Blog

In late 2016, I set a goal to start and run a successful weekly newsletter. I decided that DevOps would be the topic. On December 11, 2016, DevOps’ish was born. After fifty-two weeks of uninterrupted DevOps newsletters, I have some things to share about the experience. The amount of effort writing a weekly newsletter for the past year has changed over time. As you write a newsletter the format evolves. As you get busier and busier the format self optimizes. I’ve done one thing to make the time required to write the newsletter by hand more manageable; write DevOps’ish on Saturday night. If a family or sporting event is going to prevent me from writing the newsletter on Saturday around 8:30, I do it Friday. The consistency is key; you set the tone for yourself, those around you, and your readers. ...

Getting Started with Kubernetes sounds like quite a daunting feat. How do you get started with “an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications”? Let’s examine Kubernetes’ beginning. Containers have been in use for a very long time in the Unix world. Linux containers are popular thanks to projects like Docker. Google created Process Containers in 2006 and later realized they needed a way to maintain all these containers. Borg was born as an internal Google project and many tools sprang from its users. Omega was then built iterating on Borg. Omega maintained cluster state separate from the cluster members thus breaking Borg’s monolith. Finally, Kubernetes sprung from Google. Kubernetes is now maintained by Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s members and contributors. ...

This is the e-mail I sent out this morning to Bankrate folks explaining my decision to leave the company. It’s as much business related as it is personal. I’m displaying it here because I believe in openness and transparency. Fellow Bankraters, Today, after serious consideration, I tendered my resignation as Manager of DevOps at Bankrate. There are a few reasons behind this decision that merit some explanation: I have reached a point in my life where I can take a moment to figure out exactly what it is I want to be when I “grow up.” Life is all about balance. Not being able to take part in significant life events this year has shown me that I need to focus on what matters most to me. It’s time I take a deep breath and determine how best to balance the role of husband, father, and community leader while coping with a permanent, debilitating nerve injury and other issues this position has exposed that I can no longer effectively manage while working at Bankrate. ...

I had the opportunity to participate in All Things Open this week. It was quite an experience. 3300+ people who are all part of the open source software community all in one place is truly moving. Even better they let me take a mic on one of the main stages to give a modified version of my DevOps README.md talk. I can’t thank the opensource.com crew enough for the opportunity. This is also available at devopsreadme.com ...

As previously mentioned, I spoke at DevOpsDays Raleigh. It was an awesome experience organizing and participating at the event! Videos from DevOpsDays Raleigh 2017 were recently released on YouTube. I wanted to take a moment to share the one’s I was a subject in here. The first video is from my Dark Side of DevOps talk. The second video is from Ignite Karoke the second day (which I highly recommend). The Dark Side of DevOps - Chris Short Watch Now: The Dark Side of DevOps — DevOpsDays Raleigh 2017 ...