{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-author-jsx","path":"/blog/author/blake_thorne/","result":{"data":{"prismic":{"allFeaturedblogs":{"edges":[{"node":{"featured_blogs_enabled":true,"heading":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"Featured posts","spans":[]}],"featured_blog_1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Blog","_linkType":"Link.document","blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":790,"height":395},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/6d8d81b1-971a-4313-b033-b4e125cb14a0_MondoDB-blog-header-790x395.PNG?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"Introducing DigitalOcean Managed MongoDB – a fully managed, database as a service for modern apps","spans":[]}],"blog_post_date":"2021-06-29","blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"MongoDB is one of the most popular databases, and it’s ideal for apps that evolve rapidly and need to handle huge volumes of data and traffic. It offers advantages like flexible document schemas, code-native data access, change-friendly design, and easy horizontal scale-out.","spans":[{"start":22,"end":44,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://db-engines.com/en/ranking","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"However, building and maintaining MongoDB clusters from the ground up can be a huge undertaking. Developers often complain that they have to spend their valuable time and resources on database management. Well, we’ve been listening and have some great news: accessing and managing MongoDB on DigitalOcean just got a lot simpler!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We are excited to announce that DigitalOcean Managed MongoDB is now in General Availability. Managed MongoDB is a fully managed, database as a service (DBaaS) offering from DigitalOcean, built in partnership with and certified by MongoDB Inc. It provides you all the technical capabilities that make MongoDB so beloved in the developer community. Together we have ensured that you will get access to all the latest releases of the MongoDB document database as they become available.","spans":[{"start":32,"end":91,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/managed-databases-mongodb/"}},{"start":230,"end":241,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.mongodb.com/","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Managed MongoDB simplifies the MongoDB administration. Developers of all skill levels, even those who do not have prior experience in databases, can spin up MongoDB clusters in just a few minutes. We handle the provisioning, managing, scaling, updates, backups, and security of your MongoDB clusters, allowing you to offload the complex, time consuming –yet critical – database administration tasks to us. This empowers you to focus on what really matters: building awesome apps.","spans":[]},{"type":"embed","oembed":{"height":113,"width":200,"embed_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvHQSV7jnKA","type":"video","version":"1.0","title":"Create a MongoDB Database on DigitalOcean","author_name":"DigitalOcean","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/c/Digitalocean","provider_name":"YouTube","provider_url":"https://www.youtube.com/","cache_age":null,"thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NvHQSV7jnKA/hqdefault.jpg","thumbnail_width":480,"thumbnail_height":360,"html":"<iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/NvHQSV7jnKA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>"}},{"type":"heading2","text":"Benefits of Managed MongoDB","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Easy set up and maintenance: We create the database clusters for you. Simply choose the cluster configuration (e.g., memory, disk size, number of nodes, etc.), and the data center in which you want to host the database. Follow a few simple steps and your database cluster will be up and running in a matter of minutes. You can spin up clusters using the cloud control panel, CLI, or API.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":28,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Automatic daily backups with point in time recovery: Data is one of the most important assets of an app, so it’s critical to backup your database. We take backups of your entire clusters automatically on a daily basis, for free. We also provide a point in time recovery for 7 days, that way if things go wrong due to human error, machine error, or some combination of both, you can easily restore the database as it was at any point in the previous 7 days. \n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":52,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Automatic updates and access to latest MongoDB releases: You get access to MongoDB 4.4. This is the latest release of MongoDB and comes packed with numerous enhancements like hedged reads, rust, and swift drivers. Since we have developed Managed MongoDB in partnership with MongoDB Inc, you will always get access to new releases as they become available. With Managed MongoDB, the updates happen automatically. Just select a date and time for the updates and we take care of the rest. This makes it easy to stay up to date with MongoDB releases without disrupting your business.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":56,"type":"strong"},{"start":148,"end":169,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.mongodb.com/new","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"High availability with automated failover: If your database goes down, it can take down the entire app, leading to bad customer experiences. With Managed MongoDB, you can easily minimize the downtime for your database and make it highly available with standby nodes. Standby nodes add redundancy, so if for example the primary node fails, the standby node is immediately promoted to primary and begins serving requests while we provision a replacement standby node in the background.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":42,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Scale up easily to handle traffic spikes: As your app gains traction and the usage grows, it’s important to have a database that can keep up with the increased demand. With Managed MongoDB, you can easily scale up the size of database nodes when needed.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":41,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Secure by default: Since data is critical, it also needs to be secure. We encrypt data at rest with LUKS and in transit with SSL. When you create a new cluster, it’s placed in a VPC network by default that provides a more secure connection between resources. You can also restrict access to your nodes to prevent brute-force password and denial-of-service attacks.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":18,"type":"strong"},{"start":178,"end":189,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/networking/vpc/"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The need for Managed Databases","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"DigitalOcean’s mission is to simplify cloud computing so developers, startups, and SMBs can spend more time building software that changes the world. While databases are a critical component to any application, building, maintaining, and scaling them can be complex and time consuming. For developers that are building apps for their business, database administration is often not a core focus area. But it’s quite common to find developers that write the code and then also roll up their sleeves to maintain databases. Such users would rather offload the tedious database administration and focus their limited time and energy on building and enhancing their apps. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"With this in mind, we introduced Managed Databases a couple of years ago and are excited to add Managed MongoDB to our portfolio. With this release, DigitalOcean Managed Databases now supports the following engines:","spans":[{"start":33,"end":50,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/managed-databases/"}}]},{"type":"image","url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/87745cc1-1c5f-4463-b104-104b7fc30dc7_managed-databases-logos.png?auto=compress,format","alt":null,"copyright":null,"dimensions":{"width":849,"height":104}},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Managed MongoDB launch comes on the heels of DigitalOcean App Platform, a modern, reimagined PaaS (Platform as a Service) that we released a few months ago. App Platform makes it very easy to build, deploy, and scale apps and static sites. You can deploy code by simply pointing to your GitHub and GitLab repos, and App Platform will do all the heavy lifting of managing infrastructure, app runtimes, and dependencies. App Platform, along with Managed Databases, helps fulfill DigitalOcean’s mission by empowering developers, startups, and SMBs to focus more on their apps, and less on the underlying infrastructure and databases.","spans":[{"start":45,"end":70,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"How Managed MongoDB works","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"DigitalOcean provides you with various compute options to build your apps like:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Droplets: On-demand, Linux virtual machines suitable for production business applications and personal passion projects.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":8,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Managed Kubernetes with automatic scaling, upgrades, and a free control plane.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":23,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"DigitalOcean App Platform: A fully managed Platform as a Service.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":25,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"No matter which compute option you choose to build your apps, you can easily add Managed MongoDB to it. In addition to this, Managed MongoDB also integrates with the Node.js 1-Click App from DigitalOcean Marketplace making it a lot easier to build Node.js apps.","spans":[{"start":166,"end":215,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/nodejs"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Simple, predictable pricing","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Just like all DigitalOcean products, Managed MongoDB provides simple, predictable pricing that allows you to control costs and prevent any surprise bills. You can spin up a database cluster for just $15/month, or a highly available three-node replica set for $45/month. Click here for more information.","spans":[{"start":270,"end":301,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/#managed-databases"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Regional availability","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Managed MongoDB is currently available in the following regions:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"NYC3 (New York, USA)","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"FRA1 (Frankfurt, Germany)","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"AMS3 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We will be making Managed Mongo available in other regions soon. Please check out the release notes for most up to date information on regional availability.","spans":[{"start":86,"end":99,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/release-notes/"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Join us at deploy, DigitalOcean’s virtual user conference","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Today we have deploy, DigitalOcean’s signature user conference, which focuses on celebrating, educating, and connecting awesome builders from all over the world.","spans":[{"start":14,"end":20,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://deploy.digitalocean.com/home"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Check out the keynote session from DigitalOcean's CEO, Yancey Spruill, in which he talks about where we're headed as a company and shares some exciting product updates. His keynote will be followed by sessions from community members, engineers, customers, and other experts that are building technologies and businesses powered by the cloud. With live Q&A and an active Discord server, there’s ample opportunity to engage and learn something new. Click here to attend the deploy conference.","spans":[{"start":14,"end":69,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://deploy.digitalocean.com/agenda/session/552806"}},{"start":347,"end":384,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://do.co/deploy-discord"}},{"start":461,"end":489,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://do.co/deploy"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We are also launching a hackathon for DigitalOcean Managed MongoDB. Learn how you can participate, submit an app and get a t-shirt.","spans":[{"start":24,"end":66,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/mongodb-hackathon"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We hope you will give Managed MongoDB a try. Here are some sample datasets and sample apps that you can use to kick the tires. Check out the docs and let us know what you think!","spans":[{"start":22,"end":43,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cloud.digitalocean.com/databases/new?engine=mongodb"}},{"start":59,"end":90,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://github.com/do-community/mongodb-resources","target":"_blank"}},{"start":141,"end":145,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/databases/mongodb/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"If you’d like to have a conversation about using DigitalOcean and Managed MongoDB in your business, please feel free to contact our sales team.","spans":[{"start":120,"end":142,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/company/contact/sales/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Happy coding!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"André Bearfield","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Director of Product Management","spans":[]}],"tags":[{"tag1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Tag","tag":"Product Updates","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"product-updates"}}}],"author":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Author","author_name":"André Bearfield","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":553,"height":547},"alt":"André Bearfield","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/fdc7c85186f0a850b04083e1d4306bd1c19772e8_andre-bearfield.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"andre-bearfield"}},"_meta":{"uid":"introducing-digitalocean-managed-mongodb"}},"featured_blog_2":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Blog","_linkType":"Link.document","blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":790,"height":400},"alt":"Droplet Console","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/710499ae-78cc-4179-afc1-15793637b200_DODX3727-790x400-logo-2.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"Securely connect to Droplets with SSH key pairs using a new Droplet Console","spans":[]}],"blog_post_date":"2021-08-10","blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"The famous author Ken Blanchard once said, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.\" This is something we truly believe at DigitalOcean, and we always strive to enhance our products based on customer feedback.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"With this goal in mind, we are excited to introduce a new Droplet Console that will make it much easier to connect to your Droplets securely. The new Droplet Console provides one-click SSH access to your Droplets through a native-like SSH/Terminal experience. It also eliminates the need for a password or manual configuration of SSH keys. Starting today, we’re pleased to announce that the new Droplet Console is now available to all Droplet users.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Why you should be using Secure Shell (SSH) ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Password-based security is notoriously insecure due to password fatigue and the overuse of passwords such as ‘123456’. Secure Shell or SSH is a network communication protocol that solves this by using passwordless solutions for encryption, enabling two computers to communicate and securely share data. At a high level, SSH works by creating cryptographic key pairs consisting of a public and private key, which are computer generated and stored separately to ensure their security. ","spans":[{"start":80,"end":117,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cybernews.com/best-password-managers/most-common-passwords/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"SSH has become the default encryption protocol for many industries, but it was difficult to use SSH keys with DigitalOcean’s current Recovery (VNC) console, which is why we developed our new Droplet Console. The new Droplet Console is backed by an agent that security supervises the key pair, while also providing one-click SSH access to our users. You can see the full list of features below.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The new Droplet Console: More time saving, less time wasting ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The new Droplet Console is for everyone who is looking to build fast, secure apps and avoid hassles with SSH access & usability issues.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In addition to easier SSH access, the new Droplet Console comes with:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Copy/paste text: Instead of typing lengthy key pairs and text manually, you can use copy/paste to save time. ","spans":[{"start":0,"end":17,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Multi-color support: Multi-color support makes the console more useful and intuitive, and breaks the conventional standard appearance which is black text on a white background. ","spans":[{"start":0,"end":41,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Multi-language support: DigitalOcean’s new Droplet Console supports multiple languages, meaning you can now type and view any content in any language that is supported by UTF-8","spans":[{"start":0,"end":24,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"OS/images supported: Linux distributions (Ubuntu(16.04 - 20.04), Fedora (32 & 33), Debian (9), CentOS (7.6 & 8.3), CentOS 8 Stream, Rocky Linux and Marketplace images.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":20,"type":"strong"},{"start":148,"end":159,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The new Droplet Console is available by default on any new Droplets you spin up. You can also enable it manually on older Droplets. Click here to learn more!","spans":[{"start":132,"end":157,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/connect-with-console/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Check out this short walkthrough video that shows the new Droplet Console in action: ","spans":[]},{"type":"embed","oembed":{"type":"video","embed_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt7QihVuxiE","title":"Access Your Droplet Terminal Through the Web Console","provider_name":"YouTube","thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qt7QihVuxiE/hqdefault.jpg","provider_url":"https://www.youtube.com/","author_name":"DigitalOcean","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/c/Digitalocean","height":113,"width":200,"version":"1.0","thumbnail_height":360,"thumbnail_width":480,"html":"<iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qt7QihVuxiE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>"}},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We hope you’re excited about the new Droplet Console. You’re welcome to spin some Droplets up right now, and try out the new Droplet Console – why wait?","spans":[{"start":72,"end":103,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cloud.digitalocean.com/droplets/new"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Happy coding!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Harsh Banwait, Senior Product Manager","spans":[]}],"tags":[{"tag1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Tag","tag":"Product Updates","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"product-updates"}}}],"author":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Author","author_name":"Harsh Banwait","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":600,"height":399},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/e83ff690-b20c-4d88-a2b6-57e562558cd6_download.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"harsh-banwait"}},"_meta":{"uid":"new-droplet-console-ssh-support"}},"featured_blog_3":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Blog","_linkType":"Link.document","blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":790,"height":400},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/588e28d3-d41e-480b-937b-8c3b19201f6e_DODX3568-790x400-Blog.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"How to scale your SaaS product without breaking the bank","spans":[]}],"blog_post_date":"2021-06-22","blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"These days, if you are in the business of software, chances are you are delivering or plan to deliver your services using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. A combination of internet-based delivery, subscription-based pricing, and low-friction product experiences have made SaaS solutions valuable tools for their users, and an excellent vehicle for software builders looking to distribute their products.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"These factors have made SaaS solutions ubiquitous; SaaS is the largest segment in the public cloud market, and is used to provide functionality ranging from personal finance apps for consumers, to productivity software for businesses, and even tools and services for software developers themselves to compose their applications and simplify their workflows. It is also not uncommon to find micro-SaaS applications being built for specific industries such as retail, job functions such as accounting or marketing, or tasks such as event management. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The best thing about this SaaS wave has been that it has allowed a new generation of software builders to build and monetize applications and participate in the digital economy. Previously, you had to be a big company with lots of resources, name recognition and distribution networks to successfully sell software products. Now, irrespective of whether you are a single person working on a passion project, a small team of developers in a startup, or a small and medium-sized business (SMB), the SaaS model enables you to express your ideas in the form of software and deliver them to customers anywhere in the world.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The unique challenges of building SaaS solutions","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Despite the opportunities that come with the widespread adoption of SaaS products, software builders still have to answer key questions in their journey to building successful SaaS products. Understanding what customers to target, features to prioritize, how to price your product, and how to acquire customers are all critical questions to figure out while you are also doing the important job of actually building and operating the product. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Writing the code, testing, deployment, monitoring the usage in production, and ensuring that your apps are able to handle the additional demand when customer base and usage grows are all essential and time-consuming tasks.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Additionally, being able to test multiple ideas, pivot, and double down on the ideas that actually work is critical in early stages of SaaS development. Once growth comes, it is equally important to scale up without compromising on performance or reliability. Needless to say, all of this needs to be economically viable as well, since not everyone has the resources of large SaaS providers like Salesforce or Adobe.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Cloud Computing enables builders but also poses challenges","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Fortunately, for the act of building and operating your apps, cloud computing can help take some load off your shoulders. Unless you have the scale and resources of Facebook, chances are you are not going to set up your own data centers to host the computing infrastructure that powers your SaaS company. Public cloud infrastructure providers can bring great value to SaaS builders by providing on-demand computing services with usage-based pricing. However, just like how the legacy software companies weren't built for the SaaS model, the early (and big) cloud computing services were not optimized for the unique needs of small SaaS building teams. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Smaller SaaS teams face challenges with large cloud computing providers, including:","spans":[]},{"type":"heading4","text":"Too many technology options","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"There are just too many options for tech stacks on which to build your SaaS - programming languages, application development frameworks, libraries, runtime environments, architectural patterns, and deployment models - and the list is growing by the day.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading4","text":"Complexity of cloud computing services","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Even when you have decided on a technology stack, there is a lot of cloud vendor-specific terminology you need to learn and heavy lifting you need to do to build on the cloud, not all of which contributes to making your SaaS applications successful.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading4","text":"Unpredictable costs","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The experimentation necessary in early stages of SaaS development, as well as the scaling of applications required during the growth phase, call for affordable and predictable pricing from your cloud provider. The last thing SaaS teams want is surprising and indecipherable bills from your cloud provider. Unfortunately, smaller businesses often experience unpredictable costs with cloud providers who are busy serving only the large enterprises.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"DigitalOcean provides a simple, cost effective solution for SaaS builders","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Fortunately, at DigitalOcean we have a laser focus on small software development teams, who are trying to build the next generation of applications. Today, DigitalOcean customers are already building SaaS applications which serve all kinds of customers.","spans":[{"start":191,"end":217,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/solutions/saas/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We believe SaaS builders should focus on building apps that power their business, and not spend their valuable time on managing infrastructure. That is exactly what we have been able to enable through our intuitive products that are built for scale and reliability.","spans":[{"start":205,"end":223,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Vidazoo is an advertising technology company specializing in video streaming and serving. It serves video ads to thousands of websites and handles close to 10 billion requests per day. \n\n“We are as much a data company as an adtech company. Our business relies on speedy and accurate data processing at massive scale. DigitalOcean provides us the perfect set of tools to operate our SaaS business profitably, while not making us feel the need to become full time system administrators. We plan to move a lot of our apps to DigitalOcean App Platform and other fully managed products.” - Roman Svichar, CTO of Vidazoo","spans":[{"start":0,"end":7,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://vidazoo.com/"}},{"start":187,"end":583,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We believe in meeting customers where they are. If they already have an understanding of cloud infrastructure technologies, they should be able to leverage that knowledge and get started with our products without any further ramp up.","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Whatfix is an enterprise SaaS provider that offers a digital adoption platform to businesses. The company helps enterprises gain the full value of their investments in enterprise applications by providing real-time, interactive, and contextual guidance to users of those applications. \n\n“What we really love about the DigitalOcean platform is the ease of use. We feel like we know infrastructure and can handle most of the configuration and management. What we needed from a cloud was not bells and whistles but efficiency and reliability. DigitalOcean provides us a platform to build our apps and then gets out of the way. Just how we like it.” - Achyuth Krishna, Director of Engineering of Whatfix","spans":[{"start":0,"end":7,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://whatfix.com/blog/driving-the-future-now-were-excited-to-announce-our-90-million-series-d-funding/"}},{"start":287,"end":648,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We understand that scaling while maintaining reliability of applications and profitability of business is important, so we provide robust solutions which minimize downtime.","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Centra is a SaaS-based e-commerce platform for global direct-to-consumer and wholesale e-commerce brands. Centra provides a powerful e-commerce backend that lets brands build pixel-perfect, custom designed, online flagship stores. \n\n“How do we enable our customers to create differentiated online experiences? How do we ensure their e-commerce apps stay up and running at all times? How do we scale on-demand when traffic grows or new customers come in? These are the questions that we ask ourselves every day. Thankfully, we have a partner in DigitalOcean that provides just the platform to answer those questions enabling us to guarantee 99.9% uptime for our clients.” - Martin Jensen, CEO of Centra","spans":[{"start":0,"end":6,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://centra.com/"}},{"start":233,"end":673,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"These are just a few examples of SaaS businesses finding success on DigitalOcean. We are constantly amazed by the creativity and innovation that software builders are utilizing our platform for. If you are interested in learning more about product updates, technical deep-dives and best practices for building SaaS products and businesses, please contact us to learn how we can help you get started. ","spans":[{"start":340,"end":357,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/migrate/?utmmedium=blog","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Come build with DigitalOcean!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Looking to migrate your SaaS to DigitalOcean? Leverage free infrastructure credits, robust training, and technical support to ensure a worry-free migration.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":156,"type":"strong"},{"start":0,"end":156,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/migrate/?utmmedium=blog","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Raman Sharma","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Vice President, Product & Programs Marketing","spans":[]}],"tags":[{"tag1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Tag","tag":"Developer Relations","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"developer-relations"}}}],"author":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Author","author_name":"Raman Sharma","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":512,"height":512},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/497b4b14-d192-493a-8b66-7ae176ba99f3_raman.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"raman-sharma"}},"_meta":{"uid":"how-to-scale-your-saas-product-without-breaking-the-bank"}}}}]}}},"pageContext":{"limit":12,"skip":0,"numAuthorPages":1,"currentPage":1,"uid":"blake_thorne","data":[{"node":{"author":{"_linkType":"Link.document","author_name":"Blake Thorne","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":532,"height":566},"alt":"Blake Thorne","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/252c1d86d1456ee5cd008f2c5b542d4d04d73a18_blake.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"blake_thorne"}},"blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":784,"height":418},"alt":"Game plan drawing with circles and X layered on top of code illustration","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/7af7b90903a03d72cbf2f26eb7f3fac06f49bd32_incidentcommssocial_blog.png?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"Getting Started with an Incident Communications Plan","spans":[]}],"blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"At Statuspage, we believe it’s never too early for a team to start thinking about an incident communications plan. When your first big incident happens is way too late. Unplanned downtime can cause customer churn and unmanageable inbound support volume. Just one hour of unplanned downtime can cost organizations more than $100,000—and often much more—according to the latest annual downtime survey from Information Technology Intelligence Consulting Research.","spans":[{"start":3,"end":13,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://www.statuspage.io"}},{"start":404,"end":459,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://itic-corp.com/blog/2017/05/hourly-downtime-tops-300k-for-81-of-firms-33-of-enterprises-say-downtime-costs-1m/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Some downtime is inevitable, even massive organizations experience outages from time to time. The good news is the harm from downtime can be mitigated by deploying reassuring context and information in a timely fashion. You may hope to never need an incident communications plan but, as any good Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) will tell you, hope is not a strategy.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Mapping out your team’s first incident communications strategy doesn’t have to be overly complex or resource-draining. In fact, you can accomplish it fairly quickly using these four steps:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Block off two hours (don’t be surprised if you need even less time) with your core team to brainstorm and document a few simple things outlined in this guide. Involve anyone whose work touches an incident, including your ops and customer support leaders.","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Use the incident communications planning template to document your strategy.","spans":[{"start":8,"end":49,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://assets.digitalocean.com/public/IncidentCommsPlan.pdf"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Set a quarterly meeting to review your strategy and make any changes.","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Review and adjust your strategy each time you have an incident.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading1","text":"Before the Incident","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Know what constitutes an incident","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Sometimes it’s hard to know what exactly to label as an “incident.” Here’s a set of guidelines Google SREs use, where if any one of the following is true the event is considered an incident:","spans":[{"start":75,"end":110,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://landing.google.com/sre/book/chapters/managing-incidents.html"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Do you need to involve a second team in fixing the problem?","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Is the outage visible to customers?","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Is the issue unsolved even after an hour’s concentrated analysis?","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Feel free to adopt these exact guidelines, adjust them, or write your own. “If any one of the following is true” is a good format. (Another helpful resource for mapping incident severity is this Severity Definitions guide from VMware.)","spans":[{"start":190,"end":233,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.vmware.com/support/policies/severity.html"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A note on playing it safe: in our experience it’s better to overcommunicate in situations where you’re uncertain. The inconvenience of closing the loop on an expected incident that never took off far outweighs the downside of playing catch up on incident comms hours into an incident.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“I’ll just fix this quickly before anyone notices,” is a slippery slope. You might gamble and win the first time you try that, but play the game enough and eventually you’ll lose.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Team Roles","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Define key roles and expectations for incident responders. Clear labels and expectations can prevent a lot of damage in the heat of an incident. While large teams and complex SRE organizations have a web of roles and responsibilities, we see two roles as a good starting point.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Incident commander","spans":[{"start":0,"end":18,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The incident commander is in charge of the incident response, making sure everyone is working toward resolution and following through on their tasks. They also are in charge of setting up any communications and documentation channels for the incident. That could be chat rooms, shared pages for documenting the incident, and even physical spaces in the office. This person also drives the post-incident review.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Communicator","spans":[{"start":0,"end":12,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The communicator is in charge of translating the technical information into customer communications and getting those communications out via the right channels. They also monitor incoming customer communications and notify the incident commander if new groups of customers become impacted. After the incident, they ensure the post-mortem gets sent out.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Our recommendation: make it clear from the beginning who has what role in an incident. Even if these people have the bandwidth to help with other areas of the incident, they should respond to these primary objectives first and delegate other tasks where necessary.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Preparation","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"With a lean team, any time saved during an incident means a lot. Figuring out the right way to wordsmith an announcement can take up precious time in the heat of an incident.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Decide on boilerplate language ahead of time and save it in a template somewhere. Use it to plug in the relevant details during an incident when you need it.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Here is one incident template we use here for our own status page:","spans":[{"start":50,"end":65,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://metastatuspage.com/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"\"The site is currently experiencing a higher than normal amount of load, and may be causing pages to be slow or unresponsive. We're investigating the cause and will provide an update as soon as possible.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":204,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This language is very simple and generic, and can be deployed as-is in a lot of cases where this is all we know. We can also amend the language to add more relevant details if we have them. For example:","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“The site is currently experiencing a higher than normal amount of load due to an incident with one of our larger customers. This is causing about 50% of pages to be unresponsive. We're investigating the cause and will provide an update as soon as possible.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":258,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"You should also define your communications channels during an incident. While we obviously recommend Statuspage, there are a lot of tools you can use: Twitter, email, and company blog, as examples. Just make sure you’re clear where you will be posting messages.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading1","text":"During the incident","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Once the incident begins, we recommend these three “golden rules” which are worth keeping in mind during the incident.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Early","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"It’s important to communicate as soon as there is any sign that the incident is impacting customers. Get a message posted as early as possible. It doesn’t have to be perfect. This message serves to reassure users that you’re aware of the issue and actively looking into it. This will also slow down the flood of support tickets and inbound messaging you’re sure to receive during incidents.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Often","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"When you’re heads-down working on an incident, it can be easy to let regular updates slide. But these long gaps between updates can cause uncertainty and anxiety for your customers. They can start to expect the worst. Even if you’re just updating to say that you’re still investigating the matter, that’s better than no communication. Bonus points if you give an estimate on when next comms will be (and stick to it).","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Here’s an example a 2016 HipChat incident.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":17,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://status.hipchat.com/incidents/6zcv7x6rrktk"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Precision","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In your messaging during the incident, be as precise as you can be without guessing or giving non-committal answers.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Instead of:","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“We think we know what’s going on but we need more time.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":57,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Try:","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“We’re still working to verify the root cause.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":47,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Instead of:","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“The problem seems to be database related.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":43,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Try:","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“We’re continuing to investigate the problem.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":46,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"At first glance this second example may seem counterintuitive. Why leave out the fact that the issue could be database related? Because you aren’t sure yet. Avoiding hedging words like “we think.” Don’t say you “think” you found the root cause. Either you actually have found the cause or you haven’t.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Once you’ve confirmed the cause, then clearly state as much detail as you’re able to.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"For example:","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“We’ve identified a corruption with our database related to our last deploy. We are currently rolling back that deploy and monitoring results.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":143,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"heading1","text":"After the Incident","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Some of the biggest opportunities for your team come in the moments after the dust settles from an incident. Your team ideally will run a Post Incident Review session to unpack what happened on the technical side. It’s also a great time to build customer trust by letting them know that you’re taking the incident seriously and taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"An incident post-mortem is meant to be written after the incident and give a big picture update of what happened, how it happened, and what steps the team is taking to ensure it isn’t repeated. Here are our post-mortem rules.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Empathize","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Apologize for the inconvenience, thank customers for their patience, and ensure you’re working on a fix.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Be personal","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We see it all the time where teams depersonalize themselves in an effort to seem professional or official. This leads to a cold, distant tone in post-mortems that doesn’t build trust.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Use active voice and “we” pronouns to tell your story. Steer away from words that are overly academic or corporate sounding when simple ones will do.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Instead of:","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“Remediation applications on the new load balancer configurations are finalized.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":81,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Try:","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“We’ve completed the configuration on the new load balancer.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":61,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Details inspire confidence","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"People have a good sense for when you’re using a lot of words but not really saying anything. Details are the way to keep your post-mortem from sounding like a lot of hot air.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Here’s an example from a post-mortem Facebook engineers posted after a 2010 incident.","spans":[{"start":18,"end":84,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/more-details-on-todays-outage/431441338919/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Consider this paragraph:","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“Today we made a change to the persistent copy of a configuration value that was interpreted as invalid. This meant that every single client saw the invalid value and attempted to fix it. Because the fix involves making a query to a cluster of databases, that cluster was quickly overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of queries a second.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":338,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Likely that’s more technical of an explanation than most readers will need. The ones who want this level of detail will appreciate it. The ones who don’t will at least recognize that you’re going above and beyond to explain what happened. A lot of teams worry about being too technical in their messaging and instead wind up sending watered-down communications. Opt for specific details instead.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Close the loop","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The post-mortem is your chance to have the last word in an incident. Leave the reader with a sense of trust and confidence by laying out clearly what you’re doing to keep this from happening again.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Here’s an example from a Twilio post-mortem:","spans":[{"start":7,"end":43,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.twilio.com/blog/2013/07/billing-incident-post-mortem-breakdown-analysis-and-root-cause.html"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"“In the process of resolving the incident, we replaced the original redis cluster that triggered the incident. The incorrect configuration for redis-master was identified and corrected. As a further preventative measure, Redis restarts on redis-master are disabled and future redis-master recoveries will be accomplished by pivoting a slave.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":341,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The simultaneous loss of in-flight balance data and the ability to update balances also exposed a critical flaw in our auto-recharge system. It failed dangerously, exposing customer accounts to incorrect charges and suspensions. We are now introducing robust fail-safes, so that if billing balances don’t exist or cannot be written, the system will not suspend accounts or charge credit cards. Finally, we will be updating the billing system to validate against our double-bookkeeping databases in real-time.”","spans":[{"start":0,"end":509,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Notice how specific this is with outlining what went wrong and exactly what the team is putting in place to keep the problem from repeating.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Even though users today expect 24/7 services that are always up, people are tolerant of outages. We’ve heard a lot of stories about outages over the years at Statuspage, nobody ever went out of business by being too transparent or communicative during an incident. Consider the kind of information and transparency you’d like to receive from the products and vendors you use, and try to treat your users the way you’d like to be treated.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Looking to go even deeper on incident comms exercises? Check out our recent Team Playbook plays on incident response values and incident response communications.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":161,"type":"em"},{"start":99,"end":123,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/incident-values"}},{"start":128,"end":160,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/incident-response-communications"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Blake Thorne is a Product Marketing Manager at Statuspage, which helps teams big and small with incident communications. He can be reached at bthorne@atlassian.com or on Twitter.","spans":[{"start":142,"end":163,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"mailto:bthorne@atlassian.com"}},{"start":170,"end":177,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://twitter.com/blakethorne"}}]}],"blog_post_date":"2018-04-26","tags":[{"tag1":{"tag":"Engineering","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"engineering"}}}],"_meta":{"uid":"getting-started-with-an-incident-communications-plan"}}}]}}}