This document discusses the business case for DevOps. It begins with an introduction of the speaker and defines some DevOps terminology. It then explains that DevOps involves a technology shift towards more reliable software delivery and improved software operability in production. The document presents a case study of a company that improved software delivery and operability through adopting DevOps practices. It concludes that DevOps provides the communication and collaboration between development and operations teams needed to deliver reliable software systems in the modern era.

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The Business Case for DevOps
Matthew Skelton
SoftwareOperability.com

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Who?
@matthewpskelton
Build & Deployment @ thetrainline.com
London Continuous Delivery meetup group
“How to make software work well
in Production”

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The Business Case for DevOps
definition
story
acronym
exploration
case study
book

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The Business Case for DevOps
Terminology
Technology shift
Software operability

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DevOps
“Highly Effective
Communication”

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DevOps?
Devs doing ops?
Ops doing dev?
Infrastructure scripting?
Special ‘DevOps’ team?

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DevOps
Devs doing ops
Ops doing dev
Infrastructure scripting
Special „DevOps‟ team
(etc.)
The only effective way of
delivering reliable 21st-century
web-based software systems

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DevOps = CAMS
Culture
Automation
Measurement
Sharing
John Willis (@botchagalupe)

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DevOps = CAMS
Culture
Automation
Measurement
Sharing
“Highly Effective
Communication”

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The Business Case for DevOps
Terminology
Technology shift
Software operability

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Technology Shifts

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“You can now install the latest
version of our product ordering
software onto your in-house
servers every 6 months from a
single CD-ROM”

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DevOps:
Do or Die*
* for web operations

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The Business Case for DevOps
Terminology
Technology shift
Software operability

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Operability
How well things work
in Production

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Operational Features
Non-functional requirements
Operational features
Operations folk are people too 
Operational and End-User features
prioritised together

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Poor Operability
• Unclear or missing log messages
• Limited hooks for monitoring
• Cascading failures
• “Fair weather” assumptions
• Lack of resiliency
• Unpredictable failure modes
• ...
• Wasted $$$$$

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No DevOps?
Poor Dev + Ops
communication & collaboration
 Poor operability
 Wasted $$$$

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Case Study – thetrainline.com
• Top travel booking website in UK (Hitwise, 2012)
• £1.2bn annual revenue
• 9 million+ visits per month
• Booking engines for many UK train operators
• Ticketing systems for Corporates and TMCs

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Case Study
A B C

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Case Study – Lessons
• Downtime costs money
• Operability is a key requirement
• Consider both software and teams
• Identify operational criteria early
• Draft run book from the Dev team
• Follow-up on incidents with Dev teams
• Schedule operational features alongside end-user
features
• ...

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DevOps
DevOps provides the
communication and cooperation
needed in order to deliver reliable
21st-century web-based software
systems

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Impediments to DevOps
• Capex/Opex split
• Project-driven development
• Product Owners not responsible for
the operational success of the
product/service
• Developers not on call for incidents
• Intermediaries between Dev and Ops

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Further Reading
• Niek Bartholomeus
http://niek.bartholomeus.be/
• “The Top 11 Things You Need To Know
About DevOps” – Gene Kim
• John Clapham (Nokia Entertainment)
http://www.infoq.com/articles/monthly-
devops-01-nokia

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The Phoenix Project

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Getting Started
Don‟t wait for business approval
“Hey, we need to move our software
applications from the desktop to the web”
“We don‟t need the web”
Start on a small project and deliver

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Today‟s Sessions
• Ron Gidron – faster, cheaper, safer deployments
• Stephen Nelson-Smith – Test-Driven Infrastructure
• Peter Eeles – DevOps and the Integrated Supply Chain
• Gary Valler – DevOps, agility, and Continuous Delivery
• Alex Papadimoulis – Implementing DevOps
• Dan North – Agile Techniques in System Administration
• Rainer Heinold – Learning from Open Source
• PANEL – Open and Inner Source Tools
• James Betteley – DevOps Anti-Patterns
• Kiffin Gish – Case Study: Agile & IT Ops

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The Business Case for DevOps
“Highly effective
communication”
Shift in technology
Operability

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Q & A
http://SoftwareOperability.com/ + @Operability
Thanks:
@johnC_bristol, @LordCope, @niekbartho, @perryofpeek, Unicom
Photo credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/{peterboden, vernhart, 86624586@N00, calsidyrose, barbourians, ginable,
blmiers2, simontaylor, coneee, 9479603@N02, charlenesimmons, practicalowl, 38019504@N04, jjcd7}
Wikimedia Commons, fullbodytransplant.wordpress.com, seanlabel.com,
cs680.cs.usfca.edu/lectures/overview, www.scientific-solutions.com,
thoughtsfromanobservationalist.wordpress.com,