Challenges and Opportunities in DevOps

After Agile and Waterfall, recent red hot trend in creating optimum software engineering culture in organizations, has been DevOps. DevOps is about unifying software development and operations and aligning it with shared business and product objectives. Creating smoothly functioning DevOps culture helps organizations shorten development cycles and ensure dependable and timely releases.

With DevOps enabling real-time visibility in every layer of software construction, the risk of rapid innovation is reduced as communication barriers are dissolved between teams and feedback loops are shortened. Objective single source data through shared dashboard reduces finger pointing. Companies that have not yet adopted DevOps, increasingly feel the pressure to do so. However, when companies seek to adopt DevOps, they also face challenges.

Creating a smoothly functioning DevOps culture, requires creating an optimum environment for the shift in mindset to take hold and enabling a smooth transition process through soft and hard skills training.  Traditionally, goals of Development and Operations are not aligned and handovers between different teams are costly and time consuming. A company seeking to adopt DevOps culture, needs to overcome this mentality and create product aligned team culture, away from project based culture. This is a major mindset shift that may require restructuring in staff and reporting lines, in addition to skills based training. While there is high barrier to entry with microservices, the move to automation and continuous delivery is facilitated by replacing or changing older legacy infrastructure to microservices architecture.

In any organization but more so in one seeking to adopt DevOps culture, people on the team are going to be the most important resources, for a smooth transition. Adopting newer tools may be effective only to the extent that staff receives training to use them and the tools are well integrated with the existing infrastructure.  A shift in culture must be gradual and include change management training to help people embrace the change. It will be easier to bring Dev and Ops teams on board to adopting newer tools if the focus is moved away from personalities and preferences to broader picture and larger, overarching goals of the company.  While the change may be scary at first, adoption may be smoother with objective data and feedback loops from small scale deployments and other teams to see the benefits of it working in real time.

Exciting track at TiE Inflect 2018, the largest entrepreneurship conference to take place in May at Santa Clara Convention Center, CA, will feature VCs and industry leaders discussing trends, opportunities, and strategies to deal with challenges. Entrepreneurs with eyes towards innovation in DevOps will also get to do a deep dive in the Startup bootcamp, and may learn to become investor ready, learn to effectively network and maximize visibility, and fine tune presentations and pitches. Register for the conference at www.tieinflect.org .

Innovation underway in “Oil & Gas” – TiEcon 2015 track & keynote preview

Plate-forme pétrolière Oil platform from NASA JPL. The Arguello Inc. Harvest Oil Platform is located about 10 km off the coast of central California near Point Conception. http://www-aviso.cnes.fr:8090/HTML/information/publication/news/news8/haines_uk.html catégorie:énergie fossile (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oil and gas industry may have been in the headlines for occasional security glitches or even plant explosions.  But what is often not mentioned, is a quite transformation happening inside the industry, to improve daily operations and safety.  The technology adoption rate may be slower in this industry, due to sensitivity around safeguarding of trade secrets, IP issues, and data security concerns.  But there is an increasing recognition of the need for enhanced operational excellence, in this industry, concerned with confining costs and refining margins.

The unconventional and controversial practice of horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing (converting organic matter within the rock to synthetic oil and gas), have been recent game changers.  Apparently what can be produced by a vertical well in 30 to 35 years, can be done in a horizontal well,  in a span of mere 6 months, environmental concerns notwithstanding.

There is now a thirst for innovative ideas within the industry, to minimize negative environmental impact, increase safety, contain costs, and enhance operational efficiency.   Many oil and gas service centers have opened innovation centers in Silicon Valley to enhance implementation of new ideas.  With the help of emerging technologies in visualization and complexity management, and with advances in cloud computing, big data analytics and Internet of Things, the industry is poised to transform itself for the better.

Neal Dikeman, Senior Venture Principal at Shell Technology Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Royal Dutch Shell, will give a keynote address at TiEcon, 2015.  Join in discussions and learn how startups and large players are partnering to disrupt the current practices in Oil and Gas industry.  Register at https://www.123signup.com/register?id=ygszb&ref=4182698 to get a $100 discount on the two-day conference at the non-member rate.  When prompted, enter the promo code VOL500 at checkout: