1. DevOps and Apps
Building and Operating Successful
Mobile Apps
Apigee
@apigee
Ben Whaley
@iAmTheWhaley
Alan Ho
@karlunho

2. groups.google.com/group/api-craft

3. youtube.com/apigee

4. slideshare.net/apigee

5. @iAmTheWhaley
Ben Whaley
@karlunho
Alan Ho

6. Agenda
• The business model for mobile
• DevOps in the context of mobile
• Unique operational challenges
• Addressing performance issues
• Controlling Mobile configuration
• What’s next for DevOps in this space?

7. The landscape

8. The freshness of mobile means that companies don’t
yet care about revenue

9. It’s a land grab for mobile apps

10. Two most important things for business owners:
- user engagement
- reputation

11. Performance and stability impact both

13. DevOps can help with both

14. HTML5 to native . . .
small increase in speed . . .
double number of Facebook posts read == double ad
revenue

15. Why is this business problem a DevOps problem?

16. “You cannot improve what you cannot measure.”
-Lord Kelvin

17. Mobile DevOps vs.
Back-end DevOps

18. The code is running on a device

19. Scale: controlling millions versus thousands

20. Consistency in the cloud server environment does not
apply in a mobile environment

21. Diversity: Literally 100s of thousands of combinations
of Android OS / Device MODEL / Carriers

23. Less control but you as the software developer are
responsible for quality

24. Unique Mobile
Challenges

25. Battery life

26. Intermittent connectivity to the network

27. Limitations imposed by the carriers and manufacturers

28. Duopoly by Apple and Google

29. Rapidly changing landscape for devices, apps and the OS

30. Regulatory Implications
Many manufacturers and vendors support CISPA, for
example

31. Wide gap among users in throughput, latency, depending
on network / carrier

32. Communication with the end user

33. Operating an app –
Tips and Tricks

34. Use the app! On many devices!

36. Measuring the problem first

37. Store metrics in system of choice
(munin, graphite, ganglia, or apigee )
identify trends

38. System layer
(load, memory, disk, standard operational metrics)

39. Application layer
(memory allocation, DB stats)

40. API Layer
(network latency, back-end availability)

41. Response Time by Network Types

42. Business layer
# signups, #active users, # invites, social media sharing

43. Monitor what is measured

44. Engage key stakeholders

45. Keep engineering involved from design through
operation & management

46. Eliminate barriers between groups

47. Via HTTP expiry tag, set whether certain configuration
remains valid or not

48. Control configuration by model, carrier, platform,
multitude of dynamic properties by which to change
configuration

49. Changes and challenges
to come

50. More devices: The Internet of Things

51. Mobile becomes the primary revenue provider instead of
web

52. Design the backend to be resilient across multiple
providers, and in a transparent way to the mobile device

53. A short story about websockets . . .

54. An app developer in the Philippines writes telco apps
assuming a websocket is available . . .
But some telcos do not support websockets . . .
Negative reviews from users of the telco that doesn’t
support it . . .
Lesson: know the limitations of a carrier

55. Explosion in data volume

56. Geographic services increasingly important

57. In Summary . . .
 mobile apps become a primary source of revenue
 success depends on engaging users and building a 5-
star reputation
 performance and stability are critical
 DevOps is the centerpiece of an app’s success
 new DevOps challenges when code runs on a device
 measure all the things! (literally)
 the transformation is only beginning

58. Questions

59. groups.google.com/group/api-craft

60. THANK YOU
Questions and ideas to:
@iAmTheWhaley
@karlunho
groups.google.com/group/api-craft