DevOps in the News
Much like configuration management (CM), you won’t hear Brian Williams talking about DevOps on the evening news or see Matt Lauer interviewing a DevOps expert on the couch of The Today Show. However, recently in IT-related news on the wire, DevOps is a huge story.
I want to start with what a writer on VentureBeat coined “An Idiot’s Guide to DevOps." This article first explains what DevOps is and then goes into a Q&A session with Barton George of Dell who works on the company’s cloud strategy. They cover every aspect of DevOps, from its relationship with agile and open source to the different goals of development and operations.
Now that we know exactly what DevOps is, let’s look at what InfoQ.com calls the seven DevOps habits. While each habit is not extensively covered here, the simplicity of this article should be a good starting point as you move toward a DevOps “frame of mind.”
One of my favorite habits involves “putting developers on the front line of support.” This novel idea makes the developers more keenly aware of how their work affects the bottom line and the issues that bad coding causes their customers. If you find that the piece on the seven habits is lacking in depth, a writer from InformationWeek critiques and expands on it.
Now that we have covered the definition and what habits you need to possess, let’s move on to whether or not DevOps really helps development and operations work together to make things better. On ZDNet.com, a writer looks at a recent study by CA Technologies (you have to register for the whitepaper that goes into deeper details of the study). Suffice it to say, those who have implemented a DevOps framework have seen improvements in their business.
Next, let’s take two of the biggest buzzwords—DevOps and cloud—and see how they can work together to "remake your IT department." An example is Rafter, a web-based company that rents books to college students. What started out as a small company has grown as the founders embraced the cloud and a DevOps mentality to expand their business.
I leave you with this awesome article on GigaOm about taking DevOps from small startups to larger operations. Be sure to watch the video of the panel of five experts who discuss the ins and outs of DevOps; these people have implemented it in a variety of companies.
After watching the video, have you faced the same issues as the panel?
