Yesterday (December 8th 2021), Optimizely sneakily released their very first major update for the EpiCloud Powershell Module; Version 1.0.0.

This is great timing, as I was also about to release an update that would provide a fix for Azure.Storage (no longer relevant – ill explain why further in this post), as well as provide updates for use with .NET 5.0.

In this post, we will go through the following:

• What is new in this update?
• Provisioning environments for NET5? How?!
• Conclusion

The Optimizely Deployment API (Episerver.PaaS.EpiCloud) has helped immensely as I’ve been working on new projects, but there has always been something that has plagued me; copying down content/assets into my local environment.

When I say “Copying down Content,” I mean two pieces; Database and the Assets.

For the Database Export, I have created my ExportDatabase Script, which will utilize the API to generate a download file, and will also download the database to a local location.

Today, we will be talking about the hard part of this process; downloading Assets.

In this post, we will go through the following:

• What makes up “Content” in an Environment and Why would you need to copy it locally?
• What is Azure Blob Storage? How is it used in Optimizely?
  • What is an SAS Token?
• How to Download Assets (script)
• Conclusion

As I continue to use the Deployment API, I always am looking for new and exciting ways to use the commands. In this case, being able to provision a brand new set of DXP Environments for a client.

The Optimizely DXP is made up of three environments; Integration, Preproduction, and Production. Not all of these environments are provisioned once development begins.

In this post, we will go through the following:

• What environments exist in DXP?
  • Which environments need to be provisioned?
• Why do we provision these early?
• How to provision the environments (script)
• Conclusion

In my previous posts, we went over the deployment process in the Optimizely/Episerver DXP environment. The first and the second post of the Deployment API series went through the original methods that allow for deployment into the DXP environment.

As of March 29th, Microsoft made the decision to publish new VM’s which archived a bunch of Az, Azure, and AzureRM modules.

The side effect of this was that when any of the deployment API scripts were run in Azure DevOps, it would throw an error.

'Azure.Storage' version 4.4.0 or greater is required.
At C:\Users\VssAdministrator\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\EpiCloud\0.13.15\EpiCloud.psm1:189 char:13
+             throw "'Azure.Storage' version 4.4.0 or greater is requir ...
+             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: ('Azure.Storage'...er is required.:String) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : 'Azure.Storage' version 4.4.0 or greater is required.

I have found a fix that will properly call the Azure/Az Module and fix this error, and have built it into my scripts.

As of Update 357, Optimizely (EpiServer) released Direct Deploy into their Deployment API, Episerver.PaaS.EpiCloud.

This update changes a couple of my scripts to allow major speed improvements when deploying into the integration environment.

In this post, we will go through the following:

• How does the current deployment to Integration work?
• Why Direct Deploy? Why does this make sense?
• How to utilize Direct Deploy
• Script updates

In my previous posts, we went over the deployment process in the EpiServer DXP environment. The first post went through the original methods that allow for deployment into the DXP environment. The second post went through update 313, which was a massive deployment API update, as well as how to use the API to export an environmental database, and how to sync down environments.

In this post, we’re going to go through the following:

• How to get access to the Deployment Scripts
• How to link the deployment scripts to your DevOps Environment
• Building our solution and creating our artifact for deployment
• Creation of our variable group for key storage
• Generating our API keys from the PAAS Portal

The following is the fourth and final in a series of blogs about how innovation is necessary for businesses – and how Azure Red Hat OpenShift, a managed offering from Microsoft and Red Hat, enables that innovation. In this fourth blog, we’re going to highlight how Azure Red Hat OpenShift helps developers focus on innovation – and why that’s important for businesses.

We’ve talked about the need to innovate and how containers have become crucial in doing so several times throughout this series. Rather than dwell on that, in this blog, we’re going to get straight to the crucial capabilities Azure Red Hat OpenShift offers to developers – and others in the IT organization – and how they come together to help business innovate.

Simplifying development processes with Azure Red Hat OpenShift

In our last blog, we highlighted some of the ways Azure Red Hat OpenShift simplifies processes for IT organizations generally. Azure Red Hat OpenShift offers many features that simplify processes specifically for developers too though.

It probably isn’t a surprise, but the combination of Azure and OpenShift comes with many significant benefits for developers. OpenShift, as an enterprise grade Kubernetes platform, is naturally focused on aiding developers and enabling innovation. Most of the benefits around OpenShift are a result of automation and simplifying processes. Through automated operations, development teams are able to focus on doing what they do best in building and deploying applications and features, while being able to use validated images and solutions within the OpenShift platform.

In fact, according to a Forrester Total Economic Impact report commissioned by Red Hat, developers utilizing OpenShift “experience a 90% productivity lift for initial application development, testing, and deployment,” with shorter development cycles being worth more than $2.2 million over three years and 454 applications.

Azure doesn’t get left behind in simplifying processes for developers though – it actually brings many unique factors that make it such a popular option. For example, we have talked about the importance of containers several times – mostly in reference to OpenShift. Azure’s self-service deployment gives a clear view of your cluster environment through the user interface. From there, you can make your own cluster without having to talk to anyone else in the organization as long as the permissions are set up. This is ideal for teams that want to move quickly and work in an agile way.

While any operating system supports building applications, it’s simpler on Azure with single sign-on. The abilities to simplify processes, focus on development, and empower DevOps practices truly gives organizations the chance to reach their market faster.

Finally, the ease of moving clusters from Red Hat onto Azure means you can instantly get access to database tools such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, CosmosDB, and more as you extend Kubernetes onto Azure.

Automate with Azure DevOps

DevOps means different things to different people, but at its core, it’s about adopting agile methodologies to optimize processes throughout the IT organization and drive innovation. For those wanting to automate deployment and operations, DevOps is the goal. In the case of Azure, Azure DevOps is a large tool that actually sits on the side of Azure. It has many facets and is about more than continuous deployment.

Instead, it provides CI/CD pipelines, checks and triggers, and automated testing. When you’re using Azure DevOps, you’re able to move workloads automatically to QA. This then automatically sends an email to a manual tester, who does user acceptance testing against it and can then deploy it with the press of a button.

All of this means that developers don’t need to touch the app after they check-in a build with Azure DevOps. OpenShift, meanwhile, provides a whole host of DevOps capabilities around builds because it has all of the benefits of Kubernetes – simplifying Azure Kubernetes Services as a result.

This is vital because, as we’ve discussed throughout this series, containers can be difficult. For those without experience, deploying container images and containers themselves without issues isn’t easy. However, as we’ve mentioned, OpenShift provides a user interface that lowers the bar to entry for developers, allowing you to automate much more easily.

This allows to you to take advantage of containers’ inherent portability and deploy them anywhere you might need. As a result, you’re able to take advantage of the time and value they have in their on-premises data centers and can scale it with the hosted Azure environment through Azure Red Hat OpenShift.

A managed environment

While it may not be a tool, that Red Hat and Microsoft manage the environment together does enable developers to innovate. With the managed offering, application developers don’t need to worry about the environment. The 99.9% uptime service level agreement provides peace of mind and means developers don’t need to think about environment issues. Patching, updates, and monitoring are all handled for you.

Instead, developers can just focus on working on their own application, running it locally by building their own container and then verifying. While developers aren’t typically charged with DevOps, they may have their own environment to work in with Azure Red Hat OpenShift, giving them a sandbox in which to make and validate changes themselves. As we’ve highlighted above, Azure DevOps makes DevOps processes far easier for developers, too.

Azure Red Hat OpenShift’s biggest benefit – for developers and businesses

In the past couple of blogs, we’ve discussed how Azure Red Hat OpenShift simplifies processes and enables developers to innovate. In essence, all of these benefits add up to one significant benefit – reducing your time to market.

With Azure Red Hat OpenShift, there’s nothing blocking you from building your application. In fact, obstacles are purposely eliminated so that developers can focus on what they do best. In turn, that means there’s nothing blocking you from innovating – quickly. At a time when businesses need to release features at speed, this is crucial and can help business get a crucial edge on their competitors.

Learn more

To read more about Azure Red Hat OpenShift, you can download our guide, Power Innovation with Azure Red Hat OpenShift, by following this link or by clicking the “get the guide” link in this blog.

The following is the twelfth blog in a series about why businesses are moving to the cloud to modernize and improve business performance.

Throughout this series, we have discussed the many benefits of cloud, including increased velocity for innovation, enhanced security, and the opportunity for ROI. Now, we want to discuss how the cloud can help businesses in their specific circumstances by looking at different industries. In our last blog, we highlighted a financial services example of giving customers a unified experience by bringing data together in the cloud. In this blog, we’re going to dive into an automotive maker use case in which we gave drivers a connected experience with cloud.

Providing a connected car experience with cloud

People today can connect more devices than ever – and that includes their car. An international car manufacturer wanted to take advantage of that by providing a more cost-effective connected vehicle experience for its customers, while also wanting to monetize its connected features. It was unable to implement this, though, due to its existing platform relying on disparate legacy systems that lacked a robust user experience.

To modernize the client’s platform, we developed an API-driven, cloud-native platform, built on Pivotal Cloud Foundry. With the capabilities of the new platform in mind, we also implemented a rigorous, test-driven development approach in combination with CI/CD practices to streamline future development. This enabled the multi-channel connected capabilities that the client was looking for, while they were also able to monetize it.

With this new platform, the client was able to monitor applications globally, enjoy greater flexibility, speed to market, and development effectiveness. Customers, meanwhile, enjoyed an easy-to-use, connected experience thanks to the cloud platform.

Learn more

Do you want to learn more about the cloud’s benefits? Click here or fill in the form below to read the guide Transform Your Business with Cloud and learn what cloud can do for you.

The following is the eleventh blog in a series about why businesses are moving to the cloud to modernize and improve business performance.

Throughout this series, we have discussed the many benefits of cloud, including increased velocity for innovation, enhanced security, and the opportunity for ROI. In the next few blogs, we’re going to examine some use cases across different industries to show how exactly industry leaders are utilizing cloud computing to enhance their businesses.

Giving the consumer a unified customer experience with cloud

Many of the cloud’s benefits that we’ve highlighted in this series apply to back-end operations. However, one of the most important benefits of the cloud for financial services companies translates over to the front end.

One example of this comes from our work with one of the leading global financial services companies. The company used multiple systems that it had acquired over time to support its customers. This process was proving more and more cumbersome over time, and the systems weren’t integrated. As a result, data was scattered on the back end and the customer experience was suffering on the front end.

This is a familiar problem for financial services companies, which deal with a vast array of data. While this data is useful, the data is often siloed and stored in legacy systems, making it hard to utilize.

To connect the data, we united the customer, contact, and product data sets behind a set of REST APIs. At the same time, we also updated processes and systems to unify the data. The data was configured for consolidation in the cloud, and legacy support systems were retired. As a result, the client had a united view of the customer’s profile on the back end, allowing a unified customer experience on the front end.

This change followed a project in which we converted several web apps into cloud-native applications with Pivotal Cloud Foundry. The result of these projects was giving the client provided a more personalized, unified customer experience in the cloud.

Learn more

Do you want to learn more about the cloud’s benefits? Click here or fill in the form below to read the guide Transform Your Business with Cloud and learn what cloud can do for you.

The following is the tenth blog in a series about why businesses are moving to the cloud to modernize and improve business performance.

In this series, we have highlighted the major benefits the cloud brings, including in areas such as innovation, security, and disaster recovery, among others. In this blog, we’re going to summarize those benefits and highlight how the cloud benefits businesses.

The benefits of cloud await

As we’ve highlighted previously in this series, the cloud today is more than a location to store files. Instead, it is now a collection of tools that enable businesses to undergo a greater digital transformation.

The reasons behind the ever-increasing popularity of the cloud are clear. This evolution of cloud and the tools it has brought mean the velocity, agility, innovation, security, and financial benefits that make the cloud the right choice for businesses in the digital age.

The cloud sets you up to improve the experience of the two most important groups in your business: employees and customers. Employees are able to work smarter, faster, and on more crucial tasks. Customers benefit from a smoother, easier experience as they enjoy financial savings that are passed on to them.

The cloud isn’t just about making short-term or quick-hit improvements that deliver just-in-time results. Instead, the cloud is about ensuring that your business is positioned to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment by enabling insight and innovation.

Summing up the benefits of the cloud

We have gone through many of the reasons the cloud is beneficial for businesses in this series. The following is a brief summary of those reasons:

• Business efficiency, velocity, and ROI
• The ability to innovate
• Reduced overhead
• Superior, adaptable security
• Improved data management and disaster recovery
• Reassessments of human and material assets

Learn more

Do you want to learn more about the cloud’s benefits? Click here or fill in the form below to read the guide Transform Your Business with Cloud and learn what cloud can do for you.

The following is the ninth blog in a series about why businesses are moving to the cloud to modernize and improve business performance.

In our previous blog, we highlighted the potential cloud offers as it pertains to making savings and generating revenue. In this blog, we’re going to examine a real-life example of this through the cloud streamlining work and ensuring accuracy.

The need to improve processes

Many businesses are struggling with manual processes slowing workflow and resulting in errors. This is especially an issue for healthcare organizations, which deal with a large volume of data.

Our client, a leading managed care provider, was one of those companies seeking to improve processes. Specifically, the company needed help collecting medical case data, improving billing accuracy, and routing cases. They had additional integration issues that had come as a result of acquisitions. This lack of integration added extra difficulties to the issues with processes.

Using the cloud to improve processes and bring ROI

Leveraging the cloud to modernize processes and technology, we worked with the client to integrate technologies and automate cumbersome processes. This included providing strategic guidance to the client while also implementing hybrid cloud infrastructure, Microsoft Azure architecture, identity management, project management, full stack deployment, and application support capabilities in order to modernize. At the same time, we developed a modern single-page application for automation capabilities and utilized a cloud-native Azure platform-as-a-service solution to build a platform for the development team to work with the operations team.

The result of this was the client having an integrated multiple-product-line system handling 90 percent of company revenue. Processes as a whole were streamlined with task-driven workflows, including intelligent case routing, while thousands of users were empowered for accurate data entry, reducing billing errors as a result. All of this saved great amounts of time throughout the businesses, giving immediate ROI for the cloud move.

As well as that, our team worked alongside internal and offshore development teams to help them acquire necessary skills. This resulted in a successful transition to internal development, operations, and support teams. This meant the client was able to leverage the cloud themselves for long-term ROI, as well as a short-term boost.

Learn more

Are you interested in the capabilities and potential ROI that the cloud can bring to your business? Click here or fill in the form below to read the guide Transform Your Business with Cloud and learn what cloud can do for you.