Platform Engineering on Chris Reddington

Govern your repositories with push rulesets

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is a demo video showcasing repository push rulesets. The video covers the following specific topics:

Use cases for push rulesets: protecting sensitive files like GitHub Actions workflow YAML files, and enforcing code hygiene by blocking large or unwanted file types
Configuring push rules based on file path patterns, file extensions, and file sizes
How a blocked push appears to the developer (clear rejection message in the terminal)
Adding bypass rules to allow specific individuals or roles to override the rule when authorised
Viewing the push insights dashboard to audit blocked push attempts and any bypass activity
Scope of push rulesets: rules apply to the entire fork network of a repository, protecting all entry points

Manage your repositories at scale across the enterprise

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is a demo video showcasing Enterprise Repository Policies. The video covers the following specific topics:

The need for enterprise-level repository governance: ensuring repositories meet naming, visibility, and operational standards across many organizations
Introduction to enterprise repository policies: restricting visibility changes, repository creation, deletion, transfer, and naming patterns
Configuring a policy enforcement status (active or disabled) and designating exempt roles or teams
Targeting policies across specific organizations and repositories within the enterprise account
Demonstrating a delete-prevention policy applied to the oct-academy organization, blocking repository deletion at the UI level
Flexible repository targeting using repository properties, mirroring the approach available in branch and repository rule sets
Repository properties at the enterprise account level: defining properties that are inherited and visible across all organizations
Organization admins seeing enterprise-defined properties in their own property views
Requiring properties to be set when a new repository is created, keeping metadata well-maintained from day one

ClickOps over GitOps

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The gap between raw Kubernetes and a developer-friendly PaaS is where the most interesting tooling is being built today. GitOps gives teams a declarative, version-controlled way to manage their clusters — but the infrastructure expertise required can be a steep barrier. ClickOps offers a different angle: let developers click a dashboard, and let the platform handle the YAML.

In this episode, Chris is joined by Laszlo Folgas, founder of Gimlet.io, to explore how you can combine the accessibility of a UI with the reliability of a GitOps-driven workflow.

Tools of a Software Architecture for Everyone!

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Software architecture is not just the domain of dedicated architects — the tools, practices, and communication patterns it relies on apply to every engineer on every team. In this episode, Chris is joined by John Kilminster, a software architect and Azure MVP with a background in e-commerce and high-traffic systems, who walks through the practical toolbox he has assembled over years in the role.

John begins by clarifying what a software architect actually does — it is less a progression from senior developer and more a shift to a different type of work: setting guard rails across teams, evaluating third-party options, providing cross-team context, and taking a longer-term, more holistic view of technical direction.

DevOps Trends

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Ten years is a long time in technology. What started as a cultural movement to break down the wall between development and operations has evolved into a sprawling ecosystem of practices, tools, and philosophies. Daniela Fontani — CTO and early open source contributor since 2006 — explores the key trends defining modern DevOps and how to keep up without chasing every new buzzword.

The Dev/Ops Chasm — Still Unsolved

Even with a decade of investment, many organisations still struggle with siloed teams and disconnected toolchains. The tooling problem is relatively straightforward — write a tool that integrates across layers. But the cultural and organisational shifts required are significantly harder and remain the primary blocker for most enterprises.

Tales from the Real World on DevOps

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode Chris is joined by Thomas Thornton, a DevOps specialist at Kainos in Belfast, for a grounded, real-world discussion on what DevOps actually looks like at scale.

What’s covered

DevOps as culture — why DevOps is far more than a buzzword, and how to bring stakeholders beyond dev and ops into the conversation
Version control fundamentals — why getting Git right is the prerequisite to everything else in a CI/CD workflow
Branching strategies — trunk-based development vs. feature branches, managing environment drift, and when fewer branches is better
CI/CD pipeline design — starting simple, avoiding over-engineering, and incrementally adding checks and quality gates
Infrastructure as Code — using Terraform modules vs. copy-paste resources, and the long-term payoff of DRY pipelines
Kubernetes and GitOps — how pull-based GitOps (e.g. Flux/ArgoCD) enables scalable, consistent deployments across 120+ applications and multiple clusters
Practical advice for all levels — tips for those just starting out, those mid-journey, and those looking to take a mature DevOps practice further

Thomas brings examples from a real environment spanning 83 Azure subscriptions, making this one of the most grounded DevOps conversations on the channel.

CGN2 - Cloud Gaming Notes Episode 2 - Matchmaking Services

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Ever thought about what it takes to host a multiplayer game in the cloud? In the second episode of Cloud Gaming Notes, Chris and Lee Williams explore the engineering behind matchmaking services — using Halo 5 Guardians as a live example.

They cover:

Game as a Service — how Halo evolved from individual dedicated servers to a cloud-hosted, always-on service and what that means architecturally
The Actor Model and Azure Service Fabric — how Halo’s underlying engine represents every player and game object as an actor in a shared cluster, enabling low-latency state communication at scale
Skill-based matchmaking — how algorithms factor in skill level, server availability, latency, and queue wait time to create balanced, enjoyable games
Latency — why even milliseconds matter in competitive gaming, and how cloud infrastructure placement minimises that impact on player experience
Live Ops / DevOps — how the platform team continuously ships updates, patches, and new content to a live game without taking it offline, drawing direct parallels to enterprise DevOps practices
Rolling updates and observability — using real-time analytics and gradual fleet rollouts to de-risk changes to a live player base

28 - Intro to Landing Zones

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What exactly is an Azure Landing Zone, and why does every cloud architect keep talking about it? In this episode, Chris Reddington is joined by Karim Fahmy — an Azure Solutions Architect with over 12 years of IT experience — to demystify Azure Landing Zones and their place within the Cloud Adoption Framework. Learn how landing zones provide the structured foundation covering networking topology, identity, governance, subscriptions, and security that your workloads need to succeed in the cloud. The episode also covers Azure Blueprints, Terraform automation, and real-world strategies for incrementally building and evolving your cloud foundation over time.