Q&A: The growing need for SRE in cloud native apps

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In many firms, why is Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) becoming more important as a business function? Firms like AWS, Google, Microsoft, Red Hat, and Firefly are already pushing the boundaries of SRE and platform engineering.

To answer the question and to discover more, Digital Journal spoke with Jason Shehab, Cloud Product Leader at Ensono.

Digital Journal: Why has Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) become a critical function in the management of cloud-native applications?

Jason Shehab: SREs have become integral to ensuring the reliability, scalability, and cost effectiveness of cloud-native applications. Typically, these applications are built using microservices architectures where services are decoupled and independently deployable. This brings a great deal of flexibility and scalability however it also introduces operational complexity. SREs are well versed in handling complex orchestration of these large-scale systems, managing dependencies across services, and ensuring failures in one service don’t cascade into system-wide outages.

SREs bring expertise in executing DevOps best practices with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools, continuous integration / continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools, and developing automated incident response. Also, SREs establish robust cloud environment telemetry with metrics, events, logs, traces (MELT) that ensure real-time visibility of distributed systems, allowing for quick remediation of issues. Essentially, teams well versed in SRE can ensure cloud-native applications will remain reliable, performant, scalable, and cost effective all while enabling rapid innovation.

DJ: How is the current skills gap in SRE talent affecting businesses adopting cloud-native architectures?

Shehab: The current skills gap in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) talent is significantly impacting businesses that are adopting cloud-native architectures. As organizations transition to microservices, containerization, and leveraging orchestration tools like Kubernetes, the complexity of managing these environments increases.

Without sufficient SRE expertise, companies struggle with maintaining system reliability, scalability, and performance optimization. This shortage of skilled professionals often leads to longer downtimes, slower deployment cycles, and increased operational costs. Organizations that lack SREs at times leverage their developers to close this gap however it pulls them away from feature development. Consequently, businesses find it challenging to fully realize the benefits of cloud-native technologies, hindering their competitiveness and innovation in the market. 

DJ: Can you elaborate on the advantages of leveraging SRE as a Service (SREaaS) as a solution to the skills gap?

Shehab: Leveraging SRE as a Service (SREaaS) offers several advantages in addressing the skills gap in site reliability engineering. By partnering with SREaaS providers, businesses gain access to a team of experienced professionals who specialize in maintaining and enhancing system reliability. This approach allows companies to tap into specialized expertise without the challenges and costs associated with hiring and training an in-house team. Outsourcing SRE functions can be more cost-effective, reducing expenses related to recruitment, salaries, benefits, and ongoing professional development.

Additionally, SREaaS providers bring depth and breadth of expertise across a greater number of use cases compared to an in-house team. Providers that offer SREaaS within various sectors such as Finance, Tech, Industrial, Manufacturing, Biotech, Health Care, and Retail will have established a robust set of best practices that a customer can leverage. SREaaS also provides scalability, enabling organizations to adjust services based on demand, and allows them to focus more on their core competencies and strategic initiatives rather than the complexities of cloud infrastructure management.

This leads to faster deployment and optimization of cloud-native architectures, accelerating business growth. 

DJ: How are major cloud providers like AWS, Google, and Microsoft influencing the evolution of SRE and platform engineering?

Shehab: Major cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure are playing a pivotal role in shaping the evolution of SRE and platform engineering. They are developing advanced tools and services that embody SRE principles, including Kubernetes orchestration, observability, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools, monitoring, logging, and alerting systems, all which facilitate better system reliability and performance.

These providers advocate for SRE best practices through extensive documentation, training programs, and community engagement, helping to standardize reliability engineering across the industry. By integrating SRE concepts into their platforms, they make it more accessible for organizations to adopt these practices without having to build solutions from scratch. Moreover, their continuous innovation in areas like AI-driven operations (AIOps) and serverless architectures is influencing how SRE and platform engineering adapt to manage increasingly complex systems.

SREaaS solution providers that can leverage all of these features, tools, and best practices properly can benefit customers with measurable business outcomes.

DJ: Looking forward, what role do you see SRE playing in shaping the future of cloud management, especially as we approach 2027 where 75% of enterprises are expected to adopt SRE practices?

Shehab: Looking ahead, SRE is set to become a cornerstone in the future of cloud management. As more enterprises adopt cloud-native technologies, the demand for reliable, scalable, and efficient systems will intensify. By 2027, with a significant majority of organizations expected to implement SRE practices, SRE will drive the development of more robust systems capable of withstanding failures and ensuring continuous uptime. Over the next few years, we will see a shift from reactive to proactive reliability management with AI and machine learning which will provide predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and self-healing systems in the move towards autonomous cloud systems.

The emphasis on automation and efficiency will reduce the need for manual intervention, increasing operational effectiveness. Additionally, the widespread adoption of SRE will promote a cultural shift towards greater collaboration between development and operations teams, fostering innovation and agility. With a focus on proactive problem-solving through enhanced monitoring and observability, teams will be better equipped to detect and address issues before they impact end-users. SRE will also evolve to manage emerging technologies such as edge computing, AI model reliability, AI augmented operations, sovereign nation use cases, and autonomous mobility applications, ensuring seamless interoperability of these cloud systems.

Overall, SRE will play a critical role in enabling organizations to fully leverage cloud technologies while maintaining high standards of reliability and performance across an ever-increasing number of new use cases.