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> Why do devops keep piling abstractions on top of abstractions? Mostly, because developers keep trying to replace sysadmins with higher levels of abstraction.
by dijit 2y ago
> Why do devops keep piling abstractions on top of abstractions?
Mostly, because developers keep trying to replace sysadmins with higher levels of abstraction. Then when they realise that they require (some new word for) sysadmins still, they pile on more abstractions again and claim they don't need them.
The abstraction du-jour is not Kubernetes at the moment, it's FaaS. At some point managing those FaaS will require operators again and another abstraction on top of FaaS will exist, some kind of FaaS orchestrator, and the cycle will continue.
- robertlagrant 2y agoI think it's clear that Kubernetes et al aren't trying to replace sysadmins. They're trying to massively increase the ratio of sysadmin:machine.
- dijit 2y agoFair point. Kubernetes seems to have been designed as a system to abstract across large physical machines, but instead we're using it in "right-sized" VM environments, which is solving the exact same set of problems in a different way. Similar to how we developed a language that could use many cores very well, and compiles to a single binary, but we use that language almost exclusively in environments that scale by running multiple instances of the same executable on the same machine, and package/distribute that executable in a complicated tarball/zipping process. I wonder if there's a name for this, solving the same problem twice but combining the solutions in a way that renders the benefits moot.
- nejsjsjsbsb 2y agoThere are no sysadmins though in the new model. There are teams of engineers who code Go, do kubernetes stuff and go on call. They may occasionally Google some sysadmin knowledge. They replace sysadmins like drivers replace the person in front of the Model T waving a flag. Or pilots replace navigators.