OneOps, TwoOps Exploring cloud ops

Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have come across frequent recent discussions about new operations methods enabled by cloud computing. The most common terms in these discussions include DevOps and it’s controversial sibling, NoOps. During I think the practices behind these terms are critical to understand as the nature of IT operations shifts to meet new demands, the terms themselves are less than helpful.

So, what I thought I’d do today is walk you through key new operations concepts being adopted by the most cloud-savvy organizations I know, however without allowing terminology to distract the discussion. If I am successful, you’ll be able to look past the label and see the incredible value these new models bring to businesses and institutions of all sizes.

Understanding how cloud computing drives fundamental changes to the way IT works, to put it more exactly than just becoming another way of expressing what has come earlier, doesn’t rest with its causes, nevertheless with its effects:

In conjunction with these three, one other concept is critical to understand. What matters most to any business is the application of IT to business problems, and the ongoing support of those applications as long as they remain applicable to the business. The rest of IT exists in support of that.

What people not working closely with cloud computing fail to realize is that the application-centric nature of cloud operations shifts the very nature of operations away from infrastructure to, so then, applications.

Heck of a solution

That sounds like a heck of a solution, right? Build applications that utilize the services they run on, and add some custom automation developed by people who understand server, network and storage performance, and how to keep IT running.

It should as well be noted that these platforms are in essence coding frameworks provided as a service, which can limit the class of applications to which they apply. So, it is unlikely that a single platform solution will meet the needs of an entire business.