From Manual Chaos to Automated DevOps: How a Fund Company Built Its PaaS Platform

Re‑interpreting DevOps

Before the talk, the speaker emphasized avoiding a purely technical presentation and instead focusing on real‑world problems and solutions encountered at the company.

DevOps is described as a work methodology that closes the loop from business demand through project management, development, testing, deployment, and operations, automating any manual steps that do not add value to KPIs or personal growth.

The Hand‑Crafted Era

In 2017, most tasks—host creation, application configuration, version management, monitoring setup, log cleaning, middleware installation, and release—were performed manually, consuming significant time due to limited IT staff.

The speaker questions the value of repetitive manual work for personal KPIs and argues that operations focused only on stability will soon be obsolete.

Rejecting Inefficiency: Embracing Automation

The team first tackled the most painful pain points: automated releases and middleware installation. In 2017, over 2,200 version changes were done manually.

They built an automated release tool with Jenkins and dedicated developers, and standardized middleware installation processes.

Standardization gaps (inconsistent installation paths, config locations, naming) caused high costs; the team addressed these by defining uniform standards.

As the system grew, agile development increased release frequency, and micro‑service splitting required further automation.

Business collaborations with Ant Financial, Tencent, JD, and Suning demanded high‑stability changes, prompting enhancements in graceful deployment.

Build‑Your‑Own or Partner?

The team weighed self‑development versus partnership. Self‑development offers full control and customization but requires heavy manpower and unpredictable outcomes.

Partnering provides predictable results, reduces labor, and leverages vendor expertise, though it introduces dependency risks.

Key considerations for partners include alignment of roadmap, case studies, response time, and cost‑benefit analysis.

Rising from the Ashes: The "Zhuque" Platform

To seize the technology wave, the company launched a PaaS platform named "Zhuque" (the Vermilion Bird), symbolizing rebirth.

The platform’s architecture consists of five modules: operation automation, DevOps tools, monitoring, scheduling, and capacity management, with current capabilities highlighted in orange.

Name Origin

The name follows the tradition of naming internal systems (e.g., "Pangu"). "Zhuque" reflects rebirth, akin to a phoenix.

Partner Selection Thoughts

With a growing IT team (now >70 staff), the company chose a partner to complement internal resources.

Collaboration goals focus on co‑development rather than a simple vendor‑buyer relationship, ensuring aligned roadmaps and mutual growth.

Case studies, innovation leadership, and responsive support are critical evaluation criteria.

Standardization is essential; the team defined standards for host specs, artifact packaging, terminology, deployment/release processes, and middleware.

Future DevOps Planning

Upcoming initiatives include adding security scanning (code and open‑source), full integration with a demand‑management platform, unified deployment for VM‑based and container workloads, and traceability of change packages.

The roadmap also envisions tighter integration of demand, coding, security, testing, and deployment, as well as improved cost‑allocation and user‑experience based on business‑oriented metrics.