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From my understanding of DevOps, it's one of those things that is impossibly difficult to outsource, just like Product Management. On surface the output is mere

From my understanding of DevOps, it's one of those things that is impossibly difficult to outsource, just like Product Management. On surface the output is merely specifications, and product sketches but there are plenty of things including foreseeing execution, customer development, and measurement that needs to be covered to add real value. Can you really implement processes, see response of team towards them, enforce practices, monitor everything without being part of the team?

nodesocket 10y ago
You bring up great points, and I think it really depends on the organization and how far along they are. Typically we like to focus on smaller companies (let's say handfuls of employees), heads down in product development. Usually for them, outsourcing infrastructure scale, uptime, performance, and security makes sense. Second, we've found another good vertical are design and website agencies. Almost always they don't have anybody doing professional ops, yet they have contracts to build and host large websites with millions of pageviews a month. They tend to also be good fits.
- shubhamjain 10y ago
  Targeting small teams seems to be a good idea. I can concur that there are many teams for whom setting anything on servers can be an excruciating experience. But, in my opinion, your offering is too broad. When should a team call you? Should they rely completely on you to set their servers? Should they contact you when something gets broke? What happens when you are not around? What happens if you (in extremely unlikely scenario) 'rm -rf' some important stuff? But best of luck with your venture!
- bogomipz 10y ago
  That makes sense, I commented on similar earlier. Are you also getting the use case of an outsourced "on call" or companies in the "just launched a month ago" category? I would think these would also be good fits in addition to the smaller but established companies like you mentioned design shops etc. How have you been generating leads? Word of mouth? Congrats on your launch by the way. I wish you success.
bogomipz 10y ago
I think you bring up some really good points. I think that DevOps is very team-centric and to some extent cross-team centric and removing that can make for an uneven environment. I do think there are parts of it you can outsource such as first line on-call and I also think that DevOps as a service has a use case in a brand new start who maybe hasn't had time or needed to hire any DevOps personnel. But as a longer term play I think it runs contra to some of the ideas of DevOps.

nodesocket 10y ago

You bring up great points, and I think it really depends on the organization and how far along they are. Typically we like to focus on smaller companies (let's say handfuls of employees), heads down in product development. Usually for them, outsourcing infrastructure scale, uptime, performance, and security makes sense. Second, we've found another good vertical are design and website agencies. Almost always they don't have anybody doing professional ops, yet they have contracts to build and host large websites with millions of pageviews a month. They tend to also be good fits.

shubhamjain 10y ago
Targeting small teams seems to be a good idea. I can concur that there are many teams for whom setting anything on servers can be an excruciating experience. But, in my opinion, your offering is too broad. When should a team call you? Should they rely completely on you to set their servers? Should they contact you when something gets broke? What happens when you are not around? What happens if you (in extremely unlikely scenario) 'rm -rf' some important stuff? But best of luck with your venture!
bogomipz 10y ago
That makes sense, I commented on similar earlier. Are you also getting the use case of an outsourced "on call" or companies in the "just launched a month ago" category? I would think these would also be good fits in addition to the smaller but established companies like you mentioned design shops etc. How have you been generating leads? Word of mouth? Congrats on your launch by the way. I wish you success.

bogomipz 10y ago

I think you bring up some really good points. I think that DevOps is very team-centric and to some extent cross-team centric and removing that can make for an uneven environment. I do think there are parts of it you can outsource such as first line on-call and I also think that DevOps as a service has a use case in a brand new start who maybe hasn't had time or needed to hire any DevOps personnel. But as a longer term play I think it runs contra to some of the ideas of DevOps.