Now on DevOps Radio: Forrester on Digital Transformation, Cloud and DevOps

Host Andre Pino returns for a conversation with Forrester DevOps analysts Charlie Betz, focusing on IT Operations, and Jeff Hammond, specializing in the "Dev" side of DevOps. In this episode, the topic of discussion ranges from the present, to the past and then onto the future of DevOps, all while summarizing some of Forrester’s recent findings from their DevOps Heat Map and Global Business Technographics Priorities and Journey global survey. As organizations are embarking on their digital transformation journey, Forrester’s job is to teach them how to change their delivery efforts through tools, experience and culture. In true DevOps style, neither analyst silos their discussion into either Dev or Ops, both speak to the overall value of DevOps practices.

Charlie and Jeff highlight how the days of DevOps inquiries coming solely from Dev and Ops personnel are gone, as one in every three DevOps queries now comes from a CIO or an enterprise architect. CIOs have recognized the strategic importance of DevOps along with continuous delivery automation. They want to understand the importance of getting digital transformation right because DevOps cultures around software delivery has now proven to be a critical element to overall business success.

To get to where we are today in terms of digital transformation, Charlie and Jeff revisit the intersection of agile and DevOps. Jeff discusses for many of his clients there is some confusion of terms and capabilities, like where does agile start and end, versus DevOps. He says many clients take a dogmatic approach, when they should be focusing on the tactics - not tools - to be successful. As the world has moved past software in a box, through waterfall methodology and on to DevOps, fast feedback is key to today’s digital transformations.

Fast-forward to what’s coming down the pipeline for software development, both Charlie and Jeff are quick to comment on the impact of containers, particularly the rise of Kubernetes. Not only are programming models being created around containers, but these capabilities are becoming a perfect complement to microservices and, in Forrester’s opinion, a much better model than the traditional VM image. However, as containers enable increased automation and software delivery acceleration, what remains now are the deeper container challenges developers still encounter, like service mesh frameworks. If there’s anything we know about the DevOps industry there are major transitions going on here and Kubernetes is just the starting point.

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