The Future of Ops Jobs (PlatformCon 2023)

A lot of flamebait has been dropped about how platform engineering means that "DEVOPS IS DEAD!#@!" Stuff and nonsense. Platform engineering is what you get once you fully commit to the idea that software engineers should own their code in production. It's about the *convergence* of developers and Ops in the glorious future, where every engineer writes code and owns what they write, and the team that makes that possible: platform engineering.

Transcript

1. @mipsytipsy
   The Future of Ops Jobs
   PlatformCon 2023
   

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2. @mipsytipsy
   
   
   engineer/cofounder/CTO
   
   
   https://charity.wtf
   real observability for complex systems
   new!
   

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3. I was baited into
   writing this talk…
   “DevOps is Dead”
   

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4. Software doesn’t die.*
   • COBOL
   
   
   • Java
   
   
   • Javascript
   
   
   • MySQL
   
   
   • Postgres
   
   
   • LISP
   
   
   • emacs
   
   
   • SQL
   • FreeBSD
   
   
   • Linux
   
   
   • IPv4
   
   
   • TCP/IP
   
   
   • png
   
   
   • gcc
   
   
   • gdb
   
   
   • elisp
   • X11
   
   
   • /proc
   
   
   • grep
   
   
   • sed/awk
   
   
   • O’Reilly books
   
   
   • bash
   
   
   • nginx
   
   
   • haproxy
   * a list of things that are not dead, all of which are older than devops
   

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5. “DevOps is dead”
   is just a stupid thing to say…
   
   
   clickbait marketing🤮
   But there is a kernel of truth there
   DevOps is not eternal.
   
   
   It will be superseded.
   

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6. The long arc of software careers
   1990
   
   
   Write code and
   
   
   run what you write
   1995
   
   
   Devs write code,
   
   
   Ops runs code.
   
   
   Friction ensues.
   2007
   
   
   DevOps emerges;
   
   
   devs + ops
   
   
   Empathy, #hugops blah blah
   2023
   
   
   Write code and
   
   
   run what you write
   

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7. 1. Every engineer writes code.
   2. Every engineer runs the
   code that they write, and
   operates it in production.
   These days:
   

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8. Systems are becoming
   rapidly more complex.
   They can only really be operated
   by the people who write them.
   And you can’t do a good job of writing them
   unless you are regularly exposed to the
   feedback loops of operating them.
   

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9. Operational expertise is more critical than ever,
   but the landscape is shifting for ops jobs.
   Two big trends are converging:
   everybody writes code,
   runs the code they write
   hosted infra and tools,
   
   
   we all move up the stack
   

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10. If you 🤍 operating code:
    If you 🤍 infrastructure:
    Work on IaaS, PaaS
    Work as an SRE or
    platform engineer
    

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11. Platform engineering has emerged
    from this realignment.
    • Companies are shutting down their ops teams and
    outsourcing infrastructure to PaaS/IaaS/etc.
    

    • However, you now rely on a complex web of other
    providers, services and tools via APIs and SDKs.
    

    • Operational skills and software engineering skills
    are equally important for a good platform team
    
    
    

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13. How to tell if your “platform engineering
    team” is really a platform team or not:
    Is the team responsible for SLOs, service
    uptime, and a reliable customer experience?
    ✅ platform team
    NO
    ⛔ platform team
    YES
    

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14. Platform teams build for
    developer productivity.
    Product engineering teams
    and SREs build for external
    customer experience.
    

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15. Which metrics does YOUR
    platform team care about?
    SLOs, errors, service availability,
    quality customer experience
    Time to spin up new service or
    db, or other developer workflow
    or
    ??
    

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16. If your platform team spends a lot of time
    writing software, something is wrong.
    

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17. “Vendor engineering” is a large
    share of any platform team’s remit
    Cost is an essential part of
    architecture.
    Platform is about NOT
    having infra to run.
    

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18. Learn to think and talk about the
    value of your work, in the universal
    language of business goals and $$$
    Career advice for ops engineers:
    Learn to work like a
    product team, even if you
    do ops/infra work.
    

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19. The hardest part of software is operating it.
    Always has been. Always will be.
    

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20. In conclusion,
    computers are
    terrible.
    Everything dies.
    Have fun!
    

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21. Charity Majors
    
    
    @mipsytipsy
    

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