Driving Application Release Automation and Developer Efficiency in Hybrid Cloud Environments: Webinar Recap

Recently, we hosted a webinar titled “Driving Application Release Automation and Developer Efficiency in Hybrid Cloud Environments.” Digital.ai’s global DevOps practice lead, Ankur Trivedi, and I explored the pressing challenges and innovative solutions for enterprises managing large-scale software releases across hybrid environments.

These organizations face a formidable task: balancing the critical need for consistent, streamlined processes to ensure compliance and security while also under mounting pressure to innovate, deliver at speed, and adopt AI tools. Due to this delicate balancing act, many have found it challenging to keep up with their more nimble and cloud-native counterparts. Our webinar addressed these challenges head-on and offered software release strategies that Digital.ai customers in highly regulated industries use to manage their software release processes efficiently.

The Agenda

Our webinar was structured into three segments:

1. Enterprise IT cloud adoption and challenges:
   • We explored the current trends in technology, the adoption of AI tools, and the inherent complexities in managing software delivery across the mix of traditional and cloud environments.
2. Enterprise IT cloud adoption roadmap:
   • Ankur shared various approaches and strategies enterprises can adopt to navigate cloud transformation.
3. Use cases and demos:
   • Real-world examples and practical demonstrations illustrated how Digital.ai’s solutions can help overcome these challenges.

Introduction to Digital.ai

Digital.ai is at the forefront of helping organizations thrive in the digital era. Our mission is to aid our customers in innovating and growing their revenue, managing risk, and providing exceptional developer experiences. Here’s how we do it:

1. Automation of Software Delivery:
   • Our platform covers all aspects of software delivery, from planning and testing to securing, releasing, and deploying software.
2. Quality and Security for Mobile Apps:
   • We offer unparalleled testing capabilities and security features for mobile applications, ensuring they meet the highest standards.
3. Data-driven Insights:
   • By combining data from our tools and third-party integrations, we provide persona-based analytics that offers valuable insights into various phases of software delivery.

Market Trends and Challenges

As Ankur highlighted, several key trends are shaping the current landscape:

• AI-powered Coding Tools: CIOs have significantly pushed to adopt tools like GitHub Copilot to reduce cognitive load on developers and increase team efficiency.
• Platform Engineering Teams: By 2026, nearly 80% of organizations are expected to have platform engineering teams focus on measuring and improving developer efficiency.
• Mainframe Technologies: Despite the push towards cloud-native solutions, 71% of Fortune 500 companies still rely on mainframe technologies, creating a hybrid environment.

Navigating AI Adoption

AI adoption brings a set of unique complexities:

• Higher Code Volumes: AI tools generate vast amounts of code, which must be thoroughly tested and analyzed for vulnerabilities.
• Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring AI-generated code adheres to industry regulations is critical.
• Productivity Measurement: Balancing the productivity gains from AI with the resources needed for thorough code analysis is challenging.

Challenges in Cloud Transformation

Transitioning to the cloud is not without its hurdles:

• Hybrid Cloud Management: Enterprises often operate in a hybrid environment, juggling multiple cloud providers and on-premises systems.
• Standardizing Processes: Maintaining standardized deployment processes with varied tools and platforms is tricky.
• Governance and Visibility: Major challenges include ensuring comprehensive governance and gaining visibility across all parts of the organization.

The Digital.ai solution

Implementing a Robust CI/CD Pipeline with Release + Backstage

Implementing a robust CI/CD pipeline with Release and Backstage streamlines the software development process through automation, ensuring early detection of issues. This setup promotes consistent deployment practices across environments, enhancing applications’ overall stability and reliability. By identifying problems early in the development cycle, teams can address issues promptly, resulting in a more efficient and reliable development process.

Enhancing Developer Experience with a Developer Portal and Backstage with Packaged Release

Enhancing the developer experience with Digital.ai’s developer portal, Backstage, natively integrated with Digital.ai Release, offers centralized resources and provides a single access point for all necessary tools and information. It streamlines plugin development and makes it easier and faster for developers to create and deploy plugins. Additionally, it further enhances collaboration among team members, improving teamwork and the overall development process.

Deploying to Various Cloud Services and Traditional Servers

Deploying to various cloud services offers significant benefits, including flexibility and scalability. This approach allows for easy deployment across multiple platforms, enabling organizations to scale applications as needed. Leveraging different cloud services can lead to substantial cost savings while providing access to a wide range of cloud-based services, enhancing applications’ overall functionality and performance.

Governance and Security

Digital.ai offers standardized security management and automated security checks to identify and address vulnerabilities while maintaining compliance with regulatory standards, enhancing security, and ensuring organizations adhere to necessary compliance requirements.

Employing Analytics and Insights from the Software Engineering Insights Area

Employing analytics and insights from the software engineering insights area enables data-driven decision-making, allowing teams to make informed choices based on detailed analysis. This approach improves productivity by identifying bottlenecks and areas for improvement, leading to more efficient processes. Additionally, it enhances code quality through thorough analysis and insights, ensuring that the software meets high performance and reliability standards.

Success stories

Two customer examples highlight the impact of Digital.ai’s solutions:

• One customer uses a master release template with 383 steps for standard onboarding, achieving over 1,500 daily pre- and prod-releases with a 98.9% success rate.
• Another customer onboarded ~3500 app teams with ~7500 templates and has saved about 1500 human hours daily and increased releases to over 2 million a year.

Watch the webinar to gain a more comprehensive understanding of these customers’ challenges and their path to positive outcomes.

The Path Forward

Transitioning to the cloud while maintaining applications within traditional on-premises environments is not merely a trend but a necessity. It enables enterprises to accelerate innovation, grow revenue, manage risks, and provide exceptional developer experiences. By leveraging Digital.ai’s solutions, enterprises can streamline their processes, enhance developer efficiency, and achieve operational excellence.

To dive deeper into these insights and see how Digital.ai can work with your highly regulated enterprise, we invite you to watch the webinar. Learn how to navigate the complexities of cloud adoption and AI integration and discover practical strategies for achieving your business goals.