Puppet Conf 2011

1. Operations is a
Strategic Weapon
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Gene’s talk was teaching you about what you should be doing... I’m going to be talking about
another part of career advancement (or preservation in some cases) getting the business to
understand why what we do is important and why they should fund these projects
IT Operations has been suddenly thrust into the spotlight with the rise of web and now the
cloud... or as Theo Schlossnagel says the “Web changed everything... cloud made us realize
it”... so now that the business is aware we exist... are we going to seize the moment or get
passed by those who do?

2. Spock Scotty
Little bit weird Pulls levers & turns knobs
Sits closer to the boss Easily excited
Thinks too hard Yells a lot in emergencies
John Allspaw and Paul Hammond, Velocity 2009
Saturday, September 24, 2011

3. DTO Solutions
Saturday, September 24, 2011
We do process improvement and automated infrastructure for companies who build and
operate revenue producing services... e-commerce, financial services, gaming
We started asking ourselves some questions about our clients and our work for them

4. When did they call?
Saturday, September 24, 2011

5. When did they call?
A. First signs of issues brewing
B. Initial negative impact felt by some
C. Heads are on fire
Saturday, September 24, 2011

6. When did they call?
10% A. First signs of issues brewing
30% B. Initial negative impact felt by some
65% C. Heads are on fire
Saturday, September 24, 2011

7. Why did they wait?
#1 Answer:
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Aside from human nature to procrastinate?
translation... “you and or the problem you are telling me about isn’t worth the money”

8. Why did they wait?
#1 Answer:
“Couldn’t get budget approval
or business support”
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Aside from human nature to procrastinate?
translation... “you and or the problem you are telling me about isn’t worth the money”

9. Operations has a perception problem
Saturday, September 24, 2011

10. Operations has a perception problem
Business View
Necessary Cost
Saturday, September 24, 2011

11. Operations has a perception problem
Business View Ops View
vs
Necessary Cost Strategic Weapon
Saturday, September 24, 2011

12. What does
this have to
do with you?
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Ok so the biz folks don’t appreciate us.. so what else is new... why should I care?
We’ll unless this is hobby... it has everything to do with you?
Especially considering that larger portions of companies budget is going to IT... especially for
anywhere that the people in this room would work.

13. First Law of Business Spending
Things that Things that
cost you money make you money
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Make no mistake about it... someone is spending money on you... and they are asking
themselves... do I cut it, outsource it, or spend more on it.

14. Change the Perception of Ops
vs
Necessary Cost Strategic Weapon
Saturday, September 24, 2011

15. Textbook definition of operations:
“Operations is all of the activities that a firm
conducts in order to deliver value to its customers.
It's the set of processes that transforms either
materials or information into a product or service.”
-David Upton
Chair of Operations Management
Oxford University
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Sounds important... necessary... but is it strategic weapon? can you use it offensively to beat
your competition?
Language is important so lets see what business describes as operations.
Delivering value
transforming ideas into services that make you money
write all the software you want... have all the ideas you want... you don’t deliver it through a
working service you have no business

16. Operations becomes a strategic weapon
Saturday, September 24, 2011
If we are going to make the business case that operations is a strategic weapon... and we
need to do it in language that they understand.
Business care about innovation (ideas that resonnate with customers) and getting the best
return on their money... Let’s look at the first point... continuously increasing velocity of
innovation

17. Operations becomes a strategic weapon
When you are continuously...
Saturday, September 24, 2011
If we are going to make the business case that operations is a strategic weapon... and we
need to do it in language that they understand.
Business care about innovation (ideas that resonnate with customers) and getting the best
return on their money... Let’s look at the first point... continuously increasing velocity of
innovation

18. Operations becomes a strategic weapon
When you are continuously...
1. Increasing velocity of innovation
Saturday, September 24, 2011
If we are going to make the business case that operations is a strategic weapon... and we
need to do it in language that they understand.
Business care about innovation (ideas that resonnate with customers) and getting the best
return on their money... Let’s look at the first point... continuously increasing velocity of
innovation

19. Operations becomes a strategic weapon
When you are continuously...
1. Increasing velocity of innovation
2. Increasing return on investment
Saturday, September 24, 2011
If we are going to make the business case that operations is a strategic weapon... and we
need to do it in language that they understand.
Business care about innovation (ideas that resonnate with customers) and getting the best
return on their money... Let’s look at the first point... continuously increasing velocity of
innovation

20. Result
Ah-ha!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Core process of any business

21. Ah-ha! Ka-ching!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Now of course you hope that result is one that resonates with customers

22. Ah-ha!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
But for many reasons it more often than not goes the other way

23. Velocity of Innovation...
Ah-ha! Ka-ching!
Day 0 Day n
Saturday, September 24, 2011
That cycle time... getting from idea to result is one of the most critical metrics for both a
startup and an established service. And the bulk of this time is spent in the application
lifecycle across dev, QA, and operations.

24. Companies were able to
achieve somewhat defensible
positions based on
technology...
Saturday, September 24, 2011

25. Companies were able to
achieve somewhat defensible
positions based on
technology... then came the
web
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Then along came this thing called the web and screwed it all up... now your customers are
coming to you through a standard interface --the browser-- over standard published
protocols. You competition is only a few keystrokes away. The even applies in newer
distribution channels like mobile apps and their app stores.

26. How do we compete now?
Saturday, September 24, 2011
So how do we compete in this commoditized world?
1. Scale... scale of users, scale of data, scale of compute power
2. Velocity of innovation... how fast can you react to and execute on new market forces or
opportunities.
Scaling is the most straight forward problem to solve. It’s a known problem with a lot of
known solutions to borrow from. Hire smart architects... let them follow best practices...
throw a big pile of cash at it and there aren’t many scaling problems you can’t solve.
Obviously that’s somewhat of a simplification... but I’ll let someone else’s presentation get
into the details

27. How do we compete now?
1. Scale
Saturday, September 24, 2011
So how do we compete in this commoditized world?
1. Scale... scale of users, scale of data, scale of compute power
2. Velocity of innovation... how fast can you react to and execute on new market forces or
opportunities.
Scaling is the most straight forward problem to solve. It’s a known problem with a lot of
known solutions to borrow from. Hire smart architects... let them follow best practices...
throw a big pile of cash at it and there aren’t many scaling problems you can’t solve.
Obviously that’s somewhat of a simplification... but I’ll let someone else’s presentation get
into the details

28. How do we compete now?
1. Scale
2. Velocity of Innovation
Saturday, September 24, 2011
So how do we compete in this commoditized world?
1. Scale... scale of users, scale of data, scale of compute power
2. Velocity of innovation... how fast can you react to and execute on new market forces or
opportunities.
Scaling is the most straight forward problem to solve. It’s a known problem with a lot of
known solutions to borrow from. Hire smart architects... let them follow best practices...
throw a big pile of cash at it and there aren’t many scaling problems you can’t solve.
Obviously that’s somewhat of a simplification... but I’ll let someone else’s presentation get
into the details

29. How do we compete now?
1. Scale
2. Velocity of Innovation
Saturday, September 24, 2011
So how do we compete in this commoditized world?
1. Scale... scale of users, scale of data, scale of compute power
2. Velocity of innovation... how fast can you react to and execute on new market forces or
opportunities.
Scaling is the most straight forward problem to solve. It’s a known problem with a lot of
known solutions to borrow from. Hire smart architects... let them follow best practices...
throw a big pile of cash at it and there aren’t many scaling problems you can’t solve.
Obviously that’s somewhat of a simplification... but I’ll let someone else’s presentation get
into the details

30. Innovation is really a numbers game...
Ah-ha! Ka-ching!
Ah-ha!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
The global innovation success rate across all geographies and industries

31. Innovation is really a numbers game...
4%*
Ah-ha! Ka-ching!
94%*
Ah-ha!
*Study by Doblin Innovation Consultants
Saturday, September 24, 2011
The global innovation success rate across all geographies and industries

32. Innovation is really a numbers game...
4%*
Ah-ha! Ka-ching!
94%*
Ah-ha!
*Study by Doblin Innovation Consultants
Saturday, September 24, 2011
The global innovation success rate across all geographies and industries

33. How to win a numbers game...
Company A
Result
Ah-ha!
Company B
Result Result Result Result
Ah-ha! Ah-ha! Ah-ha! Ah-ha!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Put it this way... if in the time it takes you to get through one cycle, your competitor can get
through 4... who do you think will be more competitive??

34. How to win a numbers game...
Company A
Result
Ah-ha!
Company B
Result Result Result Result
Ah-ha! Ah-ha! Ah-ha! Ah-ha!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
This is why the notion of a “burn rate” is a meaningless statistic. Say you have enough cash in
the bank to pay for x number of months. That doesn’t tell you anything... do you have 10
shots at making customers happy or just 1? Think about it like a carnival game. If you have
ten balls to throw at the target and someone else only has 1... who has a better probability of
success?

35. How fast can ops move?
• Production deployment every 11.6
seconds (weekday)
• 1,079 deployments in one hour (record)
• ~0.001% of deployments actually cause an
outage
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2971521
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Jon Jenkins at Velocity
Ops is amazon’s strategic weapon... their books aren’t better, their storage isn’t better, their
hypervisor isn’t better.
Everyone copies them but their just keep rolling out features and lowering costs faster than
their competitors can do either

36. Business is already thinking about this...
Customer Development Model
Saturday, September 24, 2011
But can the biz move fast enough? They already are wanting to do so
Customer Development

37. Operations becomes a strategic weapon
Saturday, September 24, 2011

38. Operations becomes a strategic weapon
When you are continuously...
Saturday, September 24, 2011

39. Operations becomes a strategic weapon
When you are continuously...
1. Increasing velocity of innovation
Saturday, September 24, 2011

40. Operations becomes a strategic weapon
When you are continuously...
1. Increasing velocity of innovation
2. Improving return on investment
Saturday, September 24, 2011

41. Saturday, September 24, 2011
Return on investment is different than just reducing cost
But what about for enterprises... 70% is spent on maintaining existing services... only 30% on
new project

42. Anti-patterns to success...
• Misalignment of incentives
• Latent demand that’s not being met
Skip
• Overlooked non-functional requirements
• Mismatched processes
• Mismatched tooling
• Lacking metrics about process
Saturday, September 24, 2011

43. Warning signs...
Skip?
• Bottlenecks
• Wait time
• Unreliable procedures
• Conflict (active or passive)
• Limited visibility or measurement
Saturday, September 24, 2011

44. Let’s Talk....
@damonedwards
damon@dtosolutions.com
Saturday, September 24, 2011
We do this stuff all day long for a lot of large and cutting edge clients... and we love talking
about DevOps so drop me a line anytime if you want to talk

45. Let’s Talk....
@damonedwards dev2ops.org
damon@dtosolutions.com
Saturday, September 24, 2011
We do this stuff all day long for a lot of large and cutting edge clients... and we love talking
about DevOps so drop me a line anytime if you want to talk

46. DevOps Cafe
Skip?
subscribe in
iTunes
Saturday, September 24, 2011
I also do a podcast with the famous cloud and IT management guru john willis.
Interview based series where we talk to all kinds of movers and shakers across the
development and operation spectrum.
Between DTO and doing the devops cafe content I get to talk to a lot of companies and see
what’s working and what isn’t working.