“We need to think about three things with Pivotal now that it is part of VMware: a common substrate (Kubernetes), the ability to manage it, and a build overlay. The cf push experience is important, making the experience better for developers.” —Craig McLuckie, VMware
🗂 Link: The superpower to change one thing about Kubernetes
“It’s optimized for cloud native applications – those that follow the patterns that are in my book for example. That represents only a subset of the applications that our enterprise customers need to address. Our 2020 strategy is to broaden the definition of our platform. To be more than just Cloud Foundry, but to broaden it to a larger range of use cases. To broaden it to a larger market.”
🗂 Link: Waity K8-y no more Pivotal: We’ll unhook Application Service from VMware
“The urgency was more around understanding the long term vision than an immediate need,” said Andrews. “We’re still very early. Everybody is talking about K8s all the time, but if you look at who is actually using it in production, the list is much shorter. Our technology stack works incredibly well, we have customers with over 100,000 containers working on the current platform. If we forecast out 3 to 5 years in the future though, it seems clear that K8s is going to be a de facto component in the architecture.”
Source: Waity K8-y no more Pivotal: We’ll unhook Application Service from VMware
🗂 Link: VMware emulates 1990s Microsoft, builds a horizontally integrated IT portfolio
🗂 Link: VMworld 2019: VMware expands its multicloud, security, Kubernetes strategies | ZDNet
VMware in the span of seven days set its strategy to grab more multicloud deployments, positioned itself in case developers favor containers over virtual machines in the future and reiterated its case as a go-to enterprise engine for digital transformation.
Source: VMworld 2019: VMware expands its multicloud, security, Kubernetes strategies | ZDNet
🗂 Link: Pat Gelsinger and his calculated plan for VMware
“Three years ago, your biggest risk was cloud; six years ago, your biggest risk was Open Stack. If you look at it now, you can clearly say, ‘Hey, these next-generation applications, are you going to be the enterprise supplier of choice?’. So in that sense, I think we had a bit of defensive risk … our platform was at risk.
“At the same time, if you look at the dollars, the business value at play in the developer layer — a lot of money there. It’s a very rich, offensive opportunity as well — both defense and offense — and if we expand the value proposition for all of the VMware operators today, to be able to effectively reach the developers and the application in a much more effective way than they do today … if we can bring those worlds together, that’s a pretty huge benefit for our customers as well.”
🗂 Link: VMware Tanzu Completes the Modern Applications Picture
help customers build modern applications, run Kubernetes consistently across environments and manage it all from a single point of control.
Source: VMware Tanzu Completes the Modern Applications Picture
🗂 Link: Understanding the risk profile of your technical debt
Debt powers our economy, and technical debt powers your business. If we look at it that way, it’s a lot less threatening to label all your code as “tech debt.”
Source: Understanding the risk profile of your technical debt
🗂 Link: Silicon Valley software techniques modernize 75-year-old plant
Raytheon Systems Engineer Sam Sauers and her team spearheaded one of the latest DevOps transformations on the program, introducing Silicon Valley-like processes like paired programming and pipeline development to help the Air Soldier team rapidly develop the technology.
“We’re using commercial software best practices, including Agile and DevOps, to get new capabilities in days instead of years,” said Sauers. “We’ve also been implementing user-centered design: getting ahead of the users and figuring out the next thing they’re going to need. We then develop toward that rather than getting something out there and getting feedback that it wasn’t what they wanted.”
Source: Silicon Valley software techniques modernize 75-year-old plant
Link: Pivotal Build Service, Now Alpha, Assembles and Updates Containers in Kubernetes
The service provides the layer of automation and operational control enterprises need to utilize Cloud Native Buildpacks at scale. In particular, Build Service includes three key capabilities: automated image updates, image promotion, and build configurations.
Source: Pivotal Build Service, Now Alpha, Assembles and Updates Containers in Kubernetes
Link: DICK’S Sporting Goods Poised to Continue its Successful Digital Transformation Journey
Another important aspect of the new retail experience is buy-online, pickup in-store. This is an easy way to bring consumer gratification that even free two-day shipping can’t match. Shoppers are using stores as pickup points at record rates during the holiday season, especially those on a time crunch or placing orders too late for on-time delivery.
Anticipating the percentage of e-commerce orders placed for pickup in-store would skyrocket as the holiday grew closer, DICK’S wasted no time revamping elements of its buy-online, pickup in-store option and began running them on PCF. Now, store associates spend less time running around and picking pack slips because the experience is integrated into an app on the mobile devices they carry known as “MerchSearch.”
Source: DICK’S Sporting Goods Poised to Continue its Successful Digital Transformation Journey
Link: A Brief History of Agile, Part 1: The Rise of Waterfall
Ultimately, Waterfall’s biggest failing is that it puts its trust in a system, not the people working on a product.
Source: A Brief History of Agile, Part 1: The Rise of Waterfall
Beyond the Sea of No’s, with Jon Osborn
As always, with Jon, this is a great conversation:
Demonstrating the value of software, how it contributes to revenue, is no easy feat. Staffing can be difficult, especially with an eye to sustaining teams over the years. Jon Osborn returns as a guest to discuss these and other transformation hurdles, plus successes they’ve had at the Great American Insurance Group.
Check it out, and subscribe to the podcast for more stuff like this every week.
Link: Pivotal Cloud Foundry 2.5, Now GA, Harnesses the Power of Istio and Envoy to Make Your Developers More Productive
Whole lotta features:
> – Weighted routing uses Istio and Envoy to simplify blue-green deployments (beta)
> – Platform Automation for PCF, the engine of your perpetual upgrade machine (beta)
> – Windows Server 2019, Microsoft’s most container-friendly OS yet, now powers PAS for Windows (coming soon)
> – Consume upstream Kubernetes your way with the new PKS family
> – Got apps that need multiple custom ports? Run ‘em on PAS.
> – Use metadata on API resources throughout PAS to share context
> – Keep tabs on all your apps, wherever they run with multi-foundation Apps Manager (coming soon)
> – Steeltoe 2.2 improves the stability of your microservices, simplifies connections to MongoDB
> – Spring Cloud Data Flow for PCF 1.4: Wire up data pipelines across Kubernetes and Cloud Foundry (coming soon)
> – Single Sign-On for PCF 1.9 will help you get more done faster with a new, streamlined dashboard (coming soon)
> – Detecting manifest changes with Ops Manager is much easier
> – Other Enhancements
> – Public Service Announcements
> – Try Pivotal Cloud Foundry for Free
Optimistic About Innovation, an interview with Duke Energy’s John Mitchell
To improve the way you do software, I recommend starting up a new organization. It’s not always the right tactic, but it probably is if you’re having problems changing the “culture” at your organization.
Duke Energy has had success with this approach over the years. In one of my recent Pivotal Conversations podcasts, I talked with John Mitchell, who’s been involved in their transformation over the years. They’d just opened a brand new (well, renovated from an old factory) office to host the existing teams (something like 4 or 5 if I recall) and the supporting teams.
Here’s a summary:
Duke Energy has been working on their software capabilities for some time now. They’ve recently reached a milestone by opening a brand new innovation center in Charlotte. Coté took a tour of it recently checking out the numerous product teams and their approach to exploring and building strategy, all the way from corporate strategy down to writing code. John also shares a couple of new examples of how lean product management and design in action. Also: gingham.
Pumping the digital transformation bunny at the US Air Force, an interview with Bryon Kroger
Few organizations have or rely on as much software the US Air Force. There’s plenty of it around and, thus, plenty to be improved. In recent years, one of the more spectacular digital transformation stories has come from the USAF’s work modernizing their Air Operations Control software. In this episode, USAF’s Bryon Kroger goes over how they’ve moved multi-year release cycles to just weeks in the Kessel Run projects. Much of the work is in the “fuzzy front” end of planning and procurement, but as Bryon says, an equally, hearty serving has to do with building up people’s skills, moral, and the overall culture.
One of my recent Pivotal Conversations episodes. There’s a play list collecting together other “customers” talking, rather than the usual of us Pivotal people just talking to ourselves.
Link: The Best Digital Transformers Choose When to Choose
There’s a cost to all this choice: it delays decision making, causes distress, and it leads to post-decision regret.
Monolithic Transformation
My booklet, Monolithic Transformation is finally out.
It collects together the stories and successful tactics large organizations are using to get better at software.
You can get a free copy from Pivotal or search around to find it elsewhere.
Link: How Air France – KLM designed its PaaS Cloud Foundry
“it was not a question of replacing our experts but of increasing the skills of the group’s internal teams,” says Thierry Morcq.
(Translated with Google Translate.)
Original source: How Air France – KLM designed its PaaS Cloud Foundry
Link: Mission capability delivered at startup speed
More coverage of the US Air Force going all in on digital XP, lean design, and cloud native to dramatically – almost unbelievably so – modernize their software.
The mission capabilities these war fighters received in 120 days or less span deliberate targeting, mission reporting, advanced target production, refueling operations and many more, saving over $6.4 million and 1,100 man-hours per month within the Air Force Central Command.
More:
Embracing agile software development processes, the AOC leverages a highly disciplined approach to software engineering called Extreme Programming (XP), to gain the benefits of test-driven development, pair programming, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).
Original source: Mission capability delivered at startup speed
Link: Google Cloud Revenue
When asked about Google’s on-premises strategy, Pichai said the company is “thoughtfully looking at it,” and cited its partnerships with SAP, Pivotal, and VMware. Google also has a hybrid-cloud product with Cisco and its own Kubernetes-based GKE On Prem available to early access customers.
On-premises data centers remain “a big, big requirement for customers,” and these partnerships help Google address those companies’ needs, Pichai said. When it comes to hybrid cloud, “we are thinking about how to do that better,” Pichai said. “Our overall approach to cloud hybrid modernization I think is the right long-term direction and so we are doing that.”
Original source: Google Cloud Revenue
Link: Google Cloud Revenue
When asked about Google’s on-premises strategy, Pichai said the company is “thoughtfully looking at it,” and cited its partnerships with SAP, Pivotal, and VMware. Google also has a hybrid-cloud product with Cisco and its own Kubernetes-based GKE On Prem available to early access customers.
On-premises data centers remain “a big, big requirement for customers,” and these partnerships help Google address those companies’ needs, Pichai said. When it comes to hybrid cloud, “we are thinking about how to do that better,” Pichai said. “Our overall approach to cloud hybrid modernization I think is the right long-term direction and so we are doing that.”
Original source: Google Cloud Revenue
Link: Profile of XP and the workday at Pivotal, in German
[E]very day starts with a shared breakfast. The buffet offers everything the empty stomach needs: waffles with syrup and lots of scrambled eggs and bacon.
Original source: Profile of XP and the workday at Pivotal, in German
Link: Pivotal and New Relic Deliver Visibility, Value, and Velocity
A nice listing of some metrics to monitor out of the box in PCF, and just performance metrics, but meatware and product related stuff too.
Original source: Pivotal and New Relic Deliver Visibility, Value, and Velocity
Link: Pivotal Cloud Foundry 2.3
A laundry list of new feature and services in the software I market around. There’s a lot of .Net expansion, adding some standard platform services (like a task scheduler), and Morlock stuff like multi-install (would you say “zone”?) OpenStack, and Kubernetes and embedded OS update:
Original source: Pivotal Cloud Foundry 2.3
Using Warfighter-Centric Design and a Modern Platform to Achieve First, Second, and Third Order Improvements
This is a pretty great white paper on doing agile/DevOps/cloud native/PaaS in the defense sector.
Link: Forrester SVP: VMware Is One Of The ‘Exciting’ Stars Of IT Automation Era
‘O’Donnell called VMware and Pivotal the “crown jewels” of Dell’s $70 billion blockbuster acquisition of EMC in 2015. “It’s the future,” said O’Donnell. “It’s the software side of it. A lot of good stuff came with EMC but what VMware and Pivotal are doing is the future. It’s all about software.”‘
Original source: Forrester SVP: VMware Is One Of The ‘Exciting’ Stars Of IT Automation Era
Link: How Pivotal hopes to make cloud mavens of us all
A brief description of Pivotal Labs work to improve customer’s agile capabilities.
Original source: How Pivotal hopes to make cloud mavens of us all
Podcast: Michael Cote from Pivotal on Programming the Business
Original source: Podcast: Michael Cote from Pivotal on Programming the Business
Link: TUTORIAL – Deploying Software on PKS: Creating a Continuous Delivery Pipeline with Spinnaker
“I can see how on larger teams with meaningful applications it could add a ton of value and help streamline the deployment processes.”
Original source: TUTORIAL – Deploying Software on PKS: Creating a Continuous Delivery Pipeline with Spinnaker
Link: TUTORIAL – Deploying Software on PKS: Creating a Continuous Delivery Pipeline with Spinnaker
“I can see how on larger teams with meaningful applications it could add a ton of value and help streamline the deployment processes.”
Original source: TUTORIAL – Deploying Software on PKS: Creating a Continuous Delivery Pipeline with Spinnaker
Dealing with compliance
I’m slowly working through a new edition of my Cloud Native Journey booklet. Here’s a draft of the chapter on compliance, auditors, and all that. The goal is to draw on actual cases and lessons learned from organizations.
Link: Agile at DOD — going beyond sticky notes and standing meetings
A summary of the US Air Force’s recent Pivot to agile.
Original source: Agile at DOD — going beyond sticky notes and standing meetings
Link: What’s the Value of CI/CD?
Original source: What’s the Value of CI/CD?
Link: Air Force looks to rapidly develop software with Project Kessel Run
More coverage of the USAF modernizing their approach to software. Here, what some of the apps are: “Kessel Run has been able to push five applications to the classified network, Kroger said…. The project is currently working on a number of things, including how the Air Force plans air tasking orders, a document which tasks units to fly their aircraft, Kroger said. It’s also working on building a tool that automates mission reports, which have to be written for every mission that flies, Kroger said.”
Original source: Air Force looks to rapidly develop software with Project Kessel Run
Link: Innovation at the edge: the top air defence trends by domain
“Software company Pivotal, backed by Dell EMC, VMWare, GE, Microsoft and Ford, has developed a tanker refuelling solution for the USAF with the US Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx); Running on the firm’s Pivotal Cloud Foundry platform, the software solution was built for under $2m in 90 days and is now being used in operational areas including Qatar. It currently saves the US Air Force $1 million per day in fuel costs, with the software being managed by just one person. It also aligns with USAF’s Air Operations Centre (AOC) capabilities via a continuous delivery software development pipeline to a hybrid cloud-based platform alongside the legacy AOC 10.1 system.”
Original source: Innovation at the edge: the top air defence trends by domain
Link: Innovation at the edge: the top air defence trends by domain
“Software company Pivotal, backed by Dell EMC, VMWare, GE, Microsoft and Ford, has developed a tanker refuelling solution for the USAF with the US Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx); Running on the firm’s Pivotal Cloud Foundry platform, the software solution was built for under $2m in 90 days and is now being used in operational areas including Qatar. It currently saves the US Air Force $1 million per day in fuel costs, with the software being managed by just one person. It also aligns with USAF’s Air Operations Centre (AOC) capabilities via a continuous delivery software development pipeline to a hybrid cloud-based platform alongside the legacy AOC 10.1 system.”
Original source: Innovation at the edge: the top air defence trends by domain
Link: Ways We Work: Pivotal Labs
Overview of how Pivotal Labs does design.
Nina Mehta: “You have a buddy to basically share the mind space with and get immediate feedback. All of the benefits of pair programming are very similar from pair designing.”
Original source: Ways We Work: Pivotal Labs
Link: Volkswagen CIO Martin Hofmann: IT experts in our labs work the Silicon Valley way – Automotive World
‘Hofmann commented that at the same time Volkswagen was establishing new workstyles which are being further developed. “Our IT experts in our labs in Berlin and Munich work the Silicon Valley way, we have brought the Valley to Volkswagen. Pivotal is supporting our experts with over 20 experts from San Francisco and Boulder, Colorado, and is training them in new software development methods. Our aim is to firmly anchor these skills and workstyles in the Group and in Germany. In the medium term, there will be more than 600 programmers, data scientists, design thinking experts and cloud architects working in our labs in Berlin, Munich and San Francisco”, Hofmann said.’
Original source: Volkswagen CIO Martin Hofmann: IT experts in our labs work the Silicon Valley way – Automotive World
Link: Curing Handoff-itis
“I feel like it is just making our products so much better and so much more usable and user friendly. Having that integration with design rather than some sort of a hand-off, just means we get something into user’s hands quicker.”
Original source: Curing Handoff-itis
