DevOps at Apriko

At Apriko, we attach great importance to automation, transparency, traceability, and flexibility. That’s why we set the highest standards from development to productive operation.

Apriko works according to the agile Kanban method. All requirements are collected in the form of user stories in a central backlog, prioritised, and developed in isolation. Each code change is assigned to a task and can be traced seamlessly, so that it is clear who changed what, when, and why. The functions developed in this way are continuously automatically tested and rolled out at the push of a button.

By automatically detecting changes in our code base and then triggering our CI/CD workflows, we accelerate our development cycles and promote team collaboration. Thousands of integration tests or executable specifications and classic unit tests are carried out in just a few minutes. If all tests are successful, a release is created and rolled out as necessary.

To ensure the traceability, security, and stability of our infrastructure at all times, we take a declarative approach by mapping our entire cloud infrastructure in reusable and version-controlled configuration files. This increases consistency and automation, minimises manual errors, and makes it easier to deploy new environments. The infrastructure components are seamlessly integrated, so that adjustments can be made quickly and securely. This allows us to swap existing components quickly and operate independently of specific cloud providers, which makes it possible to switch to another cloud provider without much effort.

Our infrastructure is built on a robust and scalable cloud environment that is essential for modern DevOps requirements. Managed cloud services that meet the highest security standards form the backbone of our architecture. These services minimise operational effort so that we can focus on the core tasks. Through close integration with other cloud services such as logging and monitoring, we always keep track of the health of our infrastructure and applications, which enables us to react quickly to potential problems. In addition, we can use the cloud resources efficiently to keep operating costs low.

For the management of our container-based microservices, we rely on the powerful orchestration platform Kubernetes, which gives us the necessary flexibility and scalability. Containers allow us to deploy applications securely and efficiently without adding unnecessary maintenance effort. With automatic workload scaling and built-in troubleshooting, our applications stay available and efficient at all times. To reduce the complexity of managing this infrastructure, we rely on a template-based tool that allows us to reuse configurations and centrally manage parameters and dependencies.

For automated release management, we use the configuration management and DevOps Octopus Deploy solution, which allows us to control the entire process efficiently. This ensures that our software is deployed consistently and error-free across different environments. With the ability to plan, approve, and monitor releases, we increase transparency and control over our deployments. The integration of this solution with our cloud and version control systems makes it an indispensable part of our CI/CD workflows.

We rely on a highly secure management system to manage sensitive information such as database access details and API keys. This system ensures that all confidential data is encrypted and only accessible to authorised persons. Access is strictly limited and not visible outside the management system, which significantly increases the security of our infrastructure. By regularly updating this information automatically, we minimise potential security risks. This solution integrates seamlessly with our DevOps tools, so secrets can be used securely and risk-free in our CI/CD workflow.

By combining state-of-the-art cloud and orchestration technologies as well as automated release and security solutions, we have created a highly efficient and flexible DevOps environment at Apriko. These technologies allow us to respond faster and more reliably to customer requirements, continuously improve the quality of our software, and reduce operating costs. With these modern approaches, we offer our customers world-class software solutions.