
    Operator
    Security
    
    
    Expert
    Platform
    
    
    Engineer
    @vitalethomas
    

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22. Check out
    
    
    source code
    Build
    
    
    container image
    Con
    fi
    gure
    
    
    workload
    Deploy
    
    
    workload
    @vitalethomas
    

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23. Check out
    
    
    source code
    Build
    
    
    container image
    Con
    fi
    gure
    
    
    workload
    Deploy
    
    
    workload
    Kubernetes
    Manifests
    GitOps
    @vitalethomas
    

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24. Check out
    
    
    source code
    Build
    
    
    container image
    Con
    fi
    gure
    
    
    workload
    Deploy
    
    
    workload
    Kubernetes
    Manifests
    Container
    Image
    

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25. Check out
    
    
    source code
    Build
    
    
    container image
    Con
    fi
    gure
    
    
    workload
    Deploy
    
    
    workload
    Kubernetes
    Manifests
    Container
    Image
    Source
    Code
    CI/CD Pipeline (Reactive)
    Loosely coupled
    Separation of concerns
    Flexible
    Consistent path to production
    

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26. Check out
    
    
    source code
    Build
    
    
    container image
    Con
    fi
    gure
    
    
    workload
    Deploy
    
    
    workload
    Kubernetes
    Manifests
    Container
    Image
    Source
    Code
    CI/CD Pipeline (Reactive)
    Loosely coupled
    Separation of concerns
    Flexible
    Consistent path to production
    

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27. Cartographer
    @vitalethomas
    

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28. Kubernetes Native Choreographer
    Framework to build paved paths to production
    @vitalethomas
    

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29. Workload API
    Developer-friendly interface
    @vitalethomas
    apiVersion: carto.run/v1alpha1
    
    
    kind: Workload
    
    
    metadata:
    
    
    name: band-service
    
    
    labels:
    
    
    apps.kadras.io/workload-type: web
    
    
    spec:
    
    
    source:
    
    
    git:
    
    
    url: https://github.com/ThomasVitale/band-service
    
    
    ref:
    
    
    branch: main
    
    
    

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30. Watch
    
    
    Source Code
    Testing
    Build
    Con
    fi
    guration
    Deployment
    @vitalethomas
    

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31. https://landscape.cncf.io
    

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32. SupplyChain API
    Describes the path to production
    @vitalethomas
    apiVersion: carto.run/v1alpha1
    
    
    kind: ClusterSupplyChain
    
    
    metadata:
    
    
    name: supply-chain
    
    
    spec:
    
    
    selector:
    
    
    apps.kadras.io/workload-type: web
    
    
    resources:
    
    
    - name: source-provider
    
    
    templateRef:
    
    
    kind: ClusterSourceTemplate
    
    
    name: source
    
    
    - name: image-builder
    
    
    templateRef:
    
    
    kind: ClusterImageTemplate
    
    
    name: image
    
    
    sources:
    
    
    - resource: source-provider
    
    
    name: source
    
    
    - name: deployer
    
    
    templateRef:
    
    
    kind: ClusterTemplate
    
    
    name: app-deploy
    
    
    images:
    
    
    - resource: image-builder
    
    
    name: image
    

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33. Watch
    
    
    Source Code
    Testing
    Build
    Con
    fi
    guration
    Deployment
    @vitalethomas
    

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34. @vitalethomas
    apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
    
    
    kind: GitRepository
    
    
    metadata:
    
    
    name: band-service
    
    
    spec:
    
    
    interval: 1m0s
    
    
    url: https://github.com/ThomasVitale/band-service
    
    
    ref:
    
    
    branch: main
    
    
    

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35. @vitalethomas
    apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
    
    
    kind: GitRepository
    
    
    metadata:
    
    
    name: $(workload.metadata.name)$
    
    
    spec:
    
    
    interval: 1m0s
    
    
    url: $(workload.spec.source.git.url)$
    
    
    ref: $(workload.spec.source.git.ref)$
    
    
    

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36. @vitalethomas
    apiVersion: carto.run/v1alpha1
    
    
    kind: ClusterSourceTemplate
    
    
    metadata:
    
    
    name: source
    
    
    spec:
    
    
    urlPath: .status.artifact.url
    
    
    revisionPath: .status.artifact.revision
    
    
    template:
    
    
    apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
    
    
    kind: GitRepository
    
    
    metadata:
    
    
    name: $(workload.metadata.name)$
    
    
    spec:
    
    
    interval: 1m0s
    
    
    url: $(workload.spec.source.git.url)$
    
    
    ref: $(workload.spec.source.git.ref)$
    

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37. @vitalethomas
    apiVersion: carto.run/v1alpha1
    
    
    kind: ClusterSourceTemplate
    
    
    metadata:
    
    
    name: source
    
    
    spec:
    
    
    urlPath: .status.artifact.url
    
    
    revisionPath: .status.artifact.revision
    
    
    template:
    
    
    apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
    
    
    kind: GitRepository
    
    
    metadata:
    
    
    name: $(workload.metadata.name)$
    
    
    spec:
    
    
    interval: 1m0s
    
    
    url: $(workload.spec.source.git.url)$
    
    
    ref: $(workload.spec.source.git.ref)$
    Template API
    Supply chain activities
    

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38. cartographer.sh
    

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39. Capabilities over responsibilities
    @vitalethomas
    

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40. Developer
    @vitalethomas
    

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41. Developer Platform
    @vitalethomas
    

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42. Developer Platform
    @vitalethomas
    

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43. Goals
    2 Reduced cognitive load
    3 Clear and safe path to production
    1 Rapid and continuous feedback loop
    @vitalethomas
    

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44. Resources
    @vitalethomas
    

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45. Resources
    Source code
    • Presentation source code
    
    • Kadras: Cloud Native Platforms Toolkit
    
    • Cloud Native Buildpacks for ARM64
    
    • Software Supply Chain Choreography
    
    • Cartographer
    
    • Cartographer CLI
    
    • Tanzu Application Platform
    @vitalethomas
    

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46. Thomas Vitale
    Cloud Native Rejekts
    Apr 16th, 2023
    Paved Paths to Production
    @vitalethomas
    There and Back Again
    

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