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Secondly, when evaluating new IT hardware and software assets for potential adoption, you need to institute a much stronger requirement for programmability and open APIs. Complete automation of your infrastructure requires programmatic access, and it’s simply insufficient to only have control via graphical interfaces. This isn’t just about provisioning and configuration support via such APIs, you also need to ensure that vendors are providing reliable APIs to get sufficiently detailed status. A core tenet of DevOps is the ability to measure the state of your infrastructure for future improvement and this really needs to be automated programmatically. Ideally these APIs for automation and measurement are simple, easy to adopt, and accessible to people who aren’t full-time software engineers. Thus, beware of complex, language-specific APIs, and strongly lean towards vendors using simple HTTP or REST APIs and standard, easily parsable data formats like JSON.

–Nigel Kersten, Puppet Lab’s CIO. Also, see this interview I did with Nigel way back in 2008 when Nigel was using Puppet to manage the Mac desktops (!) at Google.

Secondly, when evaluating new IT hardware and software assets for potential adoption, you need to institute a much stronger requirement for programmability and open APIs. Complete automation of your infrastructure requires programmatic access, and it’s simply insufficient to only have control via graphical interfaces. This isn’t just about provisioning and configuration support via such APIs, you also need to ensure that vendors are providing reliable APIs to get sufficiently detailed status. A core tenet of DevOps is the ability to measure the state of your infrastructure for future improvement and this really needs to be automated programmatically. Ideally these APIs for automation and measurement are simple, easy to adopt, and accessible to people who aren’t full-time software engineers. Thus, beware of complex, language-specific APIs, and strongly lean towards vendors using simple HTTP or REST APIs and standard, easily parsable data formats like JSON.

–Nigel Kersten, Puppet Lab’s CIO. Also, see this interview I did with Nigel way back in 2008 when Nigel was using Puppet to manage the Mac desktops (!) at Google.

Mirantis navigates changing OpenStack market, growth with 4.0 release (451 Report)

My team has a new report up on Mirantis, with updates on their momentum and an overview of what’s in their 4.0 OpenStack distro release. Here’s the 451 take, our brief opinion on the news: Mirantis reported more bookings in the last quarter of 2013 than all of 2012 – its growth by revenue, employees and overall business highlights the company as a leader among OpenStack pure-play vendors. Mirantis seems well positioned for an evolving OpenStack ecosystem and market, but the transition from services and support, which has been its specialty, to product subscription models may be challenging.
Continue Reading →

Mirantis navigates changing OpenStack market, growth with 4.0 release (451 Report)

My team has a new report up on Mirantis, with updates on their momentum and an overview of what’s in their 4.0 OpenStack distro release. Here’s the 451 take, our brief opinion on the news: Mirantis reported more bookings in the last quarter of 2013 than all of 2012 – its growth by revenue, employees and overall business highlights the company as a leader among OpenStack pure-play vendors. Mirantis seems well positioned for an evolving OpenStack ecosystem and market, but the transition from services and support, which has been its specialty, to product subscription models may be challenging.
Continue Reading →

Mirantis navigates changing OpenStack market, growth with 4.0 release (451 Report)

My team has a new report up on Mirantis, with updates on their momentum and an overview of what’s in their 4.0 OpenStack distro release. Here’s the 451 take, our brief opinion on the news: Mirantis reported more bookings in the last quarter of 2013 than all of 2012 – its growth by revenue, employees and overall business highlights the company as a leader among OpenStack pure-play vendors. Mirantis seems well positioned for an evolving OpenStack ecosystem and market, but the transition from services and support, which has been its specialty, to product subscription models may be challenging.
Continue Reading →

Rainforest QA speeds up continuous integration cycle with blended cyborg model for testing (451 Report)

When I spoke at HeavyBit sometime ago on how to deal with analysts, I meet a several interesting development tool folks. One of them was Rainforest QA. I did a recent write-up of the company, available to 451 subscribers (a free trial is just a lead-gen away!). Here’s my take on the company: As we opined last year, software development has changed dramatically, for the better, in recent years. The rise in demand for mobile and Web applications has been fueled by the broad availability of cheap, fungible infrastructure in the form of the cloud – seeding the ground for the code-slinging set that’s seeking to inject software into the world’s every nook and cranny.
Continue Reading →

Rainforest QA speeds up continuous integration cycle with blended cyborg model for testing (451 Report)

When I spoke at HeavyBit sometime ago on how to deal with analysts, I meet a several interesting development tool folks. One of them was Rainforest QA. I did a recent write-up of the company, available to 451 subscribers (a free trial is just a lead-gen away!). Here’s my take on the company: As we opined last year, software development has changed dramatically, for the better, in recent years. The rise in demand for mobile and Web applications has been fueled by the broad availability of cheap, fungible infrastructure in the form of the cloud – seeding the ground for the code-slinging set that’s seeking to inject software into the world’s every nook and cranny.
Continue Reading →

Rainforest QA speeds up continuous integration cycle with blended cyborg model for testing (451 Report)

When I spoke at HeavyBit sometime ago on how to deal with analysts, I meet a several interesting development tool folks. One of them was Rainforest QA. I did a recent write-up of the company, available to 451 subscribers (a free trial is just a lead-gen away!). Here’s my take on the company: As we opined last year, software development has changed dramatically, for the better, in recent years. The rise in demand for mobile and Web applications has been fueled by the broad availability of cheap, fungible infrastructure in the form of the cloud – seeding the ground for the code-slinging set that’s seeking to inject software into the world’s every nook and cranny.
Continue Reading →

CopperEgg tackles APM space under Idera (451 Report)

My colleague Dennis Callaghan wrote up an update around CopperEgg, the APM tool purchased by Idera in July of 2013. While you’ll have to be a 451 client to read the full report (or sign up for a free trial), here’s some excerpts: Now under Idera, CopperEgg has added real-user monitoring and repositioned itself as an application performance management SaaS vendor. And the 451 Take: We’re glad to see CopperEgg running fairly independently within Idera, though we’ll be interested to see how Idera can bring some of its and Precise’s IP to bolster CopperEgg, particularly in database performance monitoring.
Continue Reading →

CopperEgg tackles APM space under Idera (451 Report)

My colleague Dennis Callaghan wrote up an update around CopperEgg, the APM tool purchased by Idera in July of 2013. While you’ll have to be a 451 client to read the full report (or sign up for a free trial), here’s some excerpts: Now under Idera, CopperEgg has added real-user monitoring and repositioned itself as an application performance management SaaS vendor. And the 451 Take: We’re glad to see CopperEgg running fairly independently within Idera, though we’ll be interested to see how Idera can bring some of its and Precise’s IP to bolster CopperEgg, particularly in database performance monitoring.
Continue Reading →