Weekly Top 10: Questioning DevOps?

Since DevOps’ rise, it has ostensibly been sitting on a pedestal with practitioners admiring its capability to both transform organizational culture and reform tooling and delivery practices. With the hype growing quickly, it was only a matter of time until other takes on DevOps abounded. This week’s top news unravels some unique (and contrarian) perspectives. On the one hand, is DevOps still young enough to be considered immature ? Or, on the other hand, is it so overhyped that it’s on the path to disintegration ? While these different viewpoints are welcomed, they are not to say that DevOps’ benefits have now suddenly vanished. Consider these key takeaways from the recent DevOps Enterprise Summit in London, and the security toolkit considerations the practice fosters. While the hype around DevOps will definitely change over time, its benefits are clear, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
Continue reading for more on the latest DevOps news and trends, and, as always, stay tuned to all the news coming from @ElectricCloud on DevOps and Continuous Delivery throughout the week.

1DevOps: The Spotty Faced Yoof Waiting to Blossom

By @dscartwright | Published on @TheRegister http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/07/is_devops_a_proper_thing/
DevOps is a concept that we've all started coming across more and more in the last few months. Critically it's taken a bit of a leap just lately because people have started to: (a) define it formally and (b) actually agree to a decent extent on what the definition is. So, for what it’s worth, Wikipedia talks of DevOps as: “A culture, movement or practice that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information-technology (IT) professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes.”

#DevOps : The spotty faced yoof waiting to blossom, per @dscartwright https://t.co/F0OE5x7h1w @TheRegister pic.twitter.com/w6bfxdk1Bc

— CloudBees (@electriccloud) July 12, 2016

2DevOps is Disintegrating. But Maybe That's OK

By @jpaulreed | Published on @TechBeaconCom http://techbeacon.com/devops-disintegrating-thats-ok
DevOps is disintegrating. Such a claim may sound absurd if you search Google for the term, glance at the program of any IT Ops-related conference, check out all of the DevOps resources out there, or listen to the buzz in daily Scrum meetings across the industry. But you need to understand what I mean by the word "disintegrate." I'm not talking about what happens when you blow something up or the slow process of some ancient object turning to dust. DevOps certainly isn't disintegrating in either of those ways.

#DevOps is disintegrating, says @jpaulreed . Here's why he says it's OK: https://t.co/HVpiNZaeD9 @TechBeaconCom pic.twitter.com/W2UKY2zX89

— CloudBees (@electriccloud) July 12, 2016

3What Serverless Computing Really Means

By @ericknorr | Published on @infoworld http://www.infoworld.com/article/3093508/cloud-computing/what-serverless-computing-really-means.html
It’s always unfortunate to start the definition of a phrase by calling it a misnomer, but that’s where you have to begin with serverless computing: Of course there will always be servers. Serverless computing merely adds another layer of abstraction atop cloud infrastructure, so developers no longer need to worry about servers, including virtual ones in the cloud.

What serverless computing really means, per @ericknorr https://t.co/cIxLcL8AR1 @infoworld pic.twitter.com/LdvQTFceAz

— CloudBees (@electriccloud) July 11, 2016

4Driving a Digital Transformation

By @MulliganSDTimes | Published on @SDTimes http://sdtimes.com/driving-digital-transformation/
The need for speed is driving businesses into a digital revolution, with agile as the engine. As expectations for quality user experiences rise higher than ever before (be it with context-aware mobile apps, or websites with no room for performance mishaps), organizations are being forced to rethink the way their entire businesses operate.

Read @anders_wallgren 's insights in the latest @SDTimes feature on #DigitialTransformation https://t.co/kL55ZsTPY5 pic.twitter.com/iigQeRc5qj

— CloudBees (@electriccloud) July 8, 2016

5DevOps Across the Pond: A DOES16 London Reprise

By @stbrodie | Published on @ITProPortal http://www.itproportal.com/2016/07/11/devops-across-the-pond-a-does16-london-reprise/
I just wrapped up two amazing days of hearing about all the latest and greatest developments in the DevOps world at the DevOps Enterprise Summit (#DOES16) in London. Around 500 plus people attended and I was fortunate to speak and share ideas with many like-minded technology leaders. As far as how DevOps compares across the pond, I found there really aren’t many differences between organisations in the US and Europe. We all share similar challenges and have experienced a number of comparable revelations.

Check out @stbrodie 's takeaways from #DOES16 London: https://t.co/2QayFbE5nx @ITProPortal @DOESsummitEU pic.twitter.com/8hElIj5gT4

— CloudBees (@electriccloud) July 11, 2016

6How to Think About DevOps: It's a Journey, Not an Either/Or Choice

By @thevarguy | Published on @thevarguy http://thevarguy.com/open-source-application-software-companies/how-think-about-devops-its-journey-not-eitheror-choice
People tend to describe DevOps, the "agile" approach to software development and delivery, as something an organization either does or does not do. Yet in reality, DevOps is a journey, rather than an either/or proposition. Here's what that means, and an explanation of how to "do" DevOps. We've explained the meaning of DevOps before, so I won't rehash it in detail here. Suffice it to say, however, that DevOps is all about reducing barriers between collaboration, making software delivery modular and adding scalability to the development and deployment process.

How to Think about DevOps: It's a Journey, not an Either/Or Choice from @thevarguy https://t.co/2AW437FShl #Agile pic.twitter.com/ECJqW54lF9

— CloudBees (@electriccloud) July 7, 2016

7The Things I Learnt about DevOps When My Car Was Engulfed by Flames

By @JohnC_Bristol | Published on @InfoQ https://www.infoq.com/articles/devops-car-in-flames
When people are regarded as experts in a field, they are likely to be called upon to provide answers quickly. Humans are very good at this. Instinctive answers engage what has been called ‘system 1’: a rapid fire but slightly lazy part of the brain. It tends to reach for the easiest answer to hand, useful in a fight or flight situation, less helpful in a meeting of minds. System 1 is designed to front our ‘system 2’ which is relatively rational, but needs time to figure things out.

The Things I Learnt About DevOps When My Car Was Engulfed by Flames https://t.co/gdWoiy6rVC @JohnC_Bristol pic.twitter.com/ketqPwSiY7

— CloudBees (@electriccloud) July 8, 2016

8Overcoming the Scale-Up Challenge of Enterprise DevOps Adoption

By @CarrotyD | Published on @computerweekly http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Overcoming-the-scale-up-challenge-in-enterprise-DevOps-initiatives
Seasoned DevOps practitioners are fond of advising newcomers to kick-start their organisation’s agile journey by starting small – both in respect of the size of project they undertake and the team they task with addressing it. From there, they can work through the organisational challenges that inevitably arise when creating multi-disciplined teams (including developers, operations staff and people fulfilling other IT functions), before shaping how their continuous delivery pipeline will operate.

Overcoming the scale-up challenge of enterprise #DevOps adoption #DOES https://t.co/AclTUzkePT via @computerweekly

— Caroline Donnelly (@CarrotyD) July 5, 2016

9My Software Security Toolkit

By @martincron | Published on @martincron https://martin.cron.com/2016/07/14/my-software-security-toolkit/
After being a podcast listener for years and years (having new things to stuff into my ears is the only way that chores around the house get done) I was finally a podcast participant. The good people at CloudBees coordinate a panel discussion about continuous delivery/deployment and they invited me. Me? Can you believe it? They probably thought they were inviting a different Martin. Like the time I showed up to lead a unit testing seminar and someone thought they were going to get Martin Fowler.

Check out @martincron 's round up from our #DevOps security #c9d9 this week: https://t.co/vexc1uGGRW

— CloudBees (@electriccloud) July 14, 2016

10Digital Transformation Attainable With The Right Strategy, Experts Say

By Justine Brown| Published on @CIOdive http://www.ciodive.com/news/digital-transformation-attainable-with-the-right-strategy-experts-say/421975/
Many of today’s businesses face intensified consumer demand, increased competition and a rapidly changing technology landscape. Adopting a digital transformation strategy and implementing it effectively can give businesses the speed and agility they need to react quickly to changes in the market and to capitalize on new opportunities, experts and consultants say. Indeed, numbers demonstrate the rewards of a successful digital transformation. Companies that become digital enterprises see a 26 increase in profitability, a 12 increase in valuation and a 9 increase in revenue to asset ratio, according to research from Capgemini Consulting.

#DigitalTransformation attainable with the right strategy https://t.co/cJzLexHcxV @CIOdive pic.twitter.com/AsXqKREp0W

— CloudBees (@electriccloud) July 11, 2016