Modern operations practices and Devops-style methodologies don’t have to require the adoption of public cloud services. For some environments, making a modern data center the core of your operations is the most flexible and appropriate choice if you ensure the implementation of some of the same constraints as the public cloud. In this talk we’ll sketch out how automated modern operations practices can transform your operational efficiency in data centers without necessarily requiring the use of public cloud, private cloud, or even virtualization.

1. In Defense of Data Centers
OSDC - April 2015.
Nigel Kersten
@nigelkersten
CIO, Puppet Labs

2. Who am I?
• Not here as a vendor
• Not selling you anything
• I’m a user too

3. Audience Poll
Who are you all?

4. The Cloud is fine

5. The Cloud is Fine
Undeniable advantages

6. The Cloud is Fine
Undeniable advantages
The cloud is just other people’s
servers

7. I’m not a cloud skeptic

8. “Global SaaS software revenues are forecasted to reach $106B in 2016,
increasing 21% over projected 2015 spending levels” — Forrester
“By 2018, 59% of the total cloud workloads will be Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) workloads, up from 41% in 2013” — Cisco Global Cloud Index
“42% of IT decision makers are planning to increase spending on cloud
computing in 2015, with the greatest growth in enterprises with over 1,000
employees (52%)” — Computerworld 2015 Forecast

9. More than hype — people aren’t that
stupid

10. Traditional arguments against Cloud
Lack of control
Vendor lock-in
Performance
Cost
Security

12. The choice
isn’t binary

13. Diversity is Good
Innovation and monocultures

14. The features are convenient
On-Demand
Self-Service
Elastic
Consumption-based pricing

15. Constraints Force
Changes in Behavior

16. Behavior changes enable innovation

17. So much Innovation

18. Design is about
reducing choice
(on behalf of the user)

19. on behalf of the user

20. Under-engineered constraints
Unreliable
Lack of control
Worse performance
Isolated from on-premise

21. Unreliable

22. The cloud doesn’t care

23. Lack of control

24. “Insecure”

25. Affordances <—> Flexibility

26. Forced changes in operations
Developers don’t need your approval
They have APIs and tools
Infrastructure is programmable
API-driven rather than CLI/GUI-driven
Architect for resilience

27. What is a data center these days?
It’s not just about racking and
stacking — more than raw
infrastructure

28. You don’t have to be huge
for it to make sense

29. Public Cloud
Interconnects

30. Move to where your users are

31. Software Defined Data Center
More than just another annoying buzzword
Infrastructure vendors are changing
Automation is key

32. Lots of exciting open-source
software out there

33. It’s not just about automation tools
Our operations processes and atttitudes need to change

34. It’s not just about automation tools
Our operations processes and atttitudes need to change
Call it “Devops” if you want

35. It’s not just about automation tools
Our operations processes and atttitudes need to change
Call it “Devops” if you want
or “Agile”

36. It’s not just about automation tools
Our operations processes and atttitudes need to change
Call it “Devops” if you want
or “Agile”
or “how we’ve always done it”

37. But automation
is still key
Demand it from all your
vendors

38. Relinquish control, not responsibility
Enable your users
Design self-service infrastructure

41. Design for resilience
Servers — Cattle, not Pets
Expect failure
It’s all disaster recovery

42. Small Components

43. Lots of exciting open-source
software out there

44. Thanks — Questions?