This presentation, delivered at DevOps Days Austin 2022, traces the evolution of DevOps -- its tools, technology, leaders and contributors -- from 2012 to 2022. The presented content is drawn from over 40 video interviews I conducted at the event starting in 2012. Cited interviews include those with Andrew Clay Shafer, Patrick Debois, Damon Edwards, John Willis, Michael Cote, Nick Galbreath, Christian Beedgen, Alexis LeQuoc and Jason Hansen (links to the interviews are embedded in the slides). The retrospective shows how the Austin event provided an early glimpse at startups that would grow into key DevOps players as well as concepts that years later would become part of the vernacular. (Datadog, now valued at over $40B, was still in private beta when they participated in 2012 and the term “DevSecOps” which was presented at that same event wouldn’t show up in Google searches for another four years). A key theme throughout the presentation is how over the years the defining characteristic of DevOps has been pulled back and forth between culture and technology, and how the lack of a crisp definition has hampered adoption.

1. DevOps Days Austin:
A Retrospective
(As seen through the lens of a flipcam)
@barton808
Barton George
May 5, 2022

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Who am I?
• Single dad of three teenagers
• Started career in Sony Tokyo’s workstation division
• 12 years at Dell: focused on Linux, open source, DevOps
and community building
• Founder of project Sputnik – Developer laptop line which,
thanks to the community, went from exploratory project to
product and then product line
• Crowning technical achievement: used vi editor to
complete all my business school applications
• Currently leading the charge to build Dell’s external
developer community
• Attended every DevOps Days Austin except 2013 (bad luck)
Note: My recollections may or may not reflect reality
@barton808

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@barton808
Some of my DevOps Days Austin videos over the years

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…empowering that culture of continuous improvement inside of your
organization and then devops rule Memphis itself [3] – Andrew Shafer, 2014
... there needs to be more agility more speed and so def popsicles bar
that conversation [4] – Cameron Haight, 2015
[1] Adrian Cockroft’s
[2] and Etsy and that’s
[3] devops will ??? itself
[4] devops becomes a part of that conversation
YouTube transcripts say the darndest things!
@barton808
…we just sat through 80 80 dream Co props[1] talk – Barton George, 2017
…we all look to up to like Netflix and see our deaths [2] a core part of their culture – Paul Read, 2015

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DevOps Days Austin 2012
National Instruments
John moderates a provisioning panel
A ton of interest
Its about culture, not tools
Context:
• Damon Edwards names every DevOps days ever held around the world (in under 30 seconds)
• Frustration around the amount of time spent justifying/explaining the name
• Frustrated that no definition exists, “but we’re on a journey” – John Willis
@barton808

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Google Trends -- “DevSecOps” worldwide searches - May 1, 2012 – May 1 2022
“Last year we did
around $500M in
transaction volume”[1]
“DevSecOps” at Etsy – Nick Galbreath
Searches on “DevSecOps”
DataDog (in private beta) –
Alexis Le-quoc
$38B 5/2/2022
Sumo Logic (2 mos after public launch)
-- Christian Beedgen
$1.09B 5/2/2022
[1] $13.49 billion in 2021
Before they were part of the vernacular or worth astronomical amounts
DevOps Days Austin 2012 cont
@barton808

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https://twitter.com/search?q=(from%3Abarton808)%20until%3A2014-05-06%20since%3A2014-05-03&src=typed_query
DevOps Days Austin 2014
The tradition of Cinco de Mayo begins, the wit and wisdom of Andrew Clay Shafer
(2nd year at the Marchesa)
DevOps is now but it's
not evenly distributed
You get the DevOps you deserve
You don't want to do DevOps,
you want to be in the state where DevOps is inevitable
@barton808

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[1] John’s belief is that Docker has more momentum than other containers
[2] A new methodology of bounded context services
The convergence of data gravity,
containers[1], and microservices[2] will
create the new haves and have nots
-- John Willis, Docker
DevOps Days Austin 2015
Docker and microservices a relatively new discussion
@barton808

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https://www.wired.com/2017/04/ever-heard-startup-deis-well-microsoft-certainly/
“Normals” are looking for clarity
• Customers want manuals, laminated cards
• If I'm using containers to package up and deploy and run
my application, that's doing DevOps, right?
Deis
Re-platformed from
CoreOS stack to
Kubernetes
Deis -- Kubernetes PaaS
Jason Hansen
DevOps Days Austin 2016
Event moves to larger venue to accommodate larger audience
(new venue accommodates up 100,119 attendees)
@barton808
“Management ultimately has three or four levers -- firing
people, giving people more money, or not firing people
and then sometimes they can give rousing speeches”
– Michael Cote

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“We need to get better at dealing
with technical gravity” -- Patrick DeBois
DevOps Days Austin 2017
Monsters of DevOps
Culture
Automation
Measurement
Sharing
Rainbow
Barfing
Panda
Andrew’s agenda
• Assertions
• Meandering
• Bikeshedding
• Conflate things
• More meandering
• Call to action
@barton808
Functions -> AI/ML

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https://twitter.com/search?q=(from%3Abarton808)%20until%3A2017-05-06%20since%3A2017-05-03&src=typeahead_click&f=top
Too complicated, too personal, I’ll offend someone,
what will people think, but im a developer….
“We are afraid of hiring our future selves”
DevOps Days Austin 2017 cont
Differences and dialog
@barton808

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Tornado break Docker disappears
Kube-mania
DevOps Days Austin 2018
The changing of the shiny objects
@barton808

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DevOps Days Austin 2019
When we said goodbye who knew a 2-year hiatus was on its way
@barton808

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DevOps Days Austin 2022
@barton808