DataOps: DevOps Plus Big Data
In traditional DevOps, there are the complimentary forms of development operations (that I call DEVops), and development operations (that I like to call devOPS). Between them they automate the toolchain and bring the people working on getting an application out to users onto the same team—not necessarily the same organizational team, but using their strengths […]
A Definition of DevOps for the Masses
If you asked the average person in the street, “What does DevOps mean to you?” you’d probably get a blank stare. And there are those who aren’t directly involved but are vaguely aware of DevOps as a concept. While a vague understanding is better than nothing, it leaves room for misconceptions and misinformation, which can […]
Move the Needle in DevOps with Continuous Testing
Shift-left testing, risk based testing, early testing and technical debt reduction are all predicted to be some of the most sought-after trends in product development life cycle. All of these can be achieved with continuous testing through DevOps, as it emphasizes quicker transitioning of quality products to production environment at a reduced business risk. Software […]
Get Ready to Become a Full-Spectrum Engineer
The more things change, the more they stay the same. In software development, change has been a constant. I’ve been a software engineer for more than 25 years and have had to morph, pivot and learn new things to remain current and in demand. Plus, the industry swings like a pendulum between the need for […]
The Perfect Combination: Imperative Orchestration, Declarative Automation
There are two fundamental approaches of how to design automation processes, declarative (also often known as model) and imperative (also often known as workflow or procedural). The purpose of this article is to explain the principles of each, explore a little of how they work, try to highlight some of the strengths and weaknesses and […]
DevOps in 2017: From Building to Executing
In 2016, DevOps grew in popularity and use, new tools were introduced and enterprises across industries realized the influence and benefits derived from agile development. But there are even more developments to look forward to as enterprises engage DevOps teams further. Scaling-out solutions, providing a baseline for a new cultural approach to problems and continuous […]
12 Tips for Managing Your Multi-Cloud Environment
No single cloud vendor has the perfect solution for your unique business situation. The only way to maximize the benefits of cloud services to your business is by dealing with several cloud providers and monitoring all of them simultaneously. That’s the IT equivalent of singing an aria while standing on your head and scrambling eggs. […]
You’re Not Doing DevOps if You Can’t Pull the Cord
There are many concepts in Lean manufacturing that have applicability with software development “factories.” One example is the Andon Cord. The Andon Cord concept involves using signals and alerts to indicate that a station on the assembly line has a problem. Alarms are activated manually by workers pulling a physical cord or automatically by the […]
A DevOps Checklist for Traditional Service Providers
As companies such as Amazon and Google rapidly innovate to deliver new services, traditional service providers recognize that change is necessary to keep up with shifting customer expectations. Given the pace at which technology continues to morph, creating better, faster and more innovative solutions is a necessity, and if this isn’t achieved, even longtime customers […]
GRC: A Key Ingredient in DevOps’ Secret Sauce
By now, surely everyone has seen cooking competition shows such as “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Top Chef,” in which people compete to create and serve the best dishes as quickly as possible. These hit TV programs are like the DevOps world, which also consists of people creating and releasing the best software as fast as they […]
Putting Ops Back in DevOps
What Agile means to your typical operations staff member is, “More junk coming faster that I will get blamed for when it breaks.” There always is tension between development and operations when something goes south. Developers are sure the code worked on their machine; therefore, if it does not work in some other environment, operations […]
Why Your Organization Needs DevOps
The recently released fifth annual “State of DevOps Report” by Puppet has once again brought with it fresh insights into what drives high-performance teams. The report, which comes at a time when DevOps has ceased to be a buzzword, provides proof of why more and more businesses across the world are adopting DevOps to improve their organization’s performance, revenues […]
Optimizing an Effective CI/CD Pipeline
Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) are often cited as pillars of successful DevOps. To establish and optimize the CI/CD development model and reap the benefits, companies need to build an effective pipeline to automate their build, integration and testing processes. This requires architecting CI/CD with five key ingredients which, when combined effectively, operate as […]
DevOps and Continuous Delivery: Not the Same
DevOps and continuous delivery are the same thing, right? Far from it. We peer through the fog to understand the difference between the two related but distinct methodologies. We live in an era of apps. More and more of our personal, social and work life is governed by apps—communicating with one another through social apps, […]
Intuit’s DevSecOps: War Games and Culture Hacking
If you ever wanted to learn about Rugged DevOps (some call it DevSecOps), sit down for a spell with Shannon Lietz, Ian Allison and Scott Kennedy from Intuit. We discussed a number of important topics including internal war games, culture hacking, gamification of Rugged DevOps and starting as a small team. There are 100 gold […]
IT DevOps: One Size Does Not Fit All
As absurd as this may seem, some in IT may be longing for the good old days of the mainframe. After all, the hulking machine, with its dumb terminals and thousands of punch cards, gave IT complete control. No citizen developers or business analysts allowed. Things got more complicated with distributed desktop computing and its […]
Multi-Tiered Escalation Policies are Paramount
As any team charged with keeping systems up and running will tell you, having one person on-call isn’t enough. What happens if your on-call engineer sleeps through his alert? What happens if his phone’s battery dies without him knowing, or if he gets an alert at an inconvenient time, like when stuck on a bus […]
Why NoOps is a DevOps disaster waiting to happen
Ever since the first hunks of Big Iron hit the streets, we’ve been struggling (and failing) to keep up with the demand for software applications. Now it’s getting harder. Not only do we have to satisfy an insatiable appetite for new apps and services, but the nature of the business palate is changing. Business now […]
DevOps Impact on IT Operations Management
Most of the focus of the DevOps movement is on the application development to deploy cycle, and that’s appropriate. When folks talk about the IT Ops side of DevOps, you’ll hear talk about IT process management tools like Puppet, Chef, and Ansible that are used to automate the deployment, update and remediation of software and […]
7,600 Open Source Projects Per Company (and how it impacts DevOps)
That Supplier is Better For You Since releasing the 2015 State of the Software Supply Chain Report, there has been a lot of great discussion across the industry on best practices for managing the complexity introduced by the volume and velocity of the components used across your software supply chain. Today I want to focus on […]
Webinar: How Nationwide Insurance is Adopting DevOps for Variable Speed IT Systems
To drive towards faster innovation, and also ensure the stability of the core business, the need arises for what is being termed as “two-speed or variable speed IT.” While innovative Systems of Engagement demand speed, agility and experimentation, legacy Systems of Record need governance and predictability. Two-speed IT enables adoption of DevOps capabilities by adapting […]
The ROI of Enterprise DevOps
Ever since the 1996 film Jerry Maguire, I can never think about any technology development without hearing Cuba Gooding Jr as professional footballer Rod Tidwell screaming out, “Show me the money!” So I was not surprised when the CIO of a large enterprise recently asked me the enterprise exec version of that famous line: Q. […]
Q and A with Carmen DeArdo: DevOps at Nationwide
Just before the IBM Interconnect show in Las Vegas last week, we had a chance to speak with Nationwide’s Carmen DeArdo and talk about some of the challenges he has faced at Nationwide as DeArdo and his team work to bring DevOps and Agile principles to their delivery value stream. DeArdo is no stranger here […]