| Feature | Benefit |
Automated Deployment |
This is the core use case of RapidDeploy™. Deployment is based around an environment neutral deployment file and the same user actions are used for all technologies. Deployment is tightly integrated with security and audit and includes configuration and code. Automating deployments offers vast productivity savings, eliminates the need for manual, time-consuming, error prone scripting and optimizes resource allocation. |
Role-Based Security |
The security model in RapidDeploy™ enables self-service thereby eliminating bottlenecks in the deployment process. Additionally, deployment scheduling allows for out of hours deployments, all of which accelerates the time to value of your business applications. |
Self-Service |
Our security model enables self-service through:
1) Allowing developers / release managers, etc access to deploy / invoke automation jobs in only certain environments (and not others)
2) Where authorized to request deployments to certain environments (with a required approval step)
3) Request configuration changes to environments, with an approval step. An example would be a development could request a DEBUG log setting change, request to a datasource change, but an administration still need to approve.
4) Self service for starts / stop / restarts of services / applications, etc.
All of the above can also be scheduled. Enabling self-service means your business can do more, faster, reduce bottlenecks and release resources. |
| Packaging / Integration to Source Control  |
Deployment packages can contain one or mode components to deploy to target technologies. RapidDeploy™ has a concept of a Deployment Archive – which is a package of code and configuration to be released. RapidDeploy™ has an in built packaging engine that can be used out of the box or this can be integrated with common build systems like Maven, Hudson, Jenkins CruiseControl, etc. You can reuse your existing investments in people, processes and tools and allow RapidDeploy™ to perform the deployment for you. |
Promotion |
Our deployment philosophy is to use the same package throughout the “route to live”. Once deployment configuration has been set in a lower level environment it can be promoted upwards using the product. Promotion can also been linked into a workflow with approves having to approve promotion requests. In addition to speeding up your deployment process across all stages in your application lifecycle, controlling the code releases in this way will reduce the amount of errors you’ll experience and consequently the amount of downtime you experience and the amount of time your staff spend on triage/troubleshooting. |
Restore / Rollback |
Rollback is achieved in a number of ways:
1) Re-deployment of the previous version
2) Some of the deployment types i.e. to WebSphere, WebLogic, Databases, etc. are transactional – so only when all components deploy / update do we commit / synchronize
3) Tasks are also available to backup configuration that can be used to restore (applicable in some circumstances)
Being able to roll back quickly and safely is key to improving productivity and reducing downtime and time spent on triage/troubleshooting.
|
Audit / Compliance |
Core to RapidDeploy™ although more aligned to regulatory compliance such as role separation, restricted access and audit. From a technical perspective, post deployment tasks are readily configurable to validate a deployment. By having control over your process you will find it easier to make continual improvements and have access to the detailed data about what is happening in your systems will boost your capability to support the compliance demands made on your business. |
Reporting and Dashboards |
We have a number of pre-built reports available in RapidDeploy™ and a customizable report query engine available in RapidReports. Previous deployments and associated information is available with in the UI as well as high-level statistics of successful deployments. Knowing what is happening with your deployments will make for planning improvements, the identification and fix of negative trends and continual improvements. |
Discovery |
RapidDeploy™ has a ‘Discover’ button that activates a routine which gathers information from your entire middleware estate and presents it back to you with details of the middleware platform and versions running, on what operating systems and with what applications. It takes a snapshot of each environment for your records enabling you to easily see what is running in your estate, clone and template your environments and configurations and make decisions on what to keep and what can be closed down. |
