On this episode of Modern Digital Business, we dive into the complexities of managing configurations in modern cloud-native applications. Hosted by Lee Atchison, we explore the best practices for managing configuration files, maintaining consistency across the system, and reducing complexity. We discuss the importance of using a revision control system, centralizing configurations, and using automation to distribute configuration.Modern Digital Business offers actionable insights and recommendations to make managing your digital business easier.Questions & Answers(powered by CastMagic)1. What is a CI/CD system, and why is it important for modern application deployment?Answer: A CI/CD system is a standard for modern application deployment. It stands for Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment. It ensures that the code is regularly integrated and tested, and any issues that arise are quickly fixed, which leads to faster and more reliable software delivery.2. Why should configurations be included in the deployment pipeline along with code?Answer: Configurations are as important as source code when it comes to application deployment. Including configurations in the deployment pipeline ensures that they are consistent with the code, and any changes made to the code are reflected in the configurations. This helps to avoid errors and maintain proper functionality.3. What is the importance of consistency of variables and macros across the system?Answer: Consistency of variables and macros across the system is crucial as it helps in maintaining the desired behavior of the application. Inconsistencies can cause unpredictable results, which can lead to errors and security vulnerabilities.4. How does automation ensure consistency and accountability in managing configurations?Answer: Automation ensures that the process of managing configurations is consistent and accountable by making sure that changes are made through predefined processes that are easy to track and audit. This helps to avoid errors and improves the overall quality of configuration management.5. Why should configurations be treated with the same level of discipline as source code?Answer: Configurations are valuable assets of an application, and any errors can lead to detrimental effects on the application. Treating configurations with the same level of discipline as source code can help to avoid these errors, improve the application's reliability, and reduce the likelihood of security vulnerabilities.6. What is the best way to store configurations in a cloud-native environment?Answer: Configurations can be stored with the system or component that requires the information, or it may be unknown and unmanaged. However, it is best to keep a single source of truth for all configurations to reduce complexity associated with multiple copies of the same or nearly the same configuration.7. How can we reduce the complexity of configurations in modern cloud-native applications?Answer: Shared, centralized templatized configurations can reduce complexity in modern cloud-native applications. This ensures that all configurations are consistent, and any updates can be made to all components in a system simultaneously.8. What is the risk of not having a single master copy for configuration management?Answer: If there is not a single master copy for configuration management, it can lead to errors and security vulnerabilities. This is because there is no accountability, and untracked configurations can be used.9. Why should configuration be deployed using automated systems in a manner equivalent to how software is deployed?Answer: Automating the deployment process for configuration files can help ensure that similar configuration files are maintained in the same way, and change drift is avoided....

What is a cloud architect? What does a cloud architect do that’s different from what a developer does? What skills does someone need to have to move from a role as a software developer to a role as a cloud architect?Today we are going to talk about becoming a cloud architect. What does a cloud architect do that’s different from what a typical software developer does? Or a typical operations engineer?Cloud architect roles are in high demand, especially given the rise in interest in cloud-native architectures and microservices-based applications. These architectures allow the creation of highly agile development teams and highly innovative businesses use cloud-native architectures to gain a competitive advantage.And cloud architects are right at the center of this need.Today on Modern Digital BusinessThank you for tuning in to Modern Digital Business. We typically release new episodes on Thursdays. We also occasionally release short-topic episodes on Tuesdays, which we call Tech Tapas Tuesdays.If you enjoy what you hear, will you please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or directly on our website at mdb.fm/reviews?If you'd like to suggest a topic for an episode or you are interested in being a guest, please contact me directly by sending me a message at mdb.fm/contact.And if you’d like to record a quick question or comment, click the microphone icon in the lower right-hand corner of our website. Your recording might be featured on a future episode!To ensure you get every new episode when they become available, please subscribe from your favorite podcast player. If you want to learn more from me, then check out one of my books, courses, or articles by going to leeatchison.com.Thank you for listening, and welcome to the modern world of the modern digital business!Useful LinksAtchison Academy - Online courses by Lee AtchisonArchitecting for Scale, 2nd Edition, O’Reilly MediaAbout LeeLee Atchison is a software architect, author, public speaker, and recognized thought leader on cloud computing and application modernization. His most recent book, Architecting for Scale (O’Reilly Media), is an essential resource for technical teams looking to maintain high availability and manage risk in their cloud environments. Lee has been widely quoted in multiple technology publications, including InfoWorld, Diginomica, IT Brief, Programmable Web, CIO...

Most companies aren't in the billing space, yet they need to deal with pricing and billing as a core piece of technology, whether they want to or not. Stigg is an easy to implement, headless pricing and packaging platform that takes a lot of the hassle out of pricing and billing for your SaaS applications.Stripe integrations just don't give you what you need for modern SaaS application subscription management.Today on Modern Digital BusinessThank you for tuning in to Modern Digital Business. We typically release new episodes on Thursdays. We also occasionally release short-topic episodes on Tuesdays, which we call Tech Tapas Tuesdays.If you enjoy what you hear, will you please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or directly on our website at mdb.fm/reviews?If you'd like to suggest a topic for an episode or you are interested in being a guest, please contact me directly by sending me a message at mdb.fm/contact.And if you’d like to record a quick question or comment, click the microphone icon in the lower right-hand corner of our website. Your recording might be featured on a future episode!To ensure you get every new episode when they become available, please subscribe from your favorite podcast player. If you want to learn more from me, then check out one of my books, courses, or articles by going to leeatchison.com.Thank you for listening, and welcome to the modern world of the modern digital business!Useful LinksDor Sasson - LinkedInStigg | API-first Pricing & PackagingGTM ExplorerPricing.QuestAbout LeeLee Atchison is a software architect, author, public speaker, and recognized thought leader on cloud computing and application modernization. His most recent book,&nbsp;Architecting for Scale&nbsp;(O’Reilly Media), is an essential resource for technical teams looking to maintain high availability and manage risk in their cloud environments. Lee has been widely quoted in multiple technology publications, including&nbsp;InfoWorld, Diginomica, IT Brief, Programmable Web, CIO Review,&nbsp;and&nbsp;DZone,&nbsp;and has been a featured speaker at events across the globe.Take a look at Lee's many books, courses, and articles by going to <a href="https://leeatchison.com?utm_source=mdb&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=mdb-about-lee" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

AutoCloud is an enterprise software platform used by companies to assist in their Infrastructure as Code deployments. Customers using AutoCloud can reduce cloud costs, security risks, complexity, and adoption time for Infrastructure as Code using Terraform in all the major cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, and GCP.&nbsp;AutoCloud is a critical risk mitigation tool for cyber security, compliance, and ongoing infrastructure monitoring and management.Tyson Kunovsky is the founder and CEO of AutoCloud, and he’s my guest today.Today on Modern Digital Business.Useful LinksAutoCloud: Build, Visualize, Track, and Query Cloud InfrastructureTyson Kunovsky - LinkedInAtchison Academy - Online courses by Lee AtchisonAbout LeeLee Atchison is a software architect, author, public speaker, and recognized thought leader on cloud computing and application modernization. His most recent book,&nbsp;Architecting for Scale&nbsp;(O’Reilly Media), is an essential resource for technical teams looking to maintain high availability and manage risk in their cloud environments. Lee has been widely quoted in multiple technology publications, including&nbsp;InfoWorld, Diginomica, IT Brief, Programmable Web, CIO Review,&nbsp;and&nbsp;DZone,&nbsp;and has been a featured speaker at events across the globe.Take a look at Lee's many books, courses, and articles by going to leeatchison.com. Looking to modernize your application organization?Check out Architecting for Scale. Currently in it's second edition, this book, written by Lee Atchison, and published by O'Reilly Media, will help you build high scale, highly available web applications, or modernize your existing applications. Check it out! Available in&nbsp;paperback&nbsp;or on&nbsp;Kindle&nbsp;from&nbsp;Amazon.com&nbsp;or other retailers. Don't Miss Out!Subscribe here to catch each new episode as it becomes available.Want more from Lee? Click here to sign up for our newsletter. You'll receive information about new episodes, new articles, new books, and courses from Lee. Don't worry, we won't send you spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime. Mentioned in this episode:Business Breakthrough 3.0With a combined 60 years of business and technology experience, experts Lee Atchison and Ken Gavranovic provide a...

Modern businesses rely on applications, and they rely on continued innovation in those applications to drive their business.This strive for innovation creates a need for improved techniques for validating that an application will work as expected. But constant innovation means a constant chance for problems, and testing applications at scale is not an easy task. This is where SpeedScale comes into play. SpeedScale assists in stress-testing applications by recreating real-world traffic loads in a test environment.Today on Modern Digital Business.Useful LinksNate LeeSpeedScale Community SlackSpeedScaleAbout LeeLee Atchison is a software architect, author, public speaker, and recognized thought leader on cloud computing and application modernization. His most recent book,&nbsp;Architecting for Scale&nbsp;(O’Reilly Media), is an essential resource for technical teams looking to maintain high availability and manage risk in their cloud environments. Lee has been widely quoted in multiple technology publications, including&nbsp;InfoWorld, Diginomica, IT Brief, Programmable Web, CIO Review,&nbsp;and&nbsp;DZone,&nbsp;and has been a featured speaker at events across the globe.Take a look at Lee's many books, courses, and articles by going to leeatchison.com. Looking to modernize your application organization?Check out Architecting for Scale. Currently in it's second edition, this book, written by Lee Atchison, and published by O'Reilly Media, will help you build high scale, highly available web applications, or modernize your existing applications. Check it out! Available in&nbsp;paperback&nbsp;or on&nbsp;Kindle&nbsp;from&nbsp;Amazon.com&nbsp;or other retailers. Don't Miss Out!Subscribe here to catch each new episode as it becomes available.Want more from Lee? Click here to sign up for our newsletter. You'll receive information about new episodes, new articles, new books, and courses from Lee. Don't worry, we won't send you spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime. Mentioned in this episode:Atchison AcademyWhat do 100,000 of your peers have in common? They've all boosted their skill set and career prospects by taking one of my online courses. https://mdb.fm/courses

How do cloud architectures differ from non-cloud infrastructure architectures?Cloud architectures benefit from easy scaling. With traditional architectures, adding capacity is often a complicated and expensive ordeal. Cloud architectures, on the other hand, can scale more easily and predictably because they rely on pooled resources. As demand goes up, more resources can be added to the pool quickly and easily.Today on Modern Digital Business.Useful LinksCloud Architecture: Advanced Concepts Online Class | LinkedIn LearningArchitecting for Scale, 2nd Edition, O’Reilly MediaAbout LeeLee Atchison is a software architect, author, public speaker, and recognized thought leader on cloud computing and application modernization. His most recent book,&nbsp;Architecting for Scale&nbsp;(O’Reilly Media), is an essential resource for technical teams looking to maintain high availability and manage risk in their cloud environments. Lee has been widely quoted in multiple technology publications, including&nbsp;InfoWorld, Diginomica, IT Brief, Programmable Web, CIO Review,&nbsp;and&nbsp;DZone,&nbsp;and has been a featured speaker at events across the globe.Take a look at Lee's many books, courses, and articles by going to leeatchison.com. Looking to modernize your application organization?Check out Architecting for Scale. Currently in it's second edition, this book, written by Lee Atchison, and published by O'Reilly Media, will help you build high scale, highly available web applications, or modernize your existing applications. Check it out! Available in&nbsp;paperback&nbsp;or on&nbsp;Kindle&nbsp;from&nbsp;Amazon.com&nbsp;or other retailers. Don't Miss Out!Subscribe here to catch each new episode as it becomes available.Want more from Lee? Click here to sign up for our newsletter. You'll receive information about new episodes, new articles, new books, and courses from Lee. Don't worry, we won't send you spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime.