The Ultimate Checklist to Obliterate Software Downtime 🚀

Software downtime... can wreak havoc on your business.

But no need to sweat it. 

Our team created this super (living and breathing) checklist to help. 

But first, a little about us: Our cloud architects and data engineers have learning and growing coded in their DNA.

They have a voracious appetite for knowledge.

And were probably those kids who took things apart only to put them together again (radios, anyone?)

We've also helped some of the world's most innovative retailers, health tech companies, and IoT juggernauts keep costs down, grow (with a plan), and help customer love blossom into lasting loyalty (the perennial kind🌹). 

🚀Architecture: 8 Must-Ask Questions

1. Data Ingestion: How does data enter your platform? How big is the payload and how frequently does it happen?
2. Data Processing: Have you identified code blocks that are running long data processing tasks?
3. Data Validation: Is incoming data validated against a schema? How are issues with incoming data handled?
4. API Latency: Do you have tools to monitor API performance? Have you identified specific API endpoints that are slow or returning large payloads?
5. Monolith vs Microservices: Are you considering breaking down your monolith into microservices? (If yes, proceed with caution, get in touch with us to learn why).
6. Database Tuning: Have you done a slow-query-log analysis? Is caching enabled between the API service and the database layer?
7. Memory Management: Do you know the resource requirements of your apps? Have you identified any apps that are going down with Out of Memory exceptions?
8. Backward Compatibility: Can you release new versions of APIs without compatibility issues?

💎Consistency is Key: 3 Crucial Checkpoints

1. Automated Tests: How much testing is automated vs manual? Do you have test code coverage reports?
2. Data Consistency Tests: Are data consistency tests running regularly in production?
3. Performance Tests: Is performance testing done routinely with every release?

⚙️Infrastructure Intelligence: 5 Top Tips

1. Container Orchestration: If using containers, are you skilled with the orchestration framework?
2. Resource Monitoring: Are you continuously measuring the CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network performance of your services?
3. Auto Scaling: Do services auto-scale with the load?
4. Disaster Recovery: Do you have a plan in place if production goes down?
5. Automation: Is your DevOps team investing in automating infrastructure, monitoring, and auto-scaling frameworks?

👥Product & Engineering Alignment: 5 Steps to Success

1. User Acceptance & Feedback Loop: Have end users performed User Acceptance Testing? Is their feedback incorporated into the product design?
2. Team Composition: Are your engineering and product teams aligned with the product being built?
3. Agile: Do you have a sufficient backlog for at least two sprints at any given time?
4. Technical Debt: What measures are being taken to manage and reduce technical debt?
5. Throw Over the DevOps Wall: Is the engineering team engaged with the entire release pipeline?

If you're unsure about any part of this process, we offer a comprehensive assessment as part of our core service. Just give us a shout, and we'll be happy to chat! 💬

We want to know all about the cool things you took apart and put back together, whether it was an old radio, a broken toy, or something completely unique.

Drop a comment and let us know what kind of tinkering you got up to as a kid.