A DevOps Blueprint for Large Scale Enterprises

Introduction

A leading banking institution with a complex and expansive technical infrastructure was facing challenges with its software delivery process. Manual steps and fragmented workflows led to delays in deploying updates, affecting customer experience and operational reliability. The nature of their operations demanded a highly secure environment, with zero tolerance for application downtime during deployment cycles. To meet these stringent requirements, the bank needed a robust DevOps solution that not only enhanced deployment efficiency but also maintained the integrity and reliability of its systems.

To address these challenges, they sought a comprehensive CI/CD solution that could integrate seamlessly with their existing tools like Bitbucket, SonarQube, and Artifactory. The goal was to automate deployments, reduce delays, and improve system monitoring. The solution also supported deployments across both on-premise and cloud environments, ensuring flexibility and ease of management. Centralized logging and monitoring were introduced, enabling the bank to proactively identify and resolve issues.

This case study highlights how the solution serves as a reusable template for similar implementations, providing a scalable and adaptable framework for secure, downtime-free application deployments in highly regulated industries.

Project Info

Category

CD(DevOps)

Tags

Features

Core Features
Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration

Integration with Bitbucket for source code management, SonarQube for static code analysis, and Artifactory for artifact management.


Continuous Deployment
Continuous Deployment
Automated, commit-based deployments to multiple environments with no manual interventions. Centralized logging and monitoring systems to ensure operational reliability.
Pipeline as Code
Pipeline as Code
Source-controlled libraries to manage all CI/CD stages, eliminating manual job chaining.
Configuration as Code
Configuration as Code
Environment-specific configurations and secure secrets management embedded into the codebase.
Custom Features
One-click deployments
One-click deployments

tailored to the client's branching workflow.


Enhanced monitoring and alerting systems
Enhanced monitoring and alerting systems
using Grafana and Loki for application and infrastructure visibility.
Anomaly detection
Anomaly detection

to proactively identify and address potential issues.


Technology Stack

Automation server
DevOps and Containerization ​​
Code analysis tool
Cloud Services
AWS EKS for container orchestration, AWS ECR for container registry, and Terraform for Infrastructure as Code.
Orchestration Tools
Jenkins for CI pipelines, ArgoCD for CD workflows.
Secrets Management
HashiCorp Vault.
Package Management

Helm for Kubernetes deployments.



Dependency Management
JFrog Artifactory.
Orchestration Tools
Jenkins for CI pipelines, ArgoCD for CD workflows.
Monitoring and Logging

Grafana, Loki, Prometheus.



Architecture

The solution architecture integrates CI/CD pipelines with a hybrid deployment model, emphasizing scalability, flexibility, and observability. 

Key Components​

01

Jenkins orchestrates the CI pipeline, automating critical processes like code integration, artifact generation, and container image creation.



<span class="mil-accent">02</span>
02

Compute and storage resources are provisioned to ensure high availability & performance.




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03

Both CI and CD pipelines operate in isolated environments with appropriate access controls and infrastructure configurations.


04

Observability is achieved through Prometheus for metrics collection, Grafana for visualization and alerting, and Loki for centralized log management, ensuring real-time insights into system performance and reliability.

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05

Networking and security configurations are designed to balance accessibility and protection. Application Load Balancers (ALBs) in public subnets handle external traffic, while resources in private subnets remain secure.

06

AWS EKS is leveraged for managing containerized workloads, enabling scalable deployments, while Helm simplifies Kubernetes configuration management.

[A] Continuous Integration (CI)

The Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline is triggered automatically for pull requests or commits to the develop or master branches, excluding feature and non-critical branches. It automates tasks like code compilation, testing, quality checks, security scans, and containerization. This ensures only production-relevant code is rigorously tested and prepared for deployment.

Process Workflow:
[B] Continuous Deployment (CD)

The current deployment strategy uses Jenkins with manual triggers and updates for Helm charts and configurations.

The process involves checking out the Helm chart after the image is created and running the necessary commands. Helm charts, which serve as templates to define, install, and manage Kubernetes applications and their configurations, are stored in Bitbucket. The required chart is pulled from the master branch along with the configuration for the specific service being deployed.

The Helm charts are environment-agnostic, although some teams prefer environment-specific charts. Overrides are passed during deployment to handle environment-specific configurations. 

Jenkins is used for triggering and managing deployments. Current Manual Process workflow involves –

[C] Logging, Monitoring & Alerting

The solution integrates advanced logging, monitoring, and alerting capabilities to ensure operational reliability. Below is the architecture diagram:

Logging: Application service and Kubernetes cluster logs are collected by a Loki Agent running as a DaemonSet (sidecar) and sent to Loki Servers. The logs are stored on an attached NFS filesystem for persistent storage.


Metrics and Tracing: Prometheus metrics and traceability data emitted by Kubernetes components and application services are collected by OpenTelemetry and Tempo Agents (DaemonSets). These metrics are then processed by Prometheus Servers and stored in the NFS filesystem.
Visualization and Alerts: The Grafana Dashboard fetches logs and metrics from the NFS filesystem for visualization and stores alert configurations. It integrates with Prometheus Alert Manager to manage alerts for system monitoring and issue detection.
High Availability for Logging and Metrics:
[D] Security & Compliance
Integrated static and security scans in CI workflows.
Secrets management with HashiCorp Vault.

Delivery timelines

To achieve an efficient and scalable CI/CD pipeline, the deployment was planned and executed in four progressive milestones:

Milestone 1: Base Level
Built foundational infrastructure, connected version control with the build system, and enabled automated deployments for trunk branch commits.
Milestone 2: Intermediate Level
Added multi-branch support, environment-specific deployments, static code analysis, security scans, one-click deployment, and test-driven build promotions.
Milestone 3: Advanced Level
Integrated logging, monitoring, and alerting systems for applications and infrastructure, along with anomaly detection for proactive issue identification.
Milestone 4: Expert Level

Automated CI/CD infrastructure management using Ansible playbooks for setup, teardown, and functional application updates.


Results

Zero Downtime Releases
Zero Downtime Releases

Ensured uninterrupted application availability during deployments, meeting the critical business requirement of no release downtime.




Enhanced Observability
Enhanced Observability

Provided clear visibility into every stage of the release cycle through integrated monitoring and logging tools like Loki, Prometheus, and Grafana, enabling proactive issue detection and resolution.


Secure DevOps Practices
Secure DevOps Practices
Implemented robust security measures, including static code analysis, security scanning, and automated testing, ensuring the highest levels of application security and compliance throughout the DevOps pipeline.