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
2. 2 kinds of people Some work smarter, others work harder… Who’s most productive? Who’s the happiest?
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
4. Session Outline • Cloud Adoption • Cloud & Software Development – Challenges & Opportunities – Developing Soft-where? – A SaaS of SaaS • Business Impact • Q & A
5. Cloud Adoption Driving a (r)evolution?
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
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
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
9. SMB’s & Cloud Adoption Source: http://bit.ly/SMB-cloud Are these your customers or partners?
10. It’s All About Creating and having a sustainable business in a Mobile-first, Cloud-first world
11. Cloud & Software Development Building Soft-where?
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!
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!
14. Automation can be hard
15. Automation Are you sure you want to build those things all by yourself?
16. Dev vs Ops
17. DevOps DEV OPS
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
19. Improve your way of working Yes you can!
20. Ever felt like this?
21. Frustrated Developer’s Syndrome Caused by artificial constraints imposed by upper management Affects entire organization! • decision making • corporate culture • efficiency & productivity • developer happiness
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!
23. MSDN Subscribers Listen Up!
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!
25. Visual Studio Online
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!)
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
28. SaaS is beautiful! http://bit.ly/BeautifulSaaS
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
30. We ended up with this… developers
31. How Would You Build YOUR Software Products? • We REDUCE FRICTION • Because we are developers • How: – Lean Startup Principles – Automation – Lean ALM
32. Demo Lean ALM
33. Business Impact Transforming your business to the cloud
34. Cloud is a Disruptive Technology
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!
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
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
38. Big or small, this is happening!
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
40. Q&A
41. 50 A big thank you to our sponsors Gold Partners Silver & Track Partners Platinum Partners