6.3 KiB
6.3 KiB
Drop 5 – Governance at the Edge: Security, Compliance, Resilience (without 2 AM panics) Series: “Edge Renaissance—putting compute (and the customer) back where they belong.”
☕ Executive espresso (60‑second read)
- 500 closets ≠ 500 snowflakes. Treat every store like a tiny cloud region: immutable builds, GitOps, and automated patch waves.
- Keep sensitive stuff local, prove it centrally. Shrink PCI/GDPR scope by processing and storing data in‑store, exporting only the minimum.
- Assume nodes fail, links drop, auditors knock. Backups, cert rotation, zero‑trust tunnels, and health probes are table stakes—so script them.
Bottom line: Governance isn’t a tax on innovation—it’s the enabler that lets you scale edge wins without waking ops at 2 AM or failing your next audit.
1️⃣ The four pillars of edge governance
| Pillar | Goal | Core patterns |
|---|---|---|
| Security | Only trusted code & people touch it | Zero‑trust mesh, signed images, Vault |
| Compliance | Prove control, minimize scope | Data locality, audit trails, policy‑as‑code |
| Resilience | Survive node/WAN failures | Ceph replicas, PBS backups, runbooks |
| Operations | Ship, patch, observe at scale | GitOps, canary waves, fleet telemetry |
2️⃣ “Central brain, local autonomy” architecture
Git (single source of truth) ───► CI/CD (build, sign, scan)
│
▼
Artifact registry (images, configs)
│
┌──────────────┴──────────────┐
▼ ▼
Store Cluster A Store Cluster B ... (×500)
(pulls signed bundle) (pulls signed bundle)
- Push nothing, let sites pull. Firewalls stay tight; stores fetch on schedule over WireGuard.
- Everything is versioned. Configs, edge functions, models, Ceph rules—Git is law.
3️⃣ Security: zero‑trust by default
🔐 Identity & Access
• Short‑lived certs for nodes (ACME) and humans (SSO + MFA)
• RBAC in Proxmox; no shared “root” logins
🧩 Code & Images
• SBOM for every container/VM
• Sign with Cosign; verify before deploy
🕳 Network
• WireGuard/VPN mesh, least‑privilege ACLs
• Local firewalls (nftables) deny by default
🗝 Secrets
• Vault/Sealed Secrets; no creds baked into images
• Auto‑rotate API keys & TLS every 60–90 days
4️⃣ Compliance: make auditors smile (quickly)
| Common ask | Show them… | How edge helps |
|---|---|---|
| PCI DSS 4.0: “Where is card data?” | Data flow diagram + local tokenization service | Card data never leaves store LAN in raw form |
| GDPR/CCPA: Data minimization | Exported datasets with PII stripped | Only roll‑ups cross WAN; raw stays local |
| SOC2 Change Mgmt | Git history + CI logs | Every change is PR’d, reviewed, merged |
| Disaster Recovery plan | PBS snapshots + restore tests | Proven RPO/RTO per site, not promises |
Tip: Automate evidence capture—export config/state hashes nightly to a central audit bucket.
5️⃣ Resilience: design for “when,” not “if”
Node failure → Ceph 3× replication + live‑migration
WAN outage → Local DNS/cache/APIs keep serving; queue sync resumes later
Config rollback → Git revert + CI tag; clusters pull last good bundle
Store power loss → UPS ride‑through + graceful shutdown hooks
Backup strategy:
Nightly:
Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) → deduped snapshots → S3/cheap object store
Weekly:
Restore test (automated) on a staging cluster, report success/fail
Quarterly:
Full DR drill: rebuild a store cluster from bare metal scripts
6️⃣ Operations: patch, observe, repeat
Patch pipeline (example cadence):
Mon 02:00 Build & scan images (CI)
Tue 10:00 Canary to 5 pilot stores
Wed 10:00 Wave 1 (50 stores) after health OK
Thu 10:00 Wave 2 (200 stores)
Fri 10:00 Wave 3 (rest)
Observability stack:
-
Metrics/logs: Prometheus + Loki (local scrape → batched upstream).
-
SLOs to watch:
- Cache hit rate (%), TTFB p95 (ms)
- POS transaction latency (ms)
- WAN availability (%), sync backlog (# items)
- Patch drift (stores on N‑2 version)
Set alerts on trends, not one‑off spikes.
7️⃣ Example repo layout (GitOps ready)
edge-infra/
├─ clusters/
│ ├─ store-001/
│ │ ├─ inventory-api.yaml
│ │ └─ varnish-vcl.vcl
│ └─ store-002/ ...
├─ modules/
│ ├─ proxmox-node.tf
│ ├─ ceph-pool.tf
│ └─ wireguard-peers.tf
├─ policies/
│ ├─ opa/ (Rego rules for configs)
│ └─ kyverno/ (K8s/LXC guardrails)
├─ ci/
│ ├─ build-sign-scan.yml
│ └─ deploy-waves.yml
└─ docs/
├─ dr-runbook.md
├─ pci-dataflow.pdf
└─ sla-metrics.md
8️⃣ This week’s action list
- Inventory governance gaps: Which of the 4 pillars is weakest today? Rank them.
- Automate one scary thing: e.g., cert rotation or nightly PBS snapshot verification.
- Define 3 SLOs & wire alerts: TTFB p95, cache hit %, patch drift.
- Pilot the patch wave: Pick 5 stores, run a full CI → canary → rollback drill.
- Create audit evidence bot: Nightly job exports hashes/configs to “/audit/edge/YYYY‑MM‑DD.json”.
Next up ➡️ Drop 6 – Roadmap & ROI: Your First 90 Stores
We’ll stitch it all together: sequencing, staffing, KPIs, and the board‑ready business case.
Stay subscribed—now that your edge is safe, it’s time to scale it.