Need to deploy lots of releases to different environments? Can’t afford to make time consuming mistakes? Need to track the deployment of these apps throughout their whole lifecycle? Contact one of our experts today or scroll down to find out more about IBM UrbanCode.
IBM’s acquisition of UrbanCode in 2013 filled a DevOps gap in the manufacturer’s portfolio. UrbanCode is broken down into two main products focussed on application planning and execution.
Application Planning – IBM UrbanCode Deploy
UrbanCode Deploy is used to automate the deployment of apps to different environments, typically as part of continuous integration.
The deployment of the many different components of a modern application is sufficiently complex to be time-consuming to do manually. UrbanCode Deploy automates this task and automatacially deploys all the components of an application in moments. With this speed of deployment, deployments can be made on a whim and are typically made with every committed code change, often to multiple environments.
IBM UrbanCode Deploy automates this process and carries the main benefits of greatly reducing the amount of time needed to complete full deployment as well as significantly reducing the chance of errors.
Deploy allows the user to import files from a PC or a source code management system, define the environment, create the application process using a simple drag and drop tool, before the automatic deployment. The user can also load in different versions of the same processes and deploy them.
IBM UrbanCode Deploy’s special strength is that it ‘learns’ the common aspects of similar deployments, so that deployment scripts can be reused in many different situations, without having to rewrite them every time. This saves substantial time compared to other continuous integration tools.
Key features include:
- Automated deployment of applications to different environments.
- Ability to roll back to previous and saved configurations.
- Track user activity.
- Simple drag & drop system for process design.
- Integration with UrbanCode Release and IBM RQM, allowing the running of quality tests.
Execution – IBM UrbanCode Release
UrbanCode Release tracks and manages the release of large and complex apps, including all of the different configurations that go into a release. It works as a tool to produce the plan for a whole all the components and projects in a release.
IBM Release is particularly useful in that, whilst it coordinates releases throughout the different stages of a lifecycle, it also helps to reduce the number of errors that would normally occur simply due to complexity and speeds up the whole release process.
Other notable elements include the existence of a quality gate, to be set by the project manager. This is principally useful if the team is creating a model to follow for a release. The team leader can set the criteria for progression and if these are not completed, the project will not be able to progress to the next stage. Individual tasks can be assigned and tracked allowing for facilitated recognition of who has actioned what, what has worked and what hasn’t.
Key features include the ability to:
- Plan and track releases across their entire lifecycle.
- Track, manage and review tasks.
- Preview environments.
- Integrate fully with UrbanCode Deploy and IBM RTC.
These UrbanCode offerings add a powerful DevOps capability to the IBM product range and are particularly powerful when combined with the CLM suite.
Automation Consultants is a member of the IBM Value Added Partner Program and is an authorised reseller of UrbanCode. We can also provide consultancy and training to help your teams get started with UrbanCode and make the most of it. UrbanCode can be a key element in your efforts to increase efficiency and reduce cost in application lifecycle management.
Talk to our lifecycle experts today about IBM UrbanCode and the future of devops.
