Achieving “Awesomness” with Opscode Chef (Part 2)

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In part 1 of this series we focused primarily on the value of leverage and how tools, inside and outside of the context of IT can directly influence the output of the desired function.

In part 2 we’ll discuss more specifically the reasons why companies are and why companies should be executing on Continuous Delivery and DevOps initiatives to gain more leverage in their business.

When most people not heavily involved in either the Continuous Delivery or DevOps movement are asked what they hope to achieve with each, the answers are typically :

  • Utilize resources more efficiently for application release.
  • Gain better understanding of application release process through cross domain enablement.
  • Provide accountability to all groups involved in production application lifecycle.
  • Increase “time to delivery” of application to production environments.
  • Improve “quality” of applications operating in production environments.

Although all of these are true, they point to aspects of value but don’t necessarily do a good job of conveying the big picture, which is what top level business influencers often need to make a key business decision.

So what is the “Big Picture” you ask?

The answers has it’s basis within economic globalization. Globalization has been rapidly expanding and its impact is both broad and deep. To succeed in a globalized economy, businesses are increasingly leveraging software. Software provides the leverage to derive and deliver value faster, which, in turn, enables businesses to better compete in a worldwide marketplace. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as simply desiring to leverage software, and although all companies leverage software to a certain degree, this proliferation is both good and bad. On one hand, the rate at which we can provide value to a consumer increases (good) but a business’s ability to do so can be constrained by legacy thoughts, processes and supporting infrastructure (bad).

This is where initiatives such as Continuous Delivery and DevOps come in. Companies who have been able to execute on these initiatives are now able to not only perform the tactical bullet points mentioned above, but also deliver variations of services to the consumer in a consistent and reliable manner. The result is more valuable consumer services that generate greater revenue. So, businesses can grow demand for service offerings while continually improving and expanding its revenue opportunity in parallel.

It is with this understanding that initiatives such as Continuous Delivery and DevOps no longer become a “Should we …” question of the business but rather a “When will we …” question of the business. All the while keeping in mind that it is in these times of economic recovery that market leaders are born.

For a sneak peak of some of what you’ll experience at Chef Conf 2013 view our videos :

Rationale Behind CD and DevOps - video
Product Only Demonstration – video
Full Video –  video

Register Now for Chef Conf 2013 in San Fransisco California, April 24 – 26th to learn more about a model for success and patterns of failure within the business that we’ve identified along the way. Hear our customer experiences as well as learn more about Chef which can both enable and drive this transition to “Awesomness”.

Stathy Touloumis is a Solution Architect for Opscode and only wishes he had stumbled upon Chef when he founded and managed a software consultancy back in 2005.

@stathyinc

Reprinted via [Opscode]

Twitt

Achieving “Awesomness” with Opscode Chef (Part I)

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I’d like to start by sharing a statement that was articulated to me a while ago by a vendor of antiquated enterprise technologies :

“It’s not about the tool but the craftsman that wields it.”
- Legacy technology rep

It seemed to hold some semblance of truth until I realized why the statement was made in the first place, to fulfill an underlying agenda of continued incumbency NOT in an effort to enable the organization to strive for awesomeness. This statement does bring up some questions though:

“Is it really necessary to retool within an organization? If one solution accomplishes a specific goal why would it ever need to be changed?”

This 2 part article will provide insight to answer these questions (and those like them) along with how it relates to how Opscode Chef aims to deliver “awesomeness” for our customers.

Leverage = Tools

Since man has first learned to use a rock to smash something or two sticks to create fire, the primary value of tools has been leverage. It is with leverage that the craftsman (Engineer OR Biz Dude) is able to achieve above and beyond what could be purely accomplished by the craftsman himself. But let’s not limit ourselves to the concept of leverage as it’s use is quite pervasive:

  • Financial leverage which can be provided at varying rates of return which can change over time and hence provide varying degrees of value derived
  • A simple tool such as the screwdriver can provide leverage based on the construction of it’s design.

It’s not surprising that humans have continued to evolve to find new ways of increasing leverage. This applies even in the context of business process or more specifically how technology can enable business. Looking back on my career in tech, I have noticed a highly common pattern:

  • The ever growing need for change not just within an organization but the competing landscape.
  • The need to continually adapt “leverage” in it’s varying forms to provide new avenues by which a business can succeed.

Chef = Leverage

So what does this have to do with Chef? In part it has to do with disruptive movements we are seeing in technology today including consumerization of IT, Agile Development, DevOps, cloud computing and more. The other part  has to do with the new “leverage” meant to support these movements such as “Infrastructure as Code” driven platforms like Opscode Chef. Opscode Chef was designed within the context of cloud, agile methodologies and enabling the craftsman in today’s global marketplace. The execution and ongoing success (even in the midst of occasional failure) of these new order initiatives is what we’ll coin, “Awesomness”.

“During the downturn, a lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets and that is what we’ve done. We’ve been turning out more new products than ever before …”
-Steve Jobs

Awesomness = Opscode Chef

In all honesty, achieving “Awesomness” with Opscode Chef will take some work. Oh yes, that dreaded term which is embedded in most product vendors sales teams  ANTI-mantra. The key question is this:

“Will the leverage obtained from Opscode Chef and the ensuing execution of these new order initiatives provide enough value to my company?”

In today’s climate you better be thinking more and more about the new ways to capitalize on leverage because those companies with the greatest leverage in a down economy are most often, if not always, the ones that continue to strive, grow and capture the market.

So let’s chat briefly about Chef and what to expect from the first of 2 videos we’ll be posting. The real value of Chef is in it’s capability to enable DESIGN of your systems – How your systems are configured, operate and integrate on an ongoing basis. There are several ways leverage is provided but the one which stands out in our video is the dynamic data driven and buffering capabilities. These capabilities are similar to the magicians of old and new. It’s not that they were capable of performing magic, it’s that they were able to provide buffers around the constraint(s) or trick(s) and effectively remove them. Yes, the ol’ thinking outside the box paradigm – aka disruption.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
-Arthur C. Clarke

It’s with this leverage that a platform like Opscode Chef enables IT to deliver to the business reliable, resilient services and to do so cost effectively and repeatedly all while enabling your craftsmen to be at their most productive.

Simple Continuous Delivery Tool Chaining with Opscode Chef, Jenkins and GCE

Reprinted via [Opscode]

Twitt

Top 10 sales trends for 2013: An insiders perspective.

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I read a great article recently in the Harvard Business Review covering the top 10 sales trends for 2013. I wanted to provide an insiders perspective to these trends with a focus on enterprise software sales. I aimed to cover just the most salient points.

1. Sales Force Behavior “Modeling” Models are verbal descriptions and visual representations of how systems work and processes flow. Models enable repeatable and predictable experiences. More organizations will study their top salespeople in 2013 to understand how they formulate their winning account strategies based upon customer politics, evaluator psychology, and the human nature of executive decision makers that are unique to winning every account.

It absolutely makes sense to adapt models based on current success but I’d argue to start from scratch or provide no guidelines for strategy is insane. “Waiting” for the sales force to determine in todays rapid climate will leave you too far behind to catch up.

Models for qualifying and forecasting sales have been baked for years and years. I propose instead a baseline based on past lessons and success with adaption to current landscape changes. An iterative approach can be leveraged to adapt what is working, what’s not and how changes should be made. A great example of a change that will inevitably impact a sales model is the move to SaaS and self service trial based delivery models.


2. Win-Loss Analysis Studies All companies and their salespeople are well versed on the logical arguments for selecting their product. However, the decision to make a major purchase is also influenced by internal politics, how the decision-makers receive information along with individual biases and personal desires. Unfortunately many companies don’t perform any type of win-loss analysis so they don’t understand their customers in these regards. Because of the economy and relentless competition, 2013 will be the year that many companies have to re-discover the lost art of win-loss analysis.

As with all data be sure not to jump to conclusions. You can’t make an empirical analysis off of 1 win or 1 loss. Often times, an agenda may be the underlying reason a number, figure or metric is being conveyed (vanity metrics).

 

5. Sales Process Ineffectiveness Many companies have realized that their sales didn’t increase even after spending a great deal of money and effort implementing a sales process methodology. The reason for this is because the “black hole” of the sales process is what happens during and at the close of sales calls. Today more than ever, it’s the personal interactions with prospective customers that determines winners from losers, not the internal processes of the sales organization. In 2013 more companies will be studying and categorizing these customer interactions so they can improve sales force effectiveness.

In part due to moving the focal point away from quick iteration and execution in large orgs to a primary focus on visibility/reporting. Failure is due more to system gaming syndrome where the users of the system take the path of least resistance. In this case the path of least resistance ends up being report/pipeline fluffing vs. getting the job done. Case in point, I witnessed a pipeline grow 300% in the course of weeks with no increase in staff (actually decrease through attrition) to accommodate a recent doubling of quota. Take a guess if the closure rate increased proportionally to the pipeline increase … not even close.

 

7. No Decision as the Main Competitor For sales forces involved with large capital expenditure sales cycles, never before has the mantra “Call High or Die” been so true. Salespeople must reach C-level executive decision makers early in the sales process because the default for organizations today is to maintain the status quo and delay every major purchase.

I have seen all to often falling back on industry or current technology acronyms and mapping to products as the path of least resistance. Sales get paid to influence not perform rote memorization.

 

10. Continued Migration from Field to Phone One final trend that bears mentioning is the accelerated move from field-based sales to phone-based internet sales. Many companies have quickly transitioned the majority of their field reps to be almost exclusively phone based. Therefore, these reps must now be able to create winning relationships with their voices as opposed to how they sold in the past with their physical presence. Understanding and mastering the art of persuasion will become even more important for all salespeople in 2013.

I’d argue there is greater divergence in the delivery models: lower revenue but higher transaction products and services can now more easily be handled in automated fashions. High touch accounts without face time will inevitably lose to those who realize relationship building is about human behavior; A facet of our DNA developed over thousands of years that can’t be erased no matter how compelling the technology.

 

Stay tuned for later posts where I’ll convey operational strategies to align and help execute a revenue strategy based on the above trends.

 

Twitt

Winter wonderland

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I haven’t had much of a chance to get out on the trails this off-season. Yesterday I had the chance to ride; What a beautiful ride it turned out to be. The trails were slightly mushy, not freezing and were still packed firm. I was delighted that a dear friend was able to join me, Jim Sauls. It definitely helps to pass the time when chatting it up with friends. I was amazed at how we nearly covered 2hrs in a time span that felt like 20m. I was also reminded that  I need to ride more as it’s such a refreshing diversion. Alas, It’s also an unfortunate fact that all good things need periods of rest and time off is just part of the cycle of riding and training.

Twitt

DevOps Bootstrapped in both Minneapolis and Milwaukee

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Dec 5th and 6th marked the inaugaral kick-off of the DevOps Minneapolis and Milwaukee groups. I was AMAZED at the attendance for these first events especially in Minneapolis. Roughly 40 folks registered and just under that number attended; While Milwaukee was lighter we had almost 10 attendees. Minneapolis had a very diverse group including folks from both start-ups and fortune 100 companies. Thanks to the hospitality of @OpenBookMN and @Bucketworks for providing the laid back yet professional venue.

DevOps Minneapolis

I wish I had time to snag some pictures in Minneapolis but there was some great conversations going on all night. The group agreed on the expected format I provided guidance on and we already had volunteers for the next few Meetups. We wrapped up the night at Grumpy’s Bar discussing our favorite technical topics as well as ways to leverage cloud platforms in the enterprise.

DevOps Milwaukee

Milwaukee was much more casual since the group was smaller and fortunately for me, the entire group was very curious on leveraging @opscode #opschef to automate their IT processes. Continuous Delivery is always a hot topic since getting apps out to production in a controlled manner seems to have high priority with companies these days. We wrapped up the night at @TransferMKE pizza where we had great food, beer and music.

Grabbing pizza at Transfer and listening to jazz.

I am totally stoked for next month and working to grow these groups, helping to drive the tech movement in the Midwest.

Twitt

Thoughts of disruption in the Vegas desert.

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I was fortunate enough to head to Vegas for the AWS re: Invent conference. I managed to spend some time exploring the beauty that Vegas has to offer. My wife and I headed to Valley of Fire State Park and stumbled across the fire wave. We unexpectedly were exposed to an amazing natural miracle. A small trickle which started long ago and eventually built into an unstoppable force, leading to the creation of natural wonders. In this case, carving sheer rock into layered colors and smooth ebbing formations reminiscent of a huge marble swimming pool. One thing was for certain, once this force was initiated whether accepted by the landscape or not, it’s fate was sealed. Disruption at it’s best …

It got me thinking about a quote I read from Steve Jobs :

“What has happened in technology over the last few years has been about the downturn, not the future of technology. A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets and that is what we’ve done. We’ve been turning out more new products than ever before, and Apple is one of the only two companies making money in the PC business. We’re not making a lot, but other than Dell, we’re the only one. Others are losing money – a lot of money.” -Steve Jobs

It’s definitely easy to look at this as an isolated experience based on a unique opportunity. But when you think about the last 2 major tech downturns, disruption inevitably fueled a new generational revolution within technology, not unlike the trickle which started in the Vegas desert. This disruption can be seen not only from the new tools, products,  processes and people but also by the companies with the foresight to capitalize on them.

Twitt

Red Rock MTB – Fun riding in Vegas desert.

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Most people think of Vegas as a place to unleash on their vices. I am no different; I just have a different vice than most people; I love to ride my bike, very fast. This past year I’ve taken to doing so over obstacles, because riding fast is not challenging enough.

For those twisted enough to share my vice you have to check out the Red Rock trails. Typical for most areas with avid MTB trails, you can rent the core gear and McGhies is the place. Unfortunately, I haven’t made it very far outside of Blue Diamond but that just gives me more reason to head back :)

Twitt