What Is Site Reliability Engineering?

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is a set of principles that applies various aspects of software engineering to traditional IT operations. SRE aims to create reliable and scalable software systems, and even though it isn’t a 1:1 comparison to DevOps, many of the principles do apply. With SRE, there are 7 guiding pillars, each of which can be applied directly to DevOps for a much-improved workflow.

The 7 Pillars of SRE and Their Impact on DevOps

The 7 pillars of SRE are Embracing Risk, Service Level Objectives, Eliminating Toil, Monitoring, Release Engineering, Automation, and Simplicity. Each of these pillars can positively impact DevOps in various ways:

• Embracing Risk encourages teams to take calculated risks, which is essential for innovation and improvement in DevOps.
• Service Level Objectives tie objectives to customer satisfaction, which should be a key driver for DevOps.
• Eliminating Toil through automation frees up engineers to focus on development and operations, improving DevOps efficiency.
• Monitoring provides insights into the DevOps workflow, enabling data-driven improvements.
• Release Engineering ensures consistent, stable, and repeatable software deployments, a core aspect of DevOps.
• Automation makes the DevOps workflow more reliable and removes mundane tasks.
• Simplicity helps avoid overly complex systems that can hinder DevOps.

Embracing Risk and Service Level Objectives

No service is 100% guaranteed, and embracing risk is essential for innovation and improvement in DevOps. When teams avoid risk, they also avoid the rewards that come with it. However, it’s crucial to understand that along with risk, there is also safety and security, and teams should not be punished when risk goes wrong. Service Level Objectives (SLOs) tie objectives to customer satisfaction, which should be a key driver for DevOps. Improving customer satisfaction can radically change how teams approach development and operations.

Eliminating Toil and Monitoring

Eliminating toil, or stripping away repetitive work, is crucial for DevOps efficiency. Automation can remove these repetitive tasks, allowing engineers to focus on development and operations. Monitoring the DevOps workflow is also essential, providing key insights into how everything works and how things could be improved. The four most important pieces of information to monitor are latency, traffic patterns, errors, and service saturation. Monitoring cuts to the very heart of DevOps.

Release Engineering and Automation

Release Engineering is about deploying software in a consistent, stable, and repeatable manner, which is crucial for DevOps. It involves configuration management, process documentation, automation, rapid deployment, and continuous testing. Automation is another key principle that can positively impact DevOps by making the workflow more reliable and removing mundane tasks from developers and IT operations.

Simplicity in DevOps

Although DevOps is a complicated and challenging methodology, simplicity should be at its heart. Instead of designing and developing overly complex systems, teams should strive for simplicity. When complex systems break, the fixes are almost equally as complicated. On the contrary, when a simple system breaks, the fix is usually fast and easy. By reimagining the DevOps workflow with simplicity in mind, teams can design and develop with intent and purpose, making it easier to fix issues when they arise.