A presentation given by Walter Heck at cfgmgmtcamp 2017 about how new technologies solve problems but bring new problems.

1. Docker is the new tarball
And Amazon the new VMWare..

2. Some smart dude figured it out
back in the 17th century..
“An object that is at rest will stay at
rest unless a force acts upon it.”
Isaac Newton, 1687
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=535736

3. We have come a long way..
1801: In France, Joseph Marie Jacquard invents a
loom that
uses punched wooden cards to automatically
weave fabric designs. Early computers would use
similar punch cards.
https://flic.kr/p/6Ba8He

4. Or have we ??
New technologies make us think problems of older generations
(iterations?) have gone away.

5. Exhibit 1: Config Management
configuration management replaces bash scripting, no more
scripting skills need..oh wait.

6. Exhibit 2: docker
Docker replaces tarballs.
No more throwing code
over the wall (just throw
docker images instead, or
docker files based on public
docker images with no
dockerfile)

7. Exhibit 3: AWS
AWS replaces VMware. No more on-premise HW lock-in with long
running contracts (welcome cloud-based vendor lock in)

8. What's the conclusion here?
● Generally, the goal is to reduce complexity
○ Is it possible to make complex systems non-complex?
Or are we just moving the complexity?

9. Who even asked for this?
● Are these ‘innovations’ even wanted?
○ Yes! They might mask the original problem, but they
can save us a lot of time in the mean time

10. What makes new tech “worth it”?
New products and technologies are worth the effort when:
the collective ‘cost’ of:
● implementing now,
● maintaining over it’s lifetime
● and potentially moving off of it later
Is lower then:
● the ‘value’ of the savings/optimisations they create for the duration of the time we use them as opposed to staying
with current tech.

11. What about $$$?
‘Cost’ includes tangible and intangible things eg.
● Technical debt
● MTBF / MTTR
Savings/Optimisations include things like:
● engineer happiness and sanity
● Responsiveness to change requests from the business

12. IT → Business → IT
Ultimately: IT is a function of the business and should therefore
have it’s main target set to: “whatever is best for the business”
That said, the business doesn’t always know what’s best for it

13. FOSS
● How does Open Source fit into this picture?
○ What if a tech goes away before I stop using it?
○ Is there a service run by an external business I’m
dependent on?
○ How confident am I / What safeguards do I have that
this dependency is worth it?

14. Porter’s five forces analysis reimagined (with a smile)
New
Technology
Adoption
Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes
Bargaining power of non-engineering
Bargaining power of engineering