Said no CEO ever: Things that don't matter in the cloud

Cloud adoption has made some aspects of our jobs irrelevant, but this is a good thing. . . .Well, it’s a good thing as long as we know what doesn’t matter anymore. (“Doesn’t matter” really means “solved problem.”) It’s critically important to avoid spending time and resources on solved problems. If you’re new to the cloud, it might surprise you just how many problems are considered solved at this point.

Transcript

1. Said no CEO ever…
   Things that don't matter in
   the cloud.
   ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 1
   

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2. Things that don't matter in the cloud.
   — Twitter @caseywest
   — Email casey@geeknest.com
   — Web http://caseywest.com
   — LinkedIn /in/caseywest
   ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 2
   

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3. Thanks, Pivotal.
   ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 3
   

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4. A little about me.
   — Principal Technologist, Cloud Foundry
   — Former technical lead, applications
   — Former technical lead, operations
   — Former VP Engineering
   — Ex-ten companies you never heard of
   — ☕ " # $ % &
   ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 4
   

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5. I am just like you.
   ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 5
   

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6. I am just like you.
   May the burning bridges
   light my path. !
   ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 6
   

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7. This talk is about high expectations.
   ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 7
   

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8. Yes I know what I did there.
   High, cloud, clouds are up
   high, lol.
   ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 8
   

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9. Greenfield Project Expectations
   All you have to do is create something from thin air and
   compete with billion dollar companies.
   No big deal.
   All you have to do is…
   — Deliver faster than everyone else.
   — Never make a mistake.
   ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 9
   

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10. Brownfield Project Expectations
    All you have to do is modernize an existing application
    that makes all our revenue in order to compete with
    companies theoretically valued at a billion dollars.
    No big deal.
    Oh by the way…
    — Deliver faster than everyone else.
    — Never make a mistake.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 10
    

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11. Awesome! !
    "I can do this in six weeks! !" — You
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 11
    

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12. Awesome! !
    "Look I already built a container! ! "" — You
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 12
    

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13. "Nobody cares. The people in
    the room don't even care."
    — My friend Ben's PhD advisor regarding his obsessive
    preparation for a presentation prior to his defense
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 13
    

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14. Six months later…
    What have we shipped?
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 14
    

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15. ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 15
    

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16. ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 16
    

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17. ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 17
    

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18. "I appreciate the progress you
    made despite not delivering
    anything." — No CEO Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 18
    

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19. "! What would you say the
    status is?" — Actual CEO
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 19
    

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20. We spent a few weeks picking a linux distro.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 20
    

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21. "Good job picking a linux distro."
    — No CEO Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 21
    

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22. We also spent a few weeks automating security and
    package updates.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 22
    

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23. "Good job patching the kernel."
    — No CEO Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 23
    

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24. We also spent a few weeks figuring out the load
    balancer.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 24
    

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25. "Excellent DNS entries. Your
    TTLs are the best." — No CEO
    Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 25
    

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26. "Outstanding 'high availability'
    strategy." — No CEO Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 26
    

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27. We also spent a couple weeks negotiating database
    access with DBAs.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 27
    

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28. "Literally never say this again."
    — Actual CEO
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 28
    

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29. "Well done manually generating
    and sharing secrets." — No CEO
    Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 29
    

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30. We also spent a few weeks on a build pipeline to
    generate golden images.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 30
    

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31. "Good job automating the
    automation so our automating is
    automated." — No CEO Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 31
    

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32. We also spent a few weeks picking a container
    scheduler…
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 32
    

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33. We also spent a few weeks picking a container
    scheduler…
    … but we still don't quite know how to work it yet.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 33
    

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34. "✋" Thanks for using
    containers!" — No CEO Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 34
    

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35. We also spent a week creating a runbook.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 35
    

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36. "Nice work deploying software."
    — No CEO Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 36
    

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37. We also spent a couple weeks setting up log analytics.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 37
    

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38. "Nicely done logging
    infrastructure." — No CEO Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 38
    

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39. Finally, we also created monitoring and alerting
    systems.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 39
    

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40. "I'm glad you built a monitoring
    system." — No CEO Ever
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 40
    

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41. Well, damn.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 41
    

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42. We designed and started building a sophisticated
    system to run our software…
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 42
    

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43. … and our CEO doesn't seem to care.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 43
    

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44. That's depressing.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 44
    

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45. What happened?
    We lost track of what
    matters.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 45
    

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46. We got excited and solved all these problems:
    Linux system administration, security patching host
    operating systems, configuring DNS,
    load balancing, generating and managing credentials,
    baking golden images,
    building and running containers, deploying
    applications, monitoring services,
    and recovering from failure.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 46
    

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47. Resume Driven Development0
    1. Using tech you read about on hacker news because
    all the cool kids are talking about it and you're
    excited.
    2. Deploying something to production, even though
    you don't know how it works, based on a blog post.
    0 RDD term coined by Bridget Kromhout, @bridgetkromout on Twitter.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 47
    

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48. Undifferentiated Heavy Lifting
    Tools, systems, and processes which do not improve the
    unique value your organization provides.
    Doesn't matter.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 48
    

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49. Unique Business Value
    Tools, systems, and processes which do improve the
    unique value your organization provides.
    This does matter.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 49
    

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50. What is Unique Business
    Value?
    Your actual code.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 50
    

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51. What is Undifferentiated
    Heavy Lifting?
    Everything else.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 51
    

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52. Undifferentiated Heavy Lifting:
    — Data Plane Services - Open vSwitch, IO Visor
    — Network Controllers - Open Daylight, ONOS
    — Carrier Networking - Open Platform for NFV
    — Network Management and Orchestration - OpenO
    — Virtual Machines - Xen Project
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 52
    

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53. Undifferentiated Heavy Lifting:
    — Operating Systems - Linux
    — Containers - Open Container Initiative
    — VM Managers - Cloud Native Computing Foundation
    — Application Platforms - Cloud Foundry
    — Programming Frameworks - Node
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54. What does the CEO care about?
    Code (Unique Business Value)
    1. Increase velocity.
    2. Decrease risk.
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 54
    

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55. "Good job adding value to the
    organization." — Actual CEO
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 55
    

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56. @caseywest
    Let's be friends
    !
    ! @caseywest #oscon #noceoever #cloudnative #realtalk 56
    

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