Application Delivery with HashiCorp

Summary

In this video, Armando from Hoshi Corp explores the full lifecycle of application delivery, emphasizing workflow over technology. He outlines seven essential steps—development, testing, packaging, provisioning, deployment, monitoring, and security—highlighting their necessity for any application. The discussion showcases Hoshi Corp’s toolchain, including Vagrant for developer environments, Packer for artifact creation, Terraform for infrastructure management, Nomad for orchestration, Consul for service discovery, and Vault for secure secrets management. Core principles such as infrastructure as code, disintermediation between developers and operators, and continuous security are stressed, demonstrating a flexible, scalable, and resilient approach to modern application delivery across diverse technologies and cloud environments.

Takeaways

• 😀 Hoshi Corp focuses on the full application delivery process, from code creation to production deployment.
• 😀 The company emphasizes a workflow-first, technology-agnostic approach rather than focusing on specific tools or platforms.
• 😀 There are seven fundamental steps in application delivery: development, testing, packaging, provisioning, deployment, monitoring, and security.
• 😀 Vagrant is used to provide consistent developer environments that mirror production, ensuring dev-test parity.
• 😀 Packer allows for packaging applications into production-ready artifacts across different platforms, following infrastructure-as-code principles.
• 😀 Terraform handles infrastructure provisioning and evolution, modeling resources declaratively and managing dependencies.
• 😀 Nomad decouples developer and operator concerns, manages application scaling, deployments, and improves resource utilization.
• 😀 Consul supports service discovery, configuration management, load balancing, and building resilient microservices.
• 😀 Vault centralizes secrets management, provides encryption-as-a-service, and enables dynamic, ephemeral secrets to improve security.
• 😀 Security is integrated throughout the entire delivery pipeline, rather than being a final step, to avoid weakest-link vulnerabilities.
• 😀 Infrastructure as code, automation, and codified workflows provide versioning, reproducibility, and reduce human error across the delivery process.
• 😀 Tools are designed to be pluggable and flexible, allowing organizations to adopt new technologies without changing the fundamental delivery workflow.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Hoshi Corp when it comes to application delivery?

Hoshi Corp focuses on workflow-oriented application delivery rather than technology-specific solutions, emphasizing the full process from code development to production deployment.

What are the seven fundamental workflow steps identified by Hoshi Corp for delivering an application?

The seven fundamental workflow steps are: Development, Packaging, Provisioning, Deployment, Monitoring, Security, and Optional Additional Steps such as static code analysis or CMDB, depending on organizational needs.

Why does Hoshi Corp emphasize workflow over technology?

Because the essential steps in application delivery remain consistent regardless of the technology used, focusing on workflow ensures adaptability and consistency across different programming languages, infrastructures, and cloud environments.

What role does Vagrant play in Hoshi Corp’s application delivery workflow?

Vagrant is used during the development and testing phase to provide developer environments that mirror production, ensuring dev-test parity and reducing the risk of environment-related errors.

How does Packer assist in the application delivery process?

Packer automates the packaging process by transforming source code, configuration management, and other inputs into production-ready artifacts such as cloud images, containers, or VM templates.

What is the purpose of Terraform in Hoshi Corp's workflow?

Terraform manages infrastructure as code, allowing for Day 1 provisioning of new infrastructure and Day 2+ evolution of existing infrastructure. It models resources declaratively and handles dependencies automatically.

How does Nomad improve the deployment process?

Nomad acts as an application scheduler that decouples developers from operators, allowing developers to manage application scaling and updates through job files, while operators manage underlying infrastructure without interfering with app lifecycle management.

What problems does Consul address in the workflow?

Consul solves service discovery, configuration management, load balancing, and resilient service-building challenges, enabling reliable communication between microservices in dynamic and cloud environments.

Why is security integrated throughout the pipeline rather than as a final step?

Because security vulnerabilities can occur at any stage, not just the final production step. Integrating security throughout the pipeline reduces the risk of weak links and ensures continuous protection.

How does Vault handle secret management and encryption challenges?

Vault centralizes secrets, encrypts them at rest and in transit, provides fine-grained access control, offers dynamic ephemeral credentials, and exposes high-level cryptographic APIs for applications without requiring developers to manage cryptography directly.

What are the benefits of using infrastructure as code as emphasized in the video?

Infrastructure as code allows for automation, version control, repeatability, and reduces human error by codifying processes for building environments, provisioning infrastructure, and deploying applications.

How does Hoshi Corp approach scaling and resource utilization?

By using tools like Nomad, multiple applications can be efficiently scheduled on the same hardware, increasing resource utilization from below 1% to potentially 20-30%, reducing overall infrastructure costs.

What does Hoshi Corp mean by ‘dynamic secrets’?

Dynamic secrets are ephemeral credentials generated on-demand for applications, rotated automatically, which minimizes the risk of credential leakage and creates a moving target for attackers.