Busy week for www.OrcaConfig.com!
- We attended a terrific DevOpsDaysAustin conference. See our recap below.
- And rolled out an important new Orca Version 1.3.9 with Upgraded Color Coded Configuration Compliance Heat Map
DevOps Days Austin recap:
No one was debating the merits of DevOps. At this point practitioners, consultants and vendors were only discussing the best methods and tools to help them achieve a true DevOps organization. Three topics in particular sparked a lot of interest and vigorous debate: 1) Compliance Audits, 2) Security and 3) Containers. This time we’ll talk about Compliance Audits.
Painful SOX and HIPAA Compliance Audits:
We were blown away at DevOps Austin at the pain that many IT folks experience as they try to comply with compliance audits and reporting. This is true in many organizations but especially true in highly regulated financial, healthcare and public utilities.
See how Orca automatically provides audit trails and facilitates compliance reporting:
http://www.orcaconfig.com/compliance-reporting-and-compliance-audit/
In summary, complaints surrounded the notions that auditors have a habit of asking for unrealistic levels of detailed information including the:
When, What, Where, Why, When and Who.
The good news is that the Orca configuration management solution automatically logs data including the change timing, purpose, scope (target node locations) as well as information identifying the users and approvers who made the changes and whether the change was successfully implemented.
We’ll summarize a spirited debate this way: Many DevOpsDaysAustin attendees appeared to have tremendous faith that Containers were the answer. Others pushed back against this notion and stressed that Containers have their place but that in IT and life generally – use the right tool for the right job. Sometimes containers are the right tool – but not always.
Also this week, we announce the release of Orca version 1.3.9.
New capabilities for Orca: Windows web app configuration management +
New “Download-and-Go” installation
Orca application-centric and middleware configuration management solution now supports download-and-go functionality with its version 1.3.9 release. The download and go software will have full functionality and is free to use for 30 days.
With this new version, organizations that use Windows for their web-based applications can use Orca to control the timing, purpose and scope of Windows application configuration changes. In addition to its management functions, Orca version 1.3.9 supports compliance reporting and transparency by logging information identifying the users and approvers who made configuration changes and whether the change was successfully implemented on the intended nodes
About Orca: Focus on the App and Middleware, not the Server
Unlike many DevOps-oriented tools which focus on managing the server, the Orca solution manages web based applications like support portals and e-commerce that are critical to running the enterprise.
With Orca version 1.3.9, IT teams can instantly detect configuration drift with an improved, intuitive color-coded compliance heat map. At just a glance Orca users can see if their configurations have drifted according to their own preset rules. Whether users are correcting drift or simply promoting a new change across their ecosystem, Orca version 1.3.9 features drag and drop tools to map and bulk-manage key relationships between Windows-based apps and middleware.
New to Orca is the ability to “Dry Run” a configuration change. When users with granted approval rights are ready to promote changes, they can choose to simply “Execute” in the moment or “Schedule” for a predetermined time. With “Dry Run”, however, Orca users can validate their planned changes against their endpoints before any change is made – a powerful tool for avoiding accidental negative outcomes.
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