How Automating Cloud Operations Accelerated Time to Market at Nu Cop344

Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - How Automating Cloud Operations Accelerated Time to Market at NU (COP344)

Summary

  • The session discusses the impact of automating cloud operations on accelerating time to market for NewBank (now called NU).
  • The focus is on the role of platform engineering, which encompasses DevOps, SRE, and IT operations, and its evolution from the DevOps movement.
  • The challenges of scaling operations, standardizing tools, and automating processes are highlighted.
  • The importance of optimization in cloud operations is emphasized, particularly in terms of cost, performance, and reliability.
  • The speaker introduces Spot by NetApp's approach to cloud operations, which includes observability, optimization, and automation, and how it integrates with AWS.
  • Vitor from NU shares their journey and challenges in adopting Spot by NetApp's solutions, including specific use cases and how they overcame issues with service allocation, latency-sensitive services, and market volatility.
  • NU achieved significant cost savings and efficiency improvements by using Spot instances for a large portion of their infrastructure.
  • The future goals for NU include further automation, cost management, and enhancing their platform to match the right workloads with the right nodes.

Insights

  • Automating cloud operations can significantly reduce costs and improve efficiency, as demonstrated by NU's experience with Spot by NetApp.
  • The transition from traditional DevOps to platform engineering reflects a need for standardization and automation at scale, which is critical for large organizations.
  • The use of Spot instances can be optimized through features like virtual node groups and fallback mechanisms to handle market volatility and ensure service reliability.
  • Observability tools are crucial for monitoring infrastructure and making informed decisions about optimization and automation.
  • Open source services play a significant role in cloud operations, but require careful management and support, either internally or through vendors.
  • The journey to cloud optimization is ongoing, with continuous improvements and adaptations needed to address new challenges and leverage emerging technologies.