Welcome to OnSiteReliability.com!
The Critical Pursuit of Software Reliability
In today’s digital landscape, software permeates every aspect of our lives, yet truly reliable software remains elusive. When a single bug can ground fleets of aircraft, disrupt medication dispensing systems, or freeze financial markets, the consequences of failure have never been more severe. The Reality of Reliability
Creating dependable software isn’t about achieving perfect uptime—it’s about designing systems that degrade gracefully under stress and recover swiftly after failure. True reliability comes from anticipating problems rather than simply reacting to them. My journey across various stages of the software lifecycle—from startups to enterprises, from development to operations—has taught me valuable lessons about building systems that withstand the pressures of real-world deployment. Each organization faced distinct challenges, served different users, and operated under unique constraints, yet certain reliability principles remained constant. What Lies Ahead
In the coming posts, I’ll share practical insights drawn from these experiences—not abstract theories, but battle-tested approaches that have proven effective across diverse environments. These perspectives aim to serve both technical leaders making strategic decisions and practitioners implementing solutions on the ground. Whether you’re designing critical infrastructure or building consumer applications, the principles of reliability engineering offer a framework for creating software that users can genuinely depend on—even when things inevitably go wrong.Here are some of my latest articles,
Introduction
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a third-party provider and made available to customers over the internet. This model has gained immense popularity due to its flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. However, navigating the SaaS landscape can be challenging, especially for those unfamiliar with the terminology. In this article, we will explore some of the key terms associated with SaaS businesses to help you better understand this dynamic industry.
The Jobs to be done Framework
The Jobs to be done framework is a powerful tool for understanding customer needs and driving innovation. It focuses on the “job” that a customer is trying to accomplish, rather than the product or service itself. By identifying the job, companies can create solutions that better meet customer needs.
I heard of the Five Forces model first in 2009, in a Business strategy class I took during my (first) MBA. Since then it has remained on the periphery of my thoughts, knowing that it is useful but not using it often enough for it to be second nature. Now nearly 16 years later as I pursue my second MBA, I find myself in a class reading about the Five Forces model again. I am going to take this opportunity to learn it deeply, apply it to many examples, and write about it in an attempt to deepen my understanding of this model and to make it stick.
Disruption is a process by which smaller companies with less resources successfully challenge established businesses. The term was coined by Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”.
GitOps tool ArgoCD offers powerful Kubernetes deployment automation but can introduce significant operational risks if not properly configured and managed. This document identifies five critical failure modes that commonly lead to production outages: manifest synchronization failures, resource pruning incidents, Git repository misconfiguration, RBAC access control issues, and resource health assessment failures. Additionally, complex interactions between ArgoCD and cluster autoscaling mechanisms present unique challenges that require careful planning.