Back in the day, there were software development teams, and there were operations teams, and they might say hello to each other a few times a year at the company picnic. But that hasn’t been the case for a long time, as the expectations for how quickly software should be developed and running have changed quite a bit.
Now, teams are expected to collaborate more closely to deliver software when it is ready. This is called “DevOps,” and while Heptio’s Joe Beda is right that the meaning of this term is in the eye of the beholder, it’s a set of practices and strategies for increasing the velocity of software development while ensuring reliability and quality.
At our GeekWire Cloud Tech Summit, three engineering leaders with serious DevOps cred — Nell Shamrell-Harrington, senior software development engineer at Chef; Avi Cavale, CEO of Shippable; and Mitchell Hashimoto, co-founder and co-CTO of HashiCorp — explained to attendees how companies are employing DevOps inside their organizations, and how to make sure you’re not losing anything in the process of speeding up your development cycle.
Nathan Pearce of F5 Networks, which sponsored the DevOps tech track at the Cloud Tech Summit, also addressed the audience. Videos of their sessions follow below.
Nell Shamrell-Harrington, Chef
Shamrell-Harrington kicked things off, setting the table for the discussions to follow by walking attendees through the history of DevOps thinking and how it has changed the way people develop and deploy software. (Apologies for the audio this one: crank your speakers to hear a great overview of DevOps, just don’t forget to turn the sound down before the next one.)
Avi Cavale, Shippable
Cavale picked up right where Shamrell-Harrington left off, focusing on how to implement concepts like continuous integration and continuous delivery in your software development strategy. CI and CD, as they are known, bring an “assembly line” mentality to software development, where parts of the application can be worked on separately and assembled later to the point where applications are rolling out the door like Model Ts.
Nathan Pearce, F5 Networks
F5 Networks is focused on the infrastructure layer of this world, and Pearce shared some insights around how DevOps thinking works alongside the physical networking layer.
Mitchell Hashimoto, HashiCorp
One problem with increasing the velocity of software development is the strong possibility that you’ll ship something with a serious vulnerability. Hashimoto explained how to work proper security hygiene into cutting-edge DevOps practices, because security can easily be overlooked when the executives are breathing down your neck to get the project finished as soon as possible.
(Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Nathan Pearce’s name in one reference.)
