Thrivent Financial research of various tools

1. Vivekanand Rajasekar

2. 
 Application Release Automation refers to the
process of packaging and deploying an application
or update of an application from development,
across various environments, and ultimately to
production.
What is a Deploy Tool?

3. 
 Application Release Automation refers to the
process of packaging and deploying an application
or update of an application from development,
across various environments, and ultimately to
production.
 It must combine the capabilities of deployment
automation, environment management and
modeling, and release coordination
What is a Deploy Tool?

4. 
 It is more than just Software deployment
automation- it’s deploying applications
using structured release automation
techniques that allow for an increase in
visibility for the whole team.
 It is the combination of workload
automation and release management
tools as they relate to release packages
and movement through different
environments within your DevOps
pipeline.
 ARA Tools help regulate deployments,
how you create and deploy
environments, and when and how to
deploy releases.
What is a Deploy Tool?

5. Release Manager: I need constant visibility into the status of my deployments and
environments. Our deployments have gotten too complex to manage without a tool
to help us.
Enterprise Architect
I want to create a standardized and repeatable deployment process across the
company, so we can reduce errors and meet IT governance requirements.
Developer
I want to be able to deploy my own code and not wait for the Ops guys to get around
to it.
Operations Manager
I want to automate my software deployment process so we can release software more
quickly and avoid being a bottleneck in the release process.
CIO
I want to make the most efficient use of our limited resources to meet the ever-
growing demands of the business.
DevOps Manager
want to allow self-service deployments for my developers, but I need to
enforce controls and also ensure audit requirements are met.

6. Release Manager: I need constant visibility into the status of my deployments and
environments. Our deployments have gotten too complex to manage without a tool
to help us.
Enterprise Architect
I want to create a standardized and repeatable deployment process across the
company, so we can reduce errors and meet IT governance requirements.
Developer
I want to be able to deploy my own code and not wait for the Ops guys to get around
to it.
Operations Manager
I want to automate my software deployment process so we can release software more
quickly and avoid being a bottleneck in the release process.
CIO
I want to make the most efficient use of our limited resources to meet the ever-
growing demands of the business.
DevOps Manager
want to allow self-service deployments for my developers, but I need to
enforce controls and also ensure audit requirements are met.

7. 
 By 2020, 50% of global enterprises will have implemented
at least one application release automation solution, up
from less than 10% today.
 ARA solution market reached an estimated $219.7 million
in 2015, up from just $20 million in 2010. The market is
currently expected to grow at an estimated 20%
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2020.
 This growth, in part, represents continued investment in
DevOps initiatives as ARA solutions continue to be
sought after by enterprises looking to expand on their
hard-won agility gains without forcing instantaneous
companywide transformation
Strategic Planning
Assumption

8. 
ARA Solutions
ITCS Rank Name Maker
1 Lisa CA Technologies
2 UrbanCode IBM
3 Go Thoughtworks
4 XL Deploy XebiaLabs
5 Codar HP
7 Electric Flow Electric Cloud
15 Release Management BMC
- Serena Serena Software
- Visual Studio Release
Management
Microsoft
- BuildMaster Inedo
- Puppet Enterprise Puppet
- RapidDeploy MidVision
- DeployHub OpenMake Software
https://www.itcentralstation.com/categories/release-automation

9. 
ARA Solutions
ITCS Rank Name Maker
1 Lisa CA Technologies
2 UrbanCode IBM
3 Go Thoughtworks
4 XL Deploy XebiaLabs
5 Codar HP
7 Electric Flow Electric Cloud
15 Release Management BMC
- Serena Serena Software
- Visual Studio Release
Management
Microsoft
- BuildMaster Inedo
- Puppet Enterprise Puppet
- RapidDeploy MidVision
- DeployHub OpenMake Software
https://www.itcentralstation.com/categories/release-automation

10. 

11. 

12. 
 Sample Customers: Citrix, NIIT Technologies, ING
Bank, Molina Healthcare, Swisscom, Bupa and
Tesco.
1. CA Release Automation
(Lisa)
Industries
Manufacturing
Finance
Insurance
Healthcare
Other
Company Size
1-200
200-1000
1001+

13. 
 Powerful Deployment Workflows- Visual, intuitive workflow
engine. You can design modular workflows for each component
1. CA Valuable Features

14. 
 Powerful Deployment Workflows- Visual, intuitive workflow
engine. You can design modular workflows for each component
 Robust Toolchain Integrations: 1800 actions included, so easily
integrates with continuous delivery toolchain. Example: Jenkins,
Dockers, Azure, Puppet…etc
 Configurable Dashboard: Centralized view into key metrics,
historical data, and other key information
 Agent-Based: allows us to do multiple things at once instead of
serially.
 Large Existing Customer Base- strong band equity
 Out-of-box Support- for vendors and platforms necessary
 Agile Life cycle management tool – acquired Rally
1. CA Valuable Features

15. 
 Poor User Interface: hard to understand for some,
and it varies significantly across the products
comprising the CA ARA solution
 Integration is problematic and bumpy
 Company’s ARA and Rally Software offerings are
delivered via separate organizational units
 UI does not emphasize the feedback capabilities
available
1. Lisa Criticisms

16. Industry
Finance
Insurance
Government
Retailer
Other
2. UrbanCode Deploy
Company Size
1-200
201-1000
1001+

17. 
2. UrbanCode Valuable
Features

18. 
 Performance, scalability, usability and management of the
complexities of large enterprises
 Recently added configuration management, enterprise release
calendaring, Docker support and support for z/OS
(mainframe) deployment scenarios provide additional
differentiation
 Clients with a heavy investment in IBM software (e.g.,
WebSphere) and platforms (e.g., z/OS) will find the IBM
UrbanCode solution particularly compelling, as the integration
and support strategies are closely aligned to support and
augment bigger IBM initiatives (e.g., IBM Bluemix and IBM
Cloud).
2. UrbanCode Valuable
Features

19.  Need more granular security
 Upgrades are very jerky and completely redesign the model
 Continues to be positioned and leveraged to support bigger
IBM initiatives. That directly impacts investment patterns and
roadmaps, which we recommend regularly monitoring.
 Capabilities are also offered as a peripheral component of the
company's IBM Bluemix DevOps Services SaaS offering;
however, these are separate products and should be evaluated
independently.
 Compared with IBM's support for other cloud platforms and
services (AWS, IBM SoftLayer, etc.), support for Microsoft
Azure public cloud resources is a recent addition and should be
evaluated to ensure proper fit to current and future needs.
2. UrbanCode Criticisms

20. 
3. XebiaLabs XL Deploy
Sample Customers: American Express, Xerox, Fandango, Rabobank, 3M, Liberty
Mutual, GE
Industry
Finance
Manufacturin
g
Insurance
HR
Other
Company Size
1-200
201-1000
1001+

21. 
3. XebiaLabs Valuable
Features

22. 
 Ease and speed of implementation due to agentless
design
 Modern UI and project planning orientation are
useful for customers looking to start their ARA
initiatives with release coordination.
 Large organizations may find the model-based
deployment plans easier to implement and maintain
than workflow-based deployments.
3. XebiaLabs Valuable
Features

23. 
 Some clients report experiencing increased
functional complexity when needing to make
significant changes to deployments.
 The ARA solution's model-driven approach may not
appeal to those looking to drive deployments via a
workflow paradigm.
 Agentless deployment may present challenges for
organizations looking for remote, endpoint or
triggered release methods.
3. XebiaLabs Criticisms

24. 
 All three of the Deploy Tools (CA Lisa, IBM UrbanCode, and
XebiaLabs XL Deploy) are very robust systems that could be
trusted to bring efficiency to the firm and save time.
 If Model-based deployment plan is more feasible for
Thrivent, then XebiaLabs would be practical.
 If Workflow-based deployment plan is more feasible, then
UrbanCode and Lisa are best.
 More than the system itself, I believe the implementation in
the firm will have a far more important impact on the
efficiency of the firm.
Vivek’s Take