Sadly, another organization has decided to brandjack the DevOps Institute name. Quickstart, an e-learning organization based in Austin, Texas, recently approached DevOps Institute about becoming a channel e-learning partner. Instead of joining our partner community, Quickstart chose to stand up another “DevOps Institute.” Since they were in communication with the actual DevOps Institute as late as March 9, I can only assume that this was an intentional act to confuse the market into believing that they are somehow associated with (or are) the actual DevOps Institute.
They are not.
Since 2015, the DevOps Institute has spent countless hours, attended numerous conferences and invested significant resources in advancing the human elements of DevOps. We were the first stand up formal association to focus on DevOps learning and certification as DevOps was emerging in the enterprise space. We are known and respected by many of the key DevOps thought leaders and vendors. We recently fielded the “Upskilling: Enterprise DevOps Skills Report” with the support of Electric Cloud, CloudBees and Lenovo. We not only talk the talk, but we also have demonstrated time and again that we are committed to walking the walk and are heavily invested in the goals of the DevOps community.
To be clear, we have no issue with fair competition, particularly in a space that is growing as quickly as DevOps. That’s the nature and risk of running a business. Competing on products or offerings—that’s expected, and it ultimately helps the people within the industry succeed. Hiding behind another organization’s brand, though? That’s not only unethical, it defies every value that is at the heart of DevOps and established business practices.
I thought long and hard about whether to give Quickstart and www.devopsinstitute.io visibility by exposing their actions. The easy way would be to stay quiet and let the lawyers sort this out (which they certainly will). However, the real DevOps Institute stands by our moral obligation to the DevOps community and we, therefore, cannot let an imposter bully us into silence. The dictionary definition of an imposter is “someone who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others.” Quickstart is an e-learning company masquerading as a well-respected DevOps association, presumably for commercial gain. What do you think?
Please do not be deceived by imposters that falsely attach their services to DevOps Institute in the hope of benefiting from the goodwill we have established with our brand in the DevOps community. There is only one DEVOPS INSTITUTE (www.devopsinstitute.com) and we are wholly committed to advancing the human elements of DevOps through our SKIL (Skills, Knowledge, Ideas and Learning) framework.
Buyer Beware!