It can sometimes be difficult as a DevOps newbie to get the straight dope on what DevOps is all about without ending up in the weeds with descriptions and tutorials full of specialized details. As you ramp up, that kind of material is invaluable. But when you’re new to the game, it gets in the way of clarifying the basics.
If you or one of your colleagues is looking into the basics of DevOps, we’ve got a good place for you to start. Today we’re launching a new video round-up feature we’re calling DevOps Video Rodeo and we thought there would be no better way to kick things off than to focus on DevOps 101. We’ve collected some of our videos meant for DevOps beginners. They explain what DevOps is all about, how continuous delivery can help IT deliver better business value and how organizations can begin their DevOps journeys. Some of these are new, some are oldies but goodies, and some are considered classic talks that helped drive the way the industry first started talking about DevOps.
So let’s get started.
DevOps Demystified – An introduction to the ideas that are driving DevOps
Now director of IT and operations at Chef, Ben Joyent has long been spreading the gospel of DevOps. When he was at Joyent a couple of years ago, he gave one of the most thorough talks breaking down DevOps for newcomers that still exists today. This is ideal for practitioners on either side of the aisle who want to dive deeper into the fundamental principles behind DevOps. It’s a long, but thorough primer.
What is DevOps? – In Simple English
If you’re looking for a short summary to pass along to the upper-level, line-of-business managers who you’ll need to help support a DevOps transformation, this may be it. Don’t let the slick, vendor-produced nature of this video turn you off. Rackspace kept to the basics without trying to hide a sales pitch in there. It does an especially good job explaining the business value of DevOps.
What is DevOps
Like the previous video, this is another DevOps description that clocks in under 10 minutes, but this one is particularly good at offering explanations of how developer and sys admin roles change under the DevOps model. This is particularly good one for new DevOps acolytes to send over to colleagues they’d like to convince to join forces with them. It also offers a quick sketch of how the infrastructure-as-code model works. Plus, its quick-and-dirty, back-of-the napkin style is kind of endearing.
The (Short) History of DevOps
If you’ve ever wondered where the DevOps movement came from and who helped refine the ethos, this is about as concise of a history as you’re going to get. Nicely done by Damon Edwards of DevOps Café podcast fame.
10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr
This is a classic talk, one that many DevOps early adopters point to as a pivotal demonstration that started the snowballing momentum going with a very real case study on how DevOps can improve speed and flexibility. DevOps practitioners may have moved far beyond 10 deploys a day, and John Allspaw and Paul Hammond have since moved on to other organizations, but this stands as an excellent introduction to DevOps.