Theme 2: Easy and safe flow to manage Client solution versions in Keto Way

Management of Client’s solution’s platform, configuration and possible customized functionalities in an easy and safe way is a core feature of an efficient SaaS service. Keto SaaS environment contains completely independent application instances with separate proto/test/production environments for each Client. The platform and configuration versions for each of these can be managed using two tools, “Build Machine” and “Deploy Tool”. These tools are mainly used by Keto – and partner-configuration teams.

The Workflow to upgrade a solution includes following tasks:

1. Prepare and verify the configuration in the source instance (typically Test) and in the customer specific code repository (if it exists).
2. Upgrade the target instance (typically Prod) Platform version and the repository using the Build Machine.
3. Compare and deploy the configuration changes between source and target instances using the Deploy Tool in the target instance.
4. At minimum, validate the target instance by opening all Portfolio views and Report pages and by taking test objects (e.g. a project) through the process.

The Build Machine, a.k.a “Build Master 2000”, includes all environments in a particular cloud server, an example from our demo server is shown in the figure below.

In addition to upgrading the environments (or reverting to an older version) the Build Machine is used to take ad hoc backups of the environments, recycle to refresh solution data and create new environments from a baseline entity.

After the platform part of the upgrade workflow is completed, we will move to the Deploy Tool page of the source (Test) environment, where the new configuration has been tested and verified. The Deploy Tool allows us to define the parts of the configuration to be copied to the target (Prod) environment, as shown in the figure below.

Use of automated tools and a standard workflow not only makes the solution management fast and efficient, but also shortens the time required for maintenance breaks and increases the system availability.

In the Next Newsletter Issue, I will describe in more detail the Keto Builder program, an option and training program for our clients to start managing the functionality of their solution and even the possibility to add support for completely new processes.

Until next time, Veli-Matti