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Tag: devops values

  • Trust in Cloud Providers is a Developer Issue

    Trust in Cloud Providers is a Developer Issue

    Earlier this summer, we worked with ClearPath Strategies to ask developers about the level of trust they have in their various cloud service providers. What we learned spoke volumes: While developers’ familiarity and comfort with Amazon, Microsoft and Google position these well-known cloud providers as market frontrunners, developers often do not agree with the companies’ values.

    The research project gathered insights from more than 800 developers at small and mid-sized businesses, those with less than 500 full-time employees, across a wide variety of industries and geographies worldwide. You can download the summary report here (no signup required).

    In ClearPath Strategies’ report, senior analyst Stephanie Fairchild said that “approximately 20% of developers believe that the big three hyperscalers will engage in behaviors that include leveraging their brands to stifle competition, focusing on shareholders more than customer needs, hosting or working with customers that developers find morally objectionable, monetizing user data for their own use and locking them in with proprietary tools. Criteria such as security and performance clearly take priority over these trust issues for developers, but it’s interesting to note that a sizable portion of developers are thinking about how their values align with those of their service providers.”

    • Trust plays an important role in developers’ choice of a cloud hosting provider, but needs take precedence; when prioritizing needs or values, developers report they prioritize needs over their values 73% of the time.
    • The top three reasons cited for developers’ preference of their chosen third-party cloud provider: Security, trust and quality of service.
    • Survey respondents indicated that both hyperscale and alternative cloud providers deliver equally effective performance and security.

    The report cited three top criteria for choosing a third-party cloud provider: Security, trust and quality of service. Survey respondents felt that hyperscale and alternative cloud providers deliver equally effective performance and security. Interestingly, although 73% of respondents said they prioritize needs over values when making a purchasing decision, approximately 20% said they don’t trust the big three providers (AWS, GCP and Azure) in what could be considered key moral areas.

    It’s no secret that the extensive functionality and brand awareness of hyperscalers make them popular choices for developers, but an alternative cloud provider like Linode, DigitalOcean, OVHcloud or Hetzner can be a more trustworthy partner for innovative upstarts—one that likely offers better pricing and doesn’t threaten or compete with their business. And when an alternative cloud provider meets a developer’s functional needs—which is nearly always the case—developers can have the best of both worlds: A provider they can trust to meet their needs and one that shares their values. 

    To hear more about cloud-native topics, join the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and the cloud-native community at KubeCon+CloudNativeCon North America 2021 – October 11-15, 2021

  • G2G3 DevOps Simulation: Lessons from the Facilitator POV

    G2G3 DevOps Simulation: Lessons from the Facilitator POV

    The G2G3 DevOps Simulation is a three-round game that gives a complete immersive experience to the participants. It has software that’s controlled by the facilitator and used to see the performance and improvement in each round.

    As a facilitator, I help on the retrospective at the end of each round, as the participants share about what they did and didn’t do well. At the planning stage for each round, the participants decide what they want to change and get to see the result.

    Below is a list of what I focus on as a facilitator.

    Looking at the Same Objective

    Participants in the G2G3 DevOps Simulation learn that, regardless of role, their only objective is generating maximum revenue. This is the common goal. They can see this objective on the screen from the system. The participants begin to understand the goal on round two and by round three the objective becomes clear. This helps them to work in collaboration, working in a “squad” and helping each other to achieve that one common goal.

    Collaboration and Sharing

    The G2G3 DevOps Simulation gives the participants the chance to experience how collaboration and sharing helps in delivering stable products faster. Each team starts helping each other to ensure that their business makes the maximum revenue. They understand the need for delivering the outcome.

    The simulation also shows the challenges of communication between “run the business” and “change the business.” They experience how the communication drops between the two and how to take care of it with better knowledge management.

    Project-to-Product Approach

    The participants learn how to work as a squad—one single team responsible for both development and operations. They learn how the value flows from the time change is requested, until it is deployed and then the deliverable is maintained.

    Business is Most Important

    The G2G3 DevOps Simulation shows the participants that business is the most important—and IT is business. Everyone in the value chain must work toward the same objective.

    Automation

    The simulation also gives the participants the experience of how automation helps in achieving the objectives faster and better. This is clearly shown in the performance report at the end of each round and the comparison can be seen between rounds with more automation in place.

    DevOps: 3 Ways

    The G2G3 DevOps Simulation explains the basics of DevOps, bringing all participants to the same page on various DevOps terminologies, the principles (Three Ways) and DevOps values.

    Conclusion

    The G2G3 DevOps Simulation is a good practice for anyone in any organization who is on the journey of DevOps or is planning to start the journey. The best can be achieved if members from the various departments of the organization participate, which is required to deliver any change.

    — Niladri Choudhuri