In part 1 of this series we focused primarily on the value of leverage and how tools, inside and outside of the context of IT can directly influence the output of the desired function.
In part 2 we’ll discuss more specifically the reasons why companies are and why companies should be executing on Continuous Delivery and DevOps initiatives to gain more leverage in their business.
When most people not heavily involved in either the Continuous Delivery or DevOps movement are asked what they hope to achieve with each, the answers are typically :
Although all of these are true, they point to aspects of value but don’t necessarily do a good job of conveying the big picture, which is what top level business influencers often need to make a key business decision.
So what is the “Big Picture” you ask?
The answers has it’s basis within economic globalization. Globalization has been rapidly expanding and its impact is both broad and deep. To succeed in a globalized economy, businesses are increasingly leveraging software. Software provides the leverage to derive and deliver value faster, which, in turn, enables businesses to better compete in a worldwide marketplace. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as simply desiring to leverage software, and although all companies leverage software to a certain degree, this proliferation is both good and bad. On one hand, the rate at which we can provide value to a consumer increases (good) but a business’s ability to do so can be constrained by legacy thoughts, processes and supporting infrastructure (bad).
This is where initiatives such as Continuous Delivery and DevOps come in. Companies who have been able to execute on these initiatives are now able to not only perform the tactical bullet points mentioned above, but also deliver variations of services to the consumer in a consistent and reliable manner. The result is more valuable consumer services that generate greater revenue. So, businesses can grow demand for service offerings while continually improving and expanding its revenue opportunity in parallel.
It is with this understanding that initiatives such as Continuous Delivery and DevOps no longer become a “Should we …” question of the business but rather a “When will we …” question of the business. All the while keeping in mind that it is in these times of economic recovery that market leaders are born.
For a sneak peak of some of what you’ll experience at Chef Conf 2013 view our videos :
Rationale Behind CD and DevOps – video
Product Only Demonstration – video
Full Video – video
Register Now for Chef Conf 2013 in San Fransisco California, April 24 – 26th to learn more about a model for success and patterns of failure within the business that we’ve identified along the way. Hear our customer experiences as well as learn more about Chef which can both enable and drive this transition to “Awesomness”.
Stathy Touloumis is a Solution Architect for Opscode and only wishes he had stumbled upon Chef when he founded and managed a software consultancy back in 2005.
@stathyinc