Author: Greg Yarnold

What does the rise of platform engineering bring to the table for DevOps and SRE? Or is it simply the next evolutionary step of DevOps? Despite some confusion about mission and responsibility, there are key differences between these roles, and there’s a need for all three across the SDLC. Platform engineers, SREs and DevOps teams have shared goals and methodologies, and they all play a role in optimizing the software creation and delivery process. Host Mitch Ashley is joined by our panel of experts: Tim Banks (Dell), Adrianna Villela (Lightstep), Bryan Cole (Tricentis) and Taylor Pechacek (Atlassian) as they explore the differences between DevOps, platform engineering and SRE, the most common misconceptions and how to mitigate them and how platform engineering enables DevOps at scale.

Low-code/no-code and DevOps share the same goal—to deliver high-quality software faster while reducing costs. When it comes to testing, low-code/no-code test automation simplifies testing for QA teams, allows citizen developers and executives with less technical knowledge to build applications quickly and facilitates developers contributing to projects when their more technical or specialized skills are needed.

Mitch Ashley is joined by a panel of experts Simona Domazetoska (Tricentis), Nirankush Panchbhai (ServiceNow) and Clint Sprauve (Delphix) as they discuss why low-code/no-code and DevOps together accelerate innovation, create value quickly, increase developer productivity and create new business value.

In the past couple of years, businesses have been leveraging DevOps to drive their digital and cloud transformations and enable rapid innovation. Now it’s time to look back at the lessons learned and look forward to the future. With so many changes going on in the industry, what does 2023 have in store for DevOps? What are the DevOps practices and technologies that will shape the future of business?
Mitch Ashley (Techstrong) is joined by our panel of experts Parag Doshi (Tricentis, Lee Atchison (Atchison Technology), Hope Lynch (CloudBees) and Tim Banks (Dell) while they share their predictions for the upcoming year and discuss: The DevOps trends to watch in 2023, DevOps, SRE and the future of software development, DevOps at the edge, the future of automated testing and DevOps, the state of cloud-native application development in 2023, the rise of citizen developers, how AI and ML are transforming DevOps, and more!

Migrating workloads from on-premises infrastructure into the cloud is a long and tedious process, and if not done properly, it could result in high-risk situations. Having a strategic testing plan is key to mitigate the risk of losing critical functionalities in your databases and applications as you move to the cloud. Hosts Alan Shimel and Mitch Ashley are joined by a panel of experts, Jonathan Boswell (Tricentis), Tracy Ragan (DeployHub), and Mike Rothman (Techstrong Research) to talk about how to develop an effective cloud testing strategy, the different types of testing you need to consider when shifting to the cloud, how to shorten your testing cycle and how cloud testing can help accelerate your digital transformation.

Shift left has more than its fair share of admirers and advocates, as DevOps and DevSecOps initiatives aim to move responsibility for building and securing applications as early (or as far left) in the development life cycle as possible. But what about its more traditional (and much maligned) cousin, shift right? Shift right, or testing in production, was once taboo and is still discouraged by many. But testing in production is becoming a more common occurrence. The main goal of shift right testing is to spot and correct any issues that may not have been detected during the preceding development process. So, why does it have a bad reputation? Hosts Alan Shimel and Mitch Ashley are joined by Chris Riley (HubSpot), Nora Jones (Jeli) Paul Bruce (Tricentis) and Shamim Ahmed (Broadcom) as they debunk the myths of testing in production and discuss why it is important for your business. Join us to learn the truth about shift right testing best practices and trends for maintaining system integrity.

As microservices increased in popularity, the previous uncertainty about feature flag use with cloud-native has been resolved. Feature flags have evolved from solely being used to toggle on license-based functionality to becoming a powerful tool for testing, experimenting and delivering software using DevOps, microservices and much more. But feature flags can introduce chaos and, if not managed properly for applications at scale, become our own worst enemy – introducing greater complexity.

Alan Shimel and Mitch Ashley are joined by Brian Dawson (RippleX), Hope Lynch (CloudBees) and Adam Kalsey (Tricentis) to debate what’s right, what’s wrong and what requires best practices when implementing feature flags, microservices and more. The panel also discusses the good and bad of managing feature flags at scale across large applications, multiple teams, product, testing and development.

In DevOps, we frequently use a variety of tools to help manage the entire software development lifecycle. But with an immense amount of data coming from so many different sources, this introduces a question of integrity of the data. DataOps is key to efficiently detect changes faster while minimizing risks and ensuring data quality and security. Host Mitch Ashley is joined by Curtis O’Dell (Tricentis), Arun Moolchandani (Narwal), Divanny Lamas (Transposit) and Andrew Hughes (Trimedx) to explain how DataOps helps organizations speed up development, reduce the cost of deployment and monitor their data’s integrity, ensuring the transparency of data operations and maximizing productivity and efficiency in the business.

Hyperscale DevOps: How Do You Get There? Hyperscaling DevOps is the key to a successful digital transformation. Hyperscaling is a whole new game and it demands a new level of coordination, processes, tools and mindset. Is hyperscaling DevOps an attainable goal for your organization? Mitch Ashley is joined by Tracy Ragan (DeployHub), Parag Doshi (Tricentis) and Larry Maccherone (Contrast Security) as they discuss DevOps at hyperscale, enterprise scale versus startup scale, how to set up a hyperscale environment and how to test at hyperscale.

Leveraging DevOps Dojos and Centers of Excellence (CoE) A DevOps Dojo is the place where DevOps teams come together for hands-on training in a collaborative, risk-free learning environment. DevOps Dojos and CoEs can improve automation and software development processes and enable teams to deliver higher-quality products. DevOps Dojos and CoEs create a knowledge and learning hub that boosts teamwork, improves communication and leads to the implementation of better processes and tools. Whether you are starting your career as a DevOps engineer or you are a seasoned professional, a DevOps CoE or a DevOps Dojo can help expand your knowledge, enhance your existing skills and help your organization maximize the potential of DevOps. In this episode, hosts Alan Shimel and Mitch Ashley are joined by Larry Maccharone (Contrast Security) and Shaaron Alvares (Salesforce) to discuss the benefits of DevOps Dojos and CoEs and offer insight on how to build your own DevOps Dojo.

Software Supply Chain and SBOMs for DevOps – Bad actors are constantly looking for ways to gain access to networks, steal data and corrupt systems. As supply chain attacks continue to be one of the most persuasive threats that companies face, organizations across all industries have been increasingly adopting the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) to identify vulnerabilities in their software and enable a rapid response.

Hosts Alan Shimel and Mitch Ashley are joined by Tracy Ragan (DeployHub), Caroline Wong (Cobalt) and Stephen Hendrick (Linux Foundation) to discuss how to mitigate software supply chain risks and how SBOMs play an integral role in securing the supply chain.