At the 2023 DevOps International Summit Beijing Station, we talked with Zhang Xiaole, Longzhi DevSecOps consultant and Atlassian technical expert, to conduct an in-depth analysis of the professional DevSecOps and ITSM solutions provided by Longzhi, and from the aspects of performance optimization, data security, version selection, We start from professional services to customized development and provide enterprises with reference suggestions for tool chain selection and tool performance improvement, helping enterprises to realize greater potential in digital transformation.
Dialogue with Longzhi experts: Focus on DevSecOps and ITSM, improve tool chain construction, and accelerate development
Interview transcript
Q: Which products and solutions brought by Longzhi are the audience at this DevOps International Summit most interested in?
Judging from our interactions with everyone at the booth, everyone is more interested in Atlassian products and Perforce products, especially ITSM-related solutions. Because this morning is a banking session, I found that everyone is more concerned about data security and code security. Many visitors will come to the Longzhi booth to ask about our solutions in this area. Perforce has several good products in terms of data security and code quality. Jira, Confluence, and JSM-based ITSM solutions were also frequently mentioned in the exchanges. Many customers have used them, and some customers have heard of them but have not yet started to practice them. We will also introduce them accordingly.
Q: So for Jira, Confluence and JSM, what are the most frequently asked questions by on-site customers?
I noticed that today is a special session for banks. Many of the customers I met in the morning are using Jira and Confluence, and the number of users is very large, because they all mentioned one problem: performance. During the use, they will find that Jira/Confluence becomes slower and slower, or encounter more and more problems that cannot be solved (they are using the Server version of the product).
In response to such problems from customers, I introduced them to Longzhi's expert team's rich experience in this area, because our customers also faced the same problem. Because the amount of data is too large, the situation occurs frequently during use.
Because the Server version is deployed on a single node, there cannot be a big improvement in performance. Longzhi experts will judge based on experience and judge from customer logs or other aspects to restrict user operations, thereby reducing the probability of downtime and problems.
For example, a problem our customers often encounter is using too many APIs and calling data in large batches. When the amount of data is large, querying data in the index can easily cause downtime. At this point, the problem can be solved by limiting the workflow internally and limiting the amount of data called.
But for the core solution to the problem, we recommend upgrading to the Data Center Edition. The characteristics of the data center version are that, first of all, the deployment of multi-nodes greatly improves performance.
Secondly, the Data Center Edition introduces archiving functions, including project archiving, which is very helpful for performance improvement. Because project data from many years ago is basically not viewed. In the Server version, these data will always exist in the index data. When querying or Jira provides services, the existence of these data will drag down the performance. In Data Center Edition, the ability to archive these items without retaining them in the index data will greatly improve performance. It should be noted that archiving does not mean deleting data. If you need to query project-related information again, you can click on the UI interface to restore the project and view related data, which is also very convenient.
In addition, because some enterprises have higher security requirements, they need to view audit logs. The Server version has a limited recording range, while the Data Center version can customize the level of audit log recording and have a wider recording range.
The data center version also integrates Automation, which is the function of automated operations. In previous versions this was an additional plug-in, but Data Center Edition integrates it directly. This automation plug-in can meet repetitive transaction needs and greatly improve work efficiency. For example, to usually solve a problem, you need to split it into several different sub-problems and then assign them to the corresponding personnel. If the prerequisite for completing the main task is that all subtasks are completed, it will be difficult for the person in charge of the main task to check the completion status of the subtasks from time to time. In this case, Automation can automatically let the status of the parent task flow downward when all subtasks are completed. This automated feature is very convenient.
In addition to this, the Advanced Roadmaps feature is now integrated into the Data Center Edition and can be used for free.
Q: There are many project management tools on the market. What do you think is special about Jira?
Some customers also mentioned today that Jira is not the only project management tool. So what makes it better than other project management tools? The first advantage of Jira is that it is flexible in configuration and suitable for different companies in different industries. Because in different industries, and even different departments within a company, the work processes followed to deal with problems and the content to be recorded are different.
This is the power of the Jira tool. Its flexible configuration can customize the workflow according to actual business needs, including the fields for recording problems, business content, etc., which can be customized, which is very convenient. Moreover, it can be configured directly on the UI interface without any development capabilities. In addition, it can track the entire project process from start to finish.
Both Jira and Confluence have established their own ecosystems. There are already more than 5,000 plug-ins in the Marketplace, and these plug-ins have different functions. Longzhi can recommend appropriate plug-ins based on your specific needs to effectively meet your actual business needs.
Our customers come from different industries. This morning one of our customers was from the banking industry, so he asked me if I had any experience in related industries. After the exchange, they expressed great interest.
Q: As a global platinum partner of Atlassian, what services can Longzhi provide customers?
We provide users with Chinese technical support services, including migration, deployment, configuration, etc. Longzhi also provides overall business configuration solutions. We will provide customers with the support services they need based on their specific needs.
We can provide customized services according to customer needs, such as secondary development. Moreover, based on its large customer base and years of providing basic support services, Longzhi has summarized and refined the general needs of customers and developed corresponding plug-ins. Now, not only in China, we also have users abroad. Customers in more than 20 countries trust Longzhi's plug-ins.
Today at the site, I also met Longzhi’s customers. Their main software (Jira, Confluence) may not have been originally purchased from Longzhi, but they have used Longzhi's plug-ins, such as TimeWise. Another customer told me that your plug-in is very good and I feel very happy.
During the communication, some customers said that they think buying plug-ins is a bit expensive, and if they want to develop plug-ins themselves, the learning cost is too high. Then, Longzhi can provide secondary development services, and we can even provide secondary development training services to help customers reduce learning costs. They are very interested in this.
There are also some customers who don’t know much about Jira’s functions, leaving them with questions: Why can’t Jira’s functions meet my needs? They will be confused and come to seek help from secondary development. However, in actual communication, we found that customers just did not combine the functions and applications of the product well, that is, they had needs but did not know how to configure them. After the communication, the customer suddenly became enlightened.
Q: Which plug-ins are currently more popular in Longzhi?
During the communication process this morning, many customers expressed that they were using Atlassian plug-in products developed by Longzhi. Customers mentioned that Jira's native function can only record working hours, but Longzhi's TimeWise can easily plan working hours, record and count actual working hours, etc., and it is very easy to use.
In addition, some customers mentioned our Jira Feishu plug-in. Before this, the customer had not communicated with us. They wanted to integrate Feishu and Jira. During the research process, they discovered the Longzhi Jira Feishu plug-in and conducted research. I was very happy to hear this.
There are also many customers using Longzhi’s Confluence watermark plug-in. During the communication process, I also found that some customers only used Confluence and did not know much about Jira. Their pain point lies in the Confluence Sever version. The version currently used by customers only has one node. I introduced the Data Center version of Jira and Confluence to the customer, and the customer was very interested in the multi-node deployment architecture of the Data Center version. At the site, we showed the structure to the customer and communicated with it.
Q: There are also companies that develop related tools themselves. What are your views or suggestions on this?
Yes. The customers I met at the site today mentioned that they used Jira before, and then developed a set of project management tools for project tracking due to performance reasons or other internal considerations within the company. But they discovered some problems. Other tools used by customers can integrate seamlessly with Jira, but they cannot integrate with their own tools. He shared some issues with me using Jira, and I also provided some suggestions for customers. The advantage of Jira is that it has its own ecosystem with many different plug-ins, which also helps it occupy a place in DevOps.
Q: What other tools are integrated into Longzhi’s DevSecOps solution?
In addition to Atlassian's products, Longzhi also represents products from Perforce, SmartBear, CloudBees and other companies, all of which are world-renowned leading companies in the DevOps field. Longzhi integrates these world mainstream tools to provide a more representative one-stop DevSecOps solution. If the company has tools that are currently being used, we will also recommend appropriate tools based on the company's existing conditions to help the company identify and fill gaps.
Q: Briefly introduce Jira Service Management, the core tool of the ITSM solution.
Jira Service Management is a product of Atlassian. It has its own ecosystem and rich plug-ins, which can meet customized needs. When processing work orders, the workflow, workflow configuration, and work order entry content can be customized. The project configuration is very flexible and better meets the actual needs within the enterprise.
Jira Service Management provides a portal, and customers inside and outside the enterprise can place orders directly on the portal. The operation and maintenance or operation team employees within the enterprise can directly see the work order and respond accordingly. In Jira Service Management, you can configure SLA yourself, which is equivalent to customizing reply or delivery standards and automatically tracking them. Customers can also see the corresponding status and time on the work order page.
In addition, Jira Service Management includes an asset management module, which can easily manage the company's internal assets, including IT, personnel, etc. After entering assets in Jira Service Management, you can create corresponding asset fields and use them directly in work orders.
For example, when we record a computer as an asset in Insight, the recorded content may include the computer model, brand, purchase time, etc. If a customer mentions this computer when submitting a work order to the operation and maintenance, the operation and maintenance Maintenance personnel can see detailed information about the computer, which is very convenient.