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  • Rackspace Aims to Push VMware Everywhere

    Rackspace Aims to Push VMware Everywhere

    Rackspace is expanding its efforts to provide managed services for private clouds based on VMware that can now be deployed anywhere.

    Peter FitzGibbon, vice president and general manager of VMware at Rackspace, said Rackspace Private Cloud Everywhere, powered by VMware, is making an effort to provide infrastructure services that enable IT organizations to devote more resources to building applications. As part of the effort, Rackspace is making the managed services it provides a natural extension of an organization’s DevOps processes.

    Previously, Rackspace provided support for VMware in data centers it owns. Now Rackspace will manage instances of VMware deployed anywhere, including public clouds such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), FitzGibbon said.

    FitzGibbon noted Rackspace already has more than 70,000 VMware virtual machines under management—a number the company expects to expand significantly as more instances of VMware are deployed on the cloud in addition to on-premises IT environments.

    Longer term, FitzGibbon said IT organizations should also expect to see Rackspace extend the reach of the managed services it provides for VMware to include storage and network virtualization, as well as Pivotal Container Service, an instance of a container platform developed jointly by Pivotal and its sister company VMware.

    FitzGibbon said most organizations are on a multiyear journey when it comes to making the transition to the cloud. Most are still analyzing which classes of workloads make the most sense to deploy on a public cloud. Also slowing that transition are new data sovereignty requirements that force organizations to rethink where data is hosted around the world, he said.

    As they make that transition, many of those organizations are concluding they don’t want to manage the underlying infrastructure that is now distributed across multiple data centers. Instead, they want to reallocate their own limited resources to developing software faster, FitzGibbon said.

    FitzGibbon also noted that taking advantage of advanced cloud capabilities such as cloud bursting or moving workloads back and forth between environments requires a level of expertise many organizations don’t have in place today.

    As more organizations realize they need to become software companies to remain competitive, many are rethinking how IT infrastructure is managed within the context of a integrated DevOps processes. As part of that transition, many are starting to evaluate how much of the management of IT infrastructure they can outsource within the context of those DevOps processes. Rackspace is essentially making the case for retraining the existing IT staff focused on IT infrastructure to focus more on managing applications rather than physical and virtual infrastructure.

    Naturally, that level of cultural IT transformation inside any organization will take time to achieve. Not every organization is comfortable giving up control over its IT infrastructure. Others will prefer to collaboratively manage IT infrastructure with a service provider. Just as significantly, not every member of the IT staff managing infrastructure wants to be retrained.

    Nevertheless, as the sheer volume of IT infrastructure that needs to be managed becomes more distributed, it’s unlikely most IT organizations will be able to manage all those systems on their own.

    — Mike Vizard

  • Pivotal Enlists Rackspace to Advance DevOps in Cloud Foundry Environments

    Pivotal Enlists Rackspace to Advance DevOps in Cloud Foundry Environments

    In a sign of the level of complexity now associated with managing DevOps, Pivotal has partnered with Rackspace to create a managed services practice for its distribution of the Cloud Foundry platform-as-a-service (PaaS) environment.

    Ian Andrews, vice president of product for Pivotal, says that at least half of the company’s customers have a least one instance of Pivotal Cloud Foundry (CF) that they would like to have managed by a third party. The reason for that is two-fold. For one, the Cloud Foundry PaaS can be complex for many IT organizations to deploy and manage on their own; Andrews notes that Pivotal releases updates to its distribution of the Cloud Foundry PaaS every 90 days. That’s a cadence the average internal IT organization is not prepared to keep pace with without help from an external services provider, he says.

    Also, increased usage of microservices based on containers running on Cloud Foundry is driving organizations to shift allocation of their own internal resources away from managing underlying infrastructure. By relying on managed services providers such as Rackspace to manage both the PaaS and the underlying infrastructure, Andrews says more resources can be focused on managing the DevOps pipeline.

    Pivotal opted to partner with Rackspace because Rackspace is capable to supporting instances of Cloud Foundry running on a public cloud, in a hosting center or on-premises, he says, adding that 60 percent of the Pivotal instances run on VMware vSphere platform, while the rest are distributed across multiple clouds and other on-premises environments. Pivotal is a sister company of VMware, operating under the umbrella of Dell Technologies.

    Brannon Lacey, vice president and general manager for applications and platforms at Rackspace, says his company is embracing Pivotal as part of a larger push to deliver managed services above the infrastructure level. Previously, Lacey says, Rackspace managed e-commerce and content management applications, then acquired TriCore to add a portfolio of managed ERP application services. However, the company doesn’t have any plans to add more PaaS environments to its portfolio beyond the Cloud Foundry PaaS curated by Pivotal.

    Historically, managed services have accounted for about a quarter of all IT spending. But as the number of deployment options available to IT organizations continue to expand, Lacey says Rackspace is expecting the number of companies that look beyond their internal IT organizations to manage that complexity will only increase.

    As more managed services providers become part of the DevOps pipeline, it’s clear that many companies will soon need to consider how to create processes that extend well beyond their own organizations. That may prove to be a significant challenge because of the cadence of the update process is dictated by the external entities. Of course, IT organizations can dictate the pace of the upgrades. But the further an IT organization falls behind in terms of upgrades, the more expensive the managed service tends to become. In short, there’s no such thing as a proverbial DevOps easy button.

    — Mike Vizard

  • From the Trenches: Zesty.io’s Google Cloud Migration

    From the Trenches: Zesty.io’s Google Cloud Migration

    Zesty.io recently migrated its sites to the Google Cloud Platform from Rackspace—a process the company believes will make it more agile while streamlining its operations. Zesty.io community manager Phil Ballew recently spoke with Chris Hiestand, Zesty.io’s DevOps leader, to discuss some of the reasons for the migration and get a feel for just what the new cloud system brings to the company.

    Ballew: So what exactly is Google Cloud, and how does that compare to Rackspace?

    Hiestand: Google Cloud Platform is similar to AWS, Rackspace or Azure; they manage infrastructure and services to host your applications and data on. With Zesty.io being SaaS, there are servers running the user’s website that we will manage, and these names are the companies that provide the infrastructure.

    Ballew: So what about Google Cloud made you choose that over Rackspace?

    Hiestand: The difference is that Rackspace has been around for a long time and has produced great business tools, but Google’s tools, which they have been using internally for a while and are now making publicly available, will fit the needs for Zesty.io as we scale out at a rapid pace. Some tech that Google created about 10 years ago is considered cutting-edge today.

    Ballew: What was the reason and initial appeal for moving from Rackspace to Google Cloud?

    Hiestand: Google’s infrastructure is a well-designed fit for containers using the Kubernetes project. Their architecture is designed to minimize operations work, saving labor. Using GCP, we can focus more on writing good software and less on the drudgery of making that software run. Google’s network is remarkable in every respect: good security, bandwidth within the data center, between data centers and out to the greater internet. And their compute nodes are set up in such a way that when they do maintenance, they can move our systems around and we don’t even know it. We stay running and focused while they maintain the hardware.

    Ballew: Kubernetes? What is that exactly?

    Hiestand: Kubernetes is a container orchestration tool based on Google technology that we use on GCP to help us automate and scale the deployment of our software and websites for the users. It helps us think about our applications first and operations a distant second. It also empowers Zesty.io engineers to own what’s running in ops.

    Ballew: What other technologies are you using?

    Hiestand: Kubernetes is built on container technology, so we also use Docker extensively in development.

    Ballew: What were some of the major obstacles that you ran into when migrating to Google Cloud?

    Hiestand: The technical parts are pretty straightforward. The hardest part is probably coordinating with customers. We are mitigating this by keeping Rackspace and Google Cloud in production at the same time, giving customers time to update their DNS records.

    DNS instructions can be found at: https://developer.zesty.io/docs/satellite-sites/launching-a-satellite-site

    Ballew: What are some of the benefits Zesty.io users will see from this switch?

    Hiestand: The most obvious benefit will be the faster page load speeds of Zesty.io-developed websites, including slightly faster application load times for Zesty.io developers. In the not-too-distant future, international load times will be very good, particularly for our enterprise customers. In addition, we are pushing a lot of new features to Zesty.io that will be on the Google Cloud version soon for people to try out. The rollout to GCP also improves our software engineer development velocity so we can get improvements delivered to our customers faster.

    Ballew: Even though Zesty.io users have not all been moved to Google Cloud, is there the option to move now if somebody wanted to, and if so, how can they do that?

    Hiestand: Sure! I would love to help out with that. They can send me an email at support@zesty.io. After we migrate their site, they can update their DNS to point to the new CNAME when they are ready, and customers won’t be able to update their Rackspace website anymore. They will also want to update their bookmarks because the administration URLs have changed, but for the time being, they will get automatically redirected to the new ones. We can help them with any questions they have. Eventually, we will be updating all websites for all users. If you do not update your CNAME, it will take a little extra time for your site to load because of additional network routing from Rackspace to GCP.

    About the Author / Phil Ballew

     

    philballewPhil Ballew is the Zesty.io community manager, working with developers and building the Zesty.io community through many unique outlets. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

     

  • Rackspace Becomes AWS DevOps Competency Partner

    SAN ANTONIO, TX–(Marketwired – April 14, 2016) – Rackspace® (NYSE: RAX) has achieved Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) DevOps Competency within the AWS Partner Competency Program, which recognizes members of the AWS Partner Network who have completed a rigorous third-party audit demonstrating their expertise in DevOps practices, tools, and proven customer success. Customers can access this expertise and 24×7 operational support through Fanatical Support® for AWS architects and engineers, who collectively hold over 270 AWS Professional and Associate certifications across the globe.

    Historically, the process of deploying and managing applications has been manually intensive and customized. Manual deployment and management of applications generally leads to outcomes such as fewer release cycles, longer lead times, and unpredictable quality, all of which impact time to market and stable operations. Applying those manual and custom practices in a cloud environment negates the inherent advantage of software defined infrastructure. DevOps is the use of practices, tools and automation that can improve the efficiency of how businesses run applications in the cloud.

    Fanatical Support for AWS provides businesses access to certified AWS experts who can help implement and operate workloads on AWS using DevOps practices and tooling, both from AWS and leading 3rd parties. Rackspace DevOps expertise can help customers improve the speed, frequency, and quality of their software deployments and the accompanying operational processes. Customers using the Aviator™ service receive ongoing support for native AWS DevOps tools such as AWS OpsWorks, AWS CloudFormation, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline and AWS CodeCommit. As an additional service, Rackspace engineers can utilize a broad range of leading third-party DevOps tools, such as Chef™, SaltStack, and Ansible to help ensure that customers have choice around their preferred DevOps toolset.

    “Rackspace has been active in DevOps practices since 2012, working to help customers increase speed and consistency in their operations. We are excited to be recognized by AWS and to apply our knowledge to customers working on the AWS platform,” said Chris Cochran, senior vice president and general manager of AWS at Rackspace. “Not all customers start with a high degree of expertise in this area, but Rackspace can help these businesses continually improve their efficiency with running apps in the cloud.”

    For more information about Rackspace’s achievement of the AWS DevOps Competency, please visit http://blog.rackspace.com/rackspace-achieves-aws-devops-competency/.

    For more information on Fanatical Support for AWS, please visitwww.rackspace.com/aws.

    About Rackspace
    Rackspace (NYSE: RAX), the #1 managed cloud company, helps businesses tap the power of cloud computing without the challenge and expense of managing complex IT infrastructure and application platforms on their own. Rackspace engineers deliver specialized expertise on top of leading technologies developed by AWS, Microsoft, OpenStack, VMware and others, through a results-obsessed service known as Fanatical Support®. The company has more than 300,000 customers worldwide, including two-thirds of the FORTUNE 100. Rackspace was named a leader in the 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting, and has been honored as one of Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For in six of the past eight years. Learn more atwww.rackspace.com.

    Forward Looking Statement
    This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected development, performance or market acceptance associated with Fanatical Support for AWS; anticipated operational and financial benefits from Fanatical Support for AWS; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions including the possibility that expected benefits from Fanatical Support for AWS may not materialize because this product is not generally accepted in the marketplace, which could occur due to certain factors including (i) a failure to market the product cost effectively, differentiate the product from competitive products or communicate differentiations effectively, (ii) the reliability, quality or compatibility associated with the product, (iii) changes in technology which adversely effect the product’s benefit, (iv) slowdowns in the general economy or technology industry that impact consumer spending habits, (v) internal strategy decisions that impact the product, and (vi) other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2016. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

    Media Contact:
    Brandon Brunson
    brandon.brunson@rackspace.com
    210-312-1357

  • Microservices: Easier Than You Think

    Microservices: Easier Than You Think

    “Microservices are easier than you think and more valuable than you’ve heard.” Those are the words of Ben Gracewood, chief delivery officer at cloud POS and omnichannel retail provider Vend. His company has used microservices to trim a monolithic PHP application, improving performance and changing the way the company approaches updates.

    Approaching Microservices

    Vend is currently used by 15,000 retailers in more than 180 countries. It is aimed at inventory-based retailers—think housewares, fashion, grocery and so on. In addition to the usual POS and payments facilities, Vend handles loyalty schemes, gift cards and online storefronts. The company is based in New Zealand, with offices in London, Melbourne, San Francisco and Toronto. Engineering and DevOps is done in Auckland.

    Its global customer base means there is no maintenance window, and so live updates are essential.

    Vend’s HTML5 and iOS clients include caching and a local database to allow offline operation (the data is subsequently resynchronized), primarily to allow users to keep working in situations where there is no Internet connection. The main system was originally a monolithic PHP application.

    Vend executives had discussed the idea of migrating to microservices for about a year. But when the company’s vice president of Architecture experimented by writing one read­-only microservice that improved performance by orders of magnitude, “This was the ‘a-ha’ moment for us,” Gracewood says.

    Later, when Vend migrated from Rackspace to Amazon Web Services, it used a routing microservice that directed traffic to whichever cloud held that particular customer’s data at the time. That allowed a progressive migration with no disruption for customers.

    Those initial successes showed Vend it should move more seriously in that direction. Nine months later, the company had 12 microservices in production.

    Vend is now adding them at the rate of about two per month, and the monolithic PHP system has been slimmed and surrounded by a cloud of microservices. An Nginix-based routing layer allows existing URLs to be redirected to microservices where appropriate.

    The company has followed DevOps practices from the outset, but its first few microservices were deployed and managed as special cases. Now, both the PHP monolith and all the microservices are within the DevOps tent.

    Adoption Dos and Don’ts

    When it comes to adopting microservices, “It’s never too soon to start,” says Gracewood. “It doesn’t have to be all or nothing,” despite what you might hear from other microservices veterans—everyone has been partway through their journey at some stage.

    Gracewood’s advice is to build your first microservice and do what you have to in the development of your DevOps practice. Then keep iterating.

    Don’t fall into the trap of thinking a microservice has to be 100 percent complete before it can be deployed, he says. Start by developing the minimum functionality required at the outset, and then increasing its sophistication over time. Since a change to a microservice affects a relatively small part of the entire system, the continuous update model is easier to apply to microservices than monolithic applications.

    That point also has an organizational impact: A microservices architecture and DevOps support Gracewood’s philosophy of trusting engineering and development teams to implement the right things at the right time. With monolithic software, a mistake or a poor decision can have wide-ranging repercussions, so considerable oversight is required. But the nature of microservices keeps issues localized, so if an issue does somehow slip through the testing process, it is easier to revert to the previous version.

    Adopting DevOps and microservices does require a certain amount of education, Gracewood notes. Engineering teams must understand the command line, Docker and so on. Making the move calls for “lots of tooling or lots of training,” he says. To that end, Vend has built some custom tools.

    Gracewood’s final tip for organizations thinking of adopting microservices: “Log everything [and] apply metrics to everything,” right from the start. You need to know how people are using your system. In particular, identifying the most heavily used microservices will reveal the areas where efforts to improve performance are likely to yield the best returns.

  • Detours Ahead: Overcoming DevOps Challenges

    Detours Ahead: Overcoming DevOps Challenges

    Saying that you’re interested in DevOps is another way of saying you’re interested in change. That’s what DevOps promises any organization. No matter the problems a company is trying to solve or the goals it’s trying to reach, DevOps depends on a willingness to embrace some big changes. Sure, it can help you streamline software deployments, but it requires shaking up a company’s usual processes and routines. As we all know, change can be complicated, so before your organization transitions to an agile culture, it’s best to prepare for the likely challenges ahead.

    Breaking Old Habits for Continuous Delivery

    Many of the procedures we follow at work each day are second nature, and what’s familiar carries a certain comfort with it. Even when we realize a more efficient process is within reach, old habits are tough to break. For an organization that employs hundreds, any change can be a challenge.

    And DevOps offers no shortage of challenges. It entails overhauling a company’s deployment process, its communication patterns, its department structures and even the roles of individuals on a team. Yet unless an organization is willing to let go of its old habits, the benefits of continuous delivery won’t ever be achieved. When acclimating people to this new procedure, it’s important to convey that the old procedure – one team throwing code over the wall to another one – will be left behind for actual collaboration in which Development, Operations and possibly other departments work together, not just in silos.

    Getting Past the Resistance to Change

    Encountering some reluctance to change will be natural, and a smooth transition depends on making everyone aware of why DevOps will be a big step forward. This includes communicating what the advantages will be for individuals, departments and the company as a whole. With an agile plan in place, greater efficiencies will become the norm, and a team will have the ability to spot and fix problems more quickly, so 3 a.m. phone calls to the system admin won’t happen anymore. Once managers through C-level folks are aware of these potential advantages, resistance will gradually turn into acceptance and enthusiasm.

    Combating the Myths and Rumors

    Many think DevOps is only for the well-known unicorn companies, such as Etsy and Facebook, or that it’s an exact science that will produce the same results for everyone. Some even believe the rumor that DevOps only works with certain operating systems. The truth is that continuous development can take place anywhere as long as the company culture is right. As detailed in the Rackspace-sponsored e-book, The DevOps Mindset: Real-World Insights from Tech Leaders, many DevOps practitioners went through their own uphill climbs to become more agile, and they have the firsthand experience to resolve many popular misconceptions.

    “You don’t have to be in Silicon Valley to embrace the DevOps culture,” says James Kenigsberg of 2U. “In fact, many new firms these days have a bad habit of building shiny technology because it is shiny, which goes against the DevOps principles of communication and transparency.”

    Jeff Hackert of Chef dispels the myth that DevOps is a one-size-fits-all solution. “It is not a set of proscriptions or a recipe that will give you a defined best practices outcome,” he explains. “Your best practice is the collective wisdom of the very smart people you’ve hired to solve your problems. And if what you have is a siloed or broken environment, you want to increase the communication, not impose new rules.”

    Getting Automated Without a Struggle

    When an organization is considering DevOps, they may find that the opportunities for efficiency not only involve employee collaboration, but technology as well. Most IT departments would jump at any chance to save time when it comes to coding procedures, and automation is a means of making this happen. By offloading these processes to an automated system, people can tackle other tasks, and businesses that release several deployments a day can greatly simplify their rollouts. For those who might not be familiar with the ins and outs of automation, receiving some guidance from a trusted IT provider can be a good first step. Finding an advisor to guide your initial automation efforts can prevent the expense of hiring a DevOps engineer with automation knowledge.

    Finding a Path Around DevOps Obstacles

    Every company’s DevOps strategy will be unique, and every company’s plan for overcoming challenges will be just as unique. Whatever the circumstances, communication will be crucial to any adoption, as it ensures that everyone understands why such a change is necessary. Getting acquainted with the success stories out there will dispel any myths circulating among team members, and stumbling blocks can be avoided by the understanding that familiar silos will be replaced by more efficient collaborations.

    Despite its challenges, DevOps can be the catalyst for a variety of improvements, from productivity to employee morale. Those who are the most successful at being agile will not only have the right culture in place, but be able to negotiate the challenges that DevOps has in store for those ready to embrace change.

  • Survey: DevOps gaining mainstream traction in IT today

    Survey: DevOps gaining mainstream traction in IT today

    New survey results released last week shows just how thoroughly DevOps has captured the mindshare of enterprises. Commissioned by Rackspace, the global Vanson Bourne survey showed that more than three-quarters of IT decision-makers are now familiar with the term DevOps and well over half of them have already implemented DevOps practices to some degree or another. And by 2017, that figure could go up by another 31 percent according to survey respondents’ plans.

    “This survey shows a real appetite for the kind of development and operational processes today’s digitally-focused businesses need,” said Chris Jackson, CTO of DevOps Services at Rackspace.

    Among those who have chosen the DevOps route, nearly half have already fully integrated their development team with their operations team and 38 percent say that integration is in effect for all of their applications. For the most part, the ops team has been the primary champions for these projects. Approximately 43 percent of respondents with DevOps programs in place report that IT operations have driven them and 32 percent say either the CIO or the CTO have driven the program. Just 16 percent say developers have been behind their DevOps transformation.

    As expected, among respondents who have deployed DevOps, 57 percent have already experienced faster delivery of new features and 46 percent have a more stable operating environment. Additionally, 43 percent reported increased innovation and 32 percent have even reduced their IT costs.

    However, it is the business upsides of respondents’ DevOps adoption that are really eye-opening. The speed and innovation seems to have directly translated to improvements in the business as a whole. Over half of companies that have implemented DevOps report an increase in customer conversion and satisfaction and 43 percent say they’ve seen an improvement in customer engagement. As a result, DevOps is stimulating topline revenue growth, with 38 percent of respondents reporting an increase in sales as a result of their revised IT approach.

    “DevOps is empowering IT functions to make a real impact on the business,” Jackson said. “It is also finally an opportunity for IT to be recognized for having a central part to play in delivering great customer experiences and ultimately increasing sales.”

    However, deploying DevOps has not always been easy for these organizations. Approximately 37 percent of respondents who’d embraced DevOps reported internal resistance from ops teams and 32 percent said developer resistance posed problems. Fortunately, less than a quarter of wider business stakeholders  stood in the way of DevOps adoption. Nevertheless, among all IT decision-makers, 41 percent still said they had other more urgent IT priorities that kept them from the DevOps journey.

    “DevOps is all about encouraging innovation and streamlining processes to help ensure development and operations are working hand in hand to deliver business objectives,” Jackson said. “While, the findings suggest that the DevOps journey is already becoming well established in many organizations, there is still a job to do in articulating the benefits to all groups involved for them to accept and drive through this change.”

  • IBM and Rackspace join as premier sponsors of Camp DevOps Houston, tickets now only $5

    IBM and Rackspace join as premier sponsors of Camp DevOps Houston, tickets now only $5

    We are very happy to report that IBM and Rackspace have signed on as a premier sponsors of Camp DevOps Houston on October 28, 2014. They join CA Technologies ITInvolve and JumpCloud as premier sponsors of this event. Additional sponsors of Camp DevOps Houston include BlueMeric, CloudBees, PagerDuty, VictorOps, Automic, Qwinix and Incapsula. We are very grateful for the support.

    With all of this great support from our sponsors, staging-devopsy.kinsta.cloud is dropping the cost of admission to Camp DevOps Houston to just $5.00!

    The reason for this is that Camp DevOps are set up to educate and bring DevOps to areas that may not have been exposed to on site DevOps education and conferences. We believe Houston is a great market to bring DevOps too. As long as the costs of the conference are covered (including breakfast, lunch and refreshments) our mission is accomplished in that regard. The only reason for the $5 dollar admission is to stop people from registering and then not attending, taking away a seat from someone else who would like to attend.

    The speaker lineup for Camp DevOps is just about full.  Sanjeev Sharma, author of DevOps for Dummies headlines a great lineup of speakers on a wide variety of DevOps topics. There are multiple tracks aimed at both the technical and business tracks. You can get much more information at Campstaging-devopsy.kinsta.cloud. You can register for just $5 at: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/camp-devops-houston-tickets-12489234637

    If you are in the Houston area or know tech people who are, be sure to come join us. We think this is going to be a great event in just about a month away.

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    rackspace-No1-managed-cloud-logo

  • Collaboration in Progress: Making DevOps a Reality

    Collaboration in Progress: Making DevOps a Reality

    Everything on your company’s DevOps checklist is accounted for. It’s got the vision and the talent. It’s identified the problems and mapped out a solution. It’s got a culture that allows the flexibility that such a plan requires. Now’s the time to put the plan into action and let the benefits begin.

    The truth is that it may not be that simple. A great plan won’t mean anything unless everyone understands how to achieve it. And whatever a company’s DevOps strategy consists of, collaboration is the key to making it a reality.

    Collaboration is at the heart of DevOps. It’s even conveyed in the phrase itself. No matter the size of your company, this new process of teamwork and transparency relies on combining strengths between Development and Operations to achieve goals that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.

    Breaking Silos with a Full-Circle Approach

    With one department responsible for writing code and another responsible for implementing it, silos can naturally form as each group focuses on its job. This kind of structure is what commonly gives rise to software deployments taking longer than they should and even little or no communication taking place between the two departments.

    DevOps has come about as an antidote to these kinds of siloed situations in which inefficiencies and a lack of teamwork are the norm. Yet for DevOps to take off, both Development and Operations have to participate fully and understand that collaboration requires equal cooperation from both sides. Such collaboration has to take place not just at certain stages, but throughout the life of a project. When each team is invested in the effort by providing feedback, helping identify future problems and continually learning from day-to-day deployments, a company has a great chance of seeing benefits from these new collaborative efforts. Without complete buy-in from everyone, the process will never get off the ground.

    The Evolution of Collaboration

    Just as DevOps is about moving beyond the assembly line process of software development, the concept of collaboration itself is evolving. DevOps-style teamwork can consist of more than breaking down the silos between different teams. In an agile infrastructure, team members can wear different hats and swap responsibilities depending on the demands of the day. Instead of a scenario in which people work on single specialized tasks without any interaction with the larger group, you’ll have contributors who can play multiple roles within a team and understand how this boosts productivity for the entire company, rather than just a single department. It’s possible that a team member can function as a developer one day and then work on deployments another. Through DevOps, an organization can advance beyond one-dimensional departments and one-dimensional contributions.

    Real-World DevOps Teamwork

    For many within the IT industry, DevOps is already a working reality. Breaking silos and becoming more agile are goals for companies that know how increased collaboration can help their business. A good source that lays out some first-hand experiences of DevOps practitioners can be found in the recently published Rackspace e-book, The DevOps Mindset: Real-World Insights from Tech Leaders. It features interviews with IT experts who discuss what led them to adopt a DevOps approach and recommendations for those interested in a new agile approach to software deployment.

    When discussing the importance of agile teamwork, James Kenigsberg of 2U remarks that, “To achieve true DevOps collaboration, you need your employees to really think and act as one, not just be merged together in name only.” As a provider of online university programs, 2U faces a huge demand for quick, dependable deployments and underwent a transition to increase teamwork at the company. “We had to flip the model,” Kenigsberg explains, “from the idea of personal heroics and siloed responsibilities to real, cross-functional collaboration.”

    Jim Kimball of fund administrator HedgeServ reiterates this cross-departmental approach. “Repeatability and scalability are our business,” he explains. “The capabilities that DevOps gives us directly enable this by encouraging collaboration within the organization to come up with better solutions.”

    Forging a Partnership Between Dev and Ops

    Assembling a skilled and talented group that will be the envy of your industry is the ideal every company would like to have. If you’re able to gather a team that’s the IT equivalent of the X-Men, it’s not enough to just assemble that talent and assign them siloed roles. Without frequent teamwork, not only will company goals become difficult to achieve, but solving problems will be nearly impossible.

    When Development and Operations see themselves as working in partnership with each other, the foundation for greater collaboration will be in place, and company goals, such as greater speed to market, increased productivity and an all-around agile performance, will be within reach. With the right mentality, DevOps can be an evolutionary step in company functionality and reach new levels of efficiency that otherwise wouldn’t be achievable.

  • The DevOps Litmus Test: Is Your Company’s Culture Ready to Get Agile?

    The DevOps Litmus Test: Is Your Company’s Culture Ready to Get Agile?

    New ideas don’t come to those who are afraid of breaking the rules. Improving something usually means you’ll have to push the status quo aside and try something that hasn’t been done before. What may be a standard operating procedure will have to make way for a brand-new approach with its own set of rules and goals.

    This applies directly to DevOps, which requires changes in how departments operate, how employees interact and how problems get solved. DevOps may be an idea your company is considering, but if the culture isn’t compatible with it, DevOps will never become an active part of your day-to-day operations.

    If DevOps Is the Engine, Culture Is the Fuel

    Let’s say two employees who don’t normally work together wind up taking an unprecedented approach to solving a problem. To their surprise, this new way of working together is incredibly efficient and a big improvement over their usual methods. The two recommend this kind of collaboration to others in their respective departments when it comes to spotting problems, fixing them and preparing for future ones.

    That’s the moment when you’ll know how receptive your company is to DevOps. This kind of cultural litmus test determines whether department silos can be broken down and new avenues of teamwork can happen. No matter the company or industry, its culture is the foundation for DevOps adoption. When that culture fits, DevOps is an ideal vehicle for improved productivity, with culture being the fuel moving it forward.

    Getting the Right Cultural Fit

    In order for DevOps to happen, you need the right conditions, similar to how certain plants only grow in the right ecosystem. Team members must be able to interact in ways they may not have in the past. The right culture is one that allows flexibility, spontaneity and resourcefulness to take place.

    On the flip side, DevOps won’t work in a rigid environment where departments are siloed and methods can’t be questioned. DevOps has a slim chance of taking off in a company that wants to hold onto previously established rules about divisions between departments. Anyone who stands up to say, “That’s not how we do things,” will be a hindrance to progress. Greater benefits are in reach, but to make them a reality, a company and its employees have to be willing to make some changes and allow agile collaborations to flourish.

    DevOps Culture in the Real World

    For those who have already put DevOps in action, culture was, and continues to be, a central issue. Household names like Twitter and Netflix may be known for their DevOps practices, but many lesser-known businesses have found that their cultures identify with DevOps collaborations. The recently published e-book from Rackspace, The DevOps Mindset: Real-World Insights from Tech Leaders features interviews with a variety of DevOps practitioners. The importance of culture is a common theme throughout these discussions.

    These firsthand accounts emphasize how encouraging new ways of solving problems depends on the proper culture. As James Kenigsberg of 2U explains, “You don’t have to be in Silicon Valley to embrace the DevOps culture; anyone can do it anywhere with the right people.” Bharat Krish, CIO of HBO Latin America, also emphasizes culture as an essential factor. “When I think of a DevOps culture,” Krish says, “for me it’s building a foundation where development can happen in a more agile fashion.”

    Start with the Biggest DevOps Requirement

    Knowing that DevOps benefits one company doesn’t necessarily mean it will automatically benefit another. Company processes, structure and communication standards all play a part in determining whether DevOps is right for your business. DevOps isn’t a product that can simply be plugged in – it requires a new way of thinking about agile software deployment.

    Culture has to be at the center of a DevOps adoption, and assessing your company’s culture is a crucial first step in determining whether DevOps will be a good fit for your organization. As long as your company is flexible enough to allow some cross-departmental collaboration and silos to be broken, then prepare for DevOps to take you to new levels of productivity. You’ll find that breaking the rules isn’t such a bad thing.