One of the important ideas behind DevOps is that people from development and operations should work together, just like the Doctor (a Time Lord) and his human companions work together to solve the problems of the universe. We're moving away from a model where control was centralized in the hands of a few, like the way the spice was tightly controlled in Dune, and we're sharing more of the responsibilities, like how the Stargate SG-1 team collaborates with the Tok'ra, the Asgard and others. We also work to automate processes and manage configurations, not unlike how Asimov created his 3 laws to make sure that robots, like our servers, were well-behaved and performing according to some standard rules. This is a fun session, but it focuses on real lessons from DevOps as told through science fiction.

1. WHAT WE CAN LEARN
ABOUT DEVOPS FROM
SCIENCE FICTION
Dawn M. Foster
Community
Lead
at
Puppet
Labs
@geekygirldawn
dawn@puppetlabs.com

2. WHOAMI
• Geek, traveler, reader
• Recovered
sys admin,
community & open source
• Read
73 books last year,
mostly sci-fi / fantasy
• I keep a list:
http://fastwonderblog.com/about/reading/
Photos by Josh Bancroft, Don Park

3. ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE
The Doctor and companions
work together
like Ops and Devs

4. CONTROL ISSUES
Work together as equals,
give up control and
share responsibility

5. DISTRIBUTE RESPONSIBILITIES
More people having access helps
avoid single points of failure,
but still limit potential for destruction

6. ONE STEP AT A TIME
Understand changes and
take one step at a time

7. AUTOMATE ALL THE THINGS
Automate the tedious tasks
and have time for the fun stuff

8. MANAGE GROWTH
Use automation and
configuration management tools to
easily spin up large numbers of systems

9. MONITOR AND MEASURE
Monitor and measure
as much as possible to track progress
for performance, processes and people

10. DON’T CREATE MONSTERS
Create a culture where
developers and ops
both avoid short cuts that
create new infrastructure monsters

11. DELEGATE TO MINIONS
Delegate the grunt work
to automation tools
(if you don’t have minions)
Thanks to Dave Zwieback aka @mindweather for suggesting a Gru and the minions reference.

12. LAWS OF ROBOTICS
Use configuration management systems
with rules to control
infrastructure behavior

13. REDSHIRTS ARE EXPENDABLE
Treat your servers
like redshirts
Side note: read John Scalzi’s ‘Redshirts’

14. BORG COLLECTIVES
Each component is
just one part of a
complete system

15. “EVERYTHING WE DO OUT
HERE IS A RISK!”
Everything has risk
find ways to manage risk
while still getting shit done
Thanks to Mike M aka @xyntrix for suggesting this SGU risk quote, 'Everything we do out here is a risk!'

16. SHARE USEFUL SKILLS
Learn and share new ideas
with the rest of the team

17. MENTORING
Train the next generation
and help others succeed

18. STRONG WOMEN
Encourage women in our field
and get more women
speaking at our events

19. DON’T PANIC
Things will go wrong
keep things in perspective
calmly recover

20. THANK YOU
Contact
info:
Dawn
Foster
@geekygirldawn
dawn@puppetlabs.com
fastwonderblog.com
Some of my favorite modern sci-fi / fantasy authors:
Hugh Howey
Lois McMaster Bujold
Brandon Sanderson
Connie Willis