Cloud Development with a SaaS of SaaS - A Story of Continuous Improvement

In these times of operational excellence and agility, it really is mandatory to understand the opportunities presented by Windows Azure – and the cloud in general. We typically use our skills to improve our customer’s business domain, but who is going to improve the way we work? We can develop for the cloud, but why not use the cloud for development? What if development teams would act like a startup or open source project and just use Everything-as-a-Service?

In this session, I will explain and demonstrate how the cloud can enable us to improve the way we build software.

Transcript

1. A Story of Continuous Improvement
   Cloud Development with a SaaS of SaaS
   

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2. 2 kinds of
   people
   Some work smarter,
   others work harder…
   Who’s most productive?
   Who’s the happiest?
   

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3. Xavier Decoster
   Antwerp, Belgium
   http://www.xavierdecoster.com
   @xavierdecoster
   Microsoft MVP for Visual Studio ALM
   Author of Pro NuGet (Apress)
   Focus on Cloud/ALM
   

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4. Session Outline
   • Cloud Adoption
   • Cloud & Software Development
   – Challenges & Opportunities
   – Developing Soft-where?
   – A SaaS of SaaS
   • Business Impact
   • Q & A
   

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5. Cloud Adoption
   Driving a (r)evolution?
   

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6. Cloud Computing
   “A style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled
   capabilities are delivered “as a service” using Internet
   technologies” – Gartner
   •CRM
   •Email
   •Virtual Desktop
   •Communication
   •Games
   •...
   SaaS
   •Execution runtime
   •Database
   •Web Server
   •…
   PaaS
   •Virtual Machines
   •Servers
   •Storage
   •Load Balancers
   •Network
   •…
   IaaS
   

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7. Drivers for Cloud Adoption: Buzzword Lottery
   devices connectivity interoperability globalization
   social real time BYOD
   mobility IoT NWOW
   DevOps agility entrepreneurship Lean startups collaboration
   service ecosystems
   innovation platform thinking
   change profitability affordability
   competitivity
   

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8. Cloud Adoption in Software Development
   • All on-premises software is “suffering” from competition
   in the cloud.
   – On-premises software is patched/serviced … later
   – Mobile-first, cloud-first world
   • Not only web sites can be cloud-enabled!
   – http://remoteapp.windowsazure.com
   

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9. SMB’s & Cloud Adoption
   Source:
   http://bit.ly/SMB-cloud
   Are these your customers
   or partners?
   

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10. It’s All About
    Creating and having
    a sustainable business
    in a Mobile-first, Cloud-first world
    

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11. Cloud &
    Software Development
    Building Soft-where?
    

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12. Reduce Noise & Shorten Feedback Loops
    Maximize connectivity!
    • Knowledge networks
    – B2C, B2B
    – Cross-Team Cross-Discipline Collaboration
    – Communities & Social networks
    • Connected systems
    – Workstations
    – Servers
    – LAN
    – WAN
    – Embedded/Portable devices
    Cloud services are designed for
    maximum reliable
    connectivity!
    

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13. Automation is key
    • Don’t do it for the sake of automation
    – Automation != Generation (of docs, code, specs, …)
    – Not meant to reduce human interaction, on the contrary!
    • Reduce waste and increase value
    – Automate infrastructure provisioning
    – Automate builds
    – Automate test execution
    – Automate deployments/releases
    – Focus more on solving the problem at hand!
    

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14. Automation can be hard
    

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15. Automation
    Are you sure you want to build
    those things all by yourself?
    

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16. Dev vs Ops
    

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17. DevOps
    DEV OPS
    

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18. The cloud brings benefits to DevOps
    On-Premises
    • Challenges
    – Longer Wait Times
    – Higher Infrastructure Costs
    – Lower Developer Productivity
    • Developers use VMs
    • IT-Admin provisions VMs and
    manages environment
    In the Cloud
    • Benefits
    – Shorter Wait Times
    – Lower Infrastructure Costs
    – Higher Developer Productivity
    • Developer provisions & uses VMs
    • IT-Admin manages environment
    Your Data Center
    

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19. Improve your way of
    working
    Yes you can!
    

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20. Ever felt like this?
    

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21. Frustrated Developer’s Syndrome
    Caused by artificial constraints imposed by upper
    management
    Affects entire organization!
    • decision making
    • corporate culture
    • efficiency & productivity
    • developer happiness
    

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22. About Developer Happiness
    • Get out of our zone!
    • Remove friction or ceremony
    • Reduce waste
    • We can do stuff: trust!
    • We have resources: enable!
    We all want the same thing: provide a quality solution for
    the problem at hand as efficiently as possible!
    

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23. MSDN Subscribers Listen Up!
    

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24. Use your MSDN Subscription!
    • Only pay for what you use (by the minute)
    • MSDN comes with up to 115€ Azure benefits / month!
    – Or 1 Free Medium VM 24/7
    – Or 2 Free Small VMs 24/7
    – Or 1 Free Large VM 8hrs/day
    + margin for bandwidth, storage, …
    Check http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator
    • Includes Visual Studio Online!
    

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25. Visual Studio Online
    

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26. Developers, beware!
    Benefits
    • You OWN your dev
    environment
    • Continuous delivery!
    • Work anywhere anytime!
    • Use dev tools of choice 
    Drawbacks
    • YOU own your dev
    environment
    • How to deal with
    overconsumption?
    • Be aware of policies!
    – Security
    – Data storage
    – Backup
    – Availability (DEV = PROD!)
    

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27. Start with a SaaS of SaaS
    Build – Measure – Learn
    - Version Control
    - Continuous Delivery
    - Package Management
    - Issue Tracking
    - Monitoring
    - Customer Feedback
    - Support
    - Marketing
    - Collaboration
    - Analytics
    

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28. SaaS is beautiful!
    http://bit.ly/BeautifulSaaS
    

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29. Zooming in on a SaaS example: MyGet
    • Accelerated change
    – Introduction of NuGet
    – Many .NET open source projects are available on NuGet.org
    • 2 consultants had an itch to scratch:
    – Some customers wanted to use NuGet internally and control access to packages
    – We wanted to play with new tech!
    – And we had access to beer… 
    • How can we solve this?
    – Without repetitive work
    – With minimal risk or financial investments
    – With only our knowledge and some spare time
    

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30. We ended up with this…
    developers
    

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31. How Would You Build YOUR Software Products?
    • We REDUCE FRICTION
    • Because we are developers
    • How:
    – Lean Startup Principles
    – Automation
    – Lean ALM
    

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32. Demo
    Lean ALM
    

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33. Business Impact
    Transforming your business to the cloud
    

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34. Cloud is a Disruptive Technology
    

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35. Transforming Your Business To The Cloud
    • From products to services (*aaS)
    Freemium? Prepaid? Pay-per-use?
    • From Pipe-thinking to Platform-thinking
    Bootstrapping your Minimum Viable Product
    Network Effects & Growth Hacking
    APIs & Marketplaces are key
    ecosystem ingredients and
    enable co-creation of value!
    

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36. From Information to Innovation Technology
    • Accelerated Change
    “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on
    the inside, the end is near.” – Jack Welch
    • Entrepreneurship
    Entrepreneurs have the benefit of ownership
    • Innovation is not a Manufacturing Pipeline!
    You need a responsive organization
    

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37. The Responsive Organization
    FROM TO
    Efficiency Responsiveness
    Hierarchies Networks
    Controlling Empowering
    Extrinsic Awards Intrinsic Motivation
    Office & Office Hours Anytime & Anywhere
    Customers & Partners Community
    http://www.theresponsiveorg.com/manifesto
    

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38. Big or small, this is happening!
    

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39. Key Takeaways
    • Cloud adoption is accelerating
    – Change before you have to
    • Reduce waste, increase value
    – Automation & human interaction are key
    – You should take ownership of your development environment!
    • Disruptive technology & business models are here now!
    – Continuously Improve: Build, measure, learn
    – Think in terms of platforms & service ecosystems
    – Build on network effects
    

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40. Q&A
    

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41. 50
    A big thank you to our sponsors
    Gold Partners
    Silver & Track Partners
    Platinum Partners
    

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