devops: myths, half-truths, and whole lies

DevOps: Myths, half-truths, and whole liesFrom The White Paper, Getting Grounded With DevOps

may contain a grain of truth,but are largely rooted in misunderstanding or misinformation.

For example:

Many myths

most of your body heat through your head.

This is true only in infants, or if the head is the only uncovered part of the body.

Source: Knowledge Is Beautiful, by David McCandless, Harper Collins 2014

You lose

Napoleon was short.

Source: Knowledge Is Beautiful, by David McCandless, Harper Collins 2014Image: Napoleon Crossing the Alps, Jaques Louis David, 1801 (Public Domain)

Only by today’s standards – At 5’ 7”,he was above average height for a Frenchman at the time.

We only use a small fraction of our brain.

Source: Knowledge Is Beautiful, by David McCandless, Harper Collins 2014

A common misunderstanding – the proportion of our brain ‘firing’ is task dependent. Ultimately, all cells are important.

These myths are based on harmless misunderstandings…

These myths are based on harmless misunderstandings…

Right?

Consider the power of a misunderstanding

Source: Witkin, Richard “Jet's Fuel Ran Out After Metric Conversion Errors" New York Times 30 July 1983

On July 23, 1983, Air Canada flight 143 (since known as the “Gimli Glider”) ran out of jet fuel at 41,000 ft, about halfway through its flight.

The emergency landing was needed because the crew confused pounds with kilograms when fueling the aircraft.

In many companies, the process of building software is not immune to misunderstanding, especially between those who build and support software.

Development Operations

Historically, the relationship between development and operations has often been challenging—with each group having specific goals to achieve, and frequently feeling the other was a roadblock.

Development Operations

If IT Operations was more predictable, we would be able to reduce release cycles and improve the end-user experience.

“”

Development Operations

If the development team worked faster, we would be able to continuously release quality, stable, improved products. ”

“

Development Operations

A DevOps culture can help overcome these misunderstandings, and bridge the gap between development and operations for the betterment of the business.

Development Operations

However, some misunderstandings can hinder effective DevOps implementation, and should be addressed.

Let’s look at a few-

Misunderstanding 01We need to hire DevOps roles.

DevOps is not a role; it is culture. A formal DevOps department is not required to implement this culture, but you need to adopt the culture to become more agile.

These are three distinct areas of work. Developers write code. Operations manage infrastructure that houses code. DevOps helps optimize the processes and infrastructure for application effectiveness. The number of roles may change, but these key roles will continue to be required.

Misunderstanding 02The roles of developer, operations, and DevOps are blending into one.

The primary goal is not to move to the cloud, but to a simpler, standardized infrastructure that can be more easily monitored for problems, deliver application updates more often, and identify system optimization opportunities.

Misunderstanding 03Operations teams are unnecessary with DevOps moving everything to the cloud.

27%

51%

68%

72%Sourcing new release management

Sourcing new infrastructure management likeprivate clouds or Paas

Providing additional internalstaffing skills

Sourcing new development tools

Source: 451 Research (Analyst) Whitepaper - IT Ops Can Thrive in a DevOps World, Aug 2015

Misunderstanding04When transforming to a DevOps culture, the only consideration is what new tools are needed.

Introducing a DevOps culture may requirenew tools. However, research indicates there are other important factors as well

The automation lifecycle has different needs at different stages. As such, automation can be incorporated in an enterprise, regardless of the maturity of the IT system in use.

Misunderstanding 05DevOps cannot be used in a large enterprise.

Misunderstanding 06DevOps is a new name for something previously done in IT.

In the past, there was not a large agile presence, or tools to help simplify the development, implementation, and automation of applications. DevOps was created to address the increasing need for speed to meet customer demands and reduce the growing complexity of IT systems.

Misunderstanding 07DevOps gives developers unlimited opportunities to do development.

The key to DevOps is increasing the speed of development and the number of developers working on a project at the same time. Development must be based on customer needs and improvement suggestions gathered from infrastructure data monitoring.

Misunderstanding 08Developers will know infrastructure, and operations will understand coding.

DevOps is meant to increase communication and collaboration between the teams and make the overall process more agile, while enabling each function to excel within their area of expertise.

Misunderstanding 09DevOps requires you to use certain tools.

There are many DevOps tools, and not all tools are used all the time. Tools should be chosen based on business needs, which will vary for each situation.

Learn more about how HPE’s IT has been going through its own DevOps cultural transformation

Discover more insights in HPE’s business white paper Getting Grounded with DevOps

DevOps is a journey….where are you on that journey?

© Copyright 2016 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.