Tech & Work World

“What kind of company do you think we are?”

Here’s some excerpts from a FierceDevOps column I submitted yesterday.

Quick tip: if you’re in a room full managers and executives from non-technology companies and one of them asks, “what kind of company do you think we are?”…no matter what type of company they are, the answer is always “a technology company.” That’s the trope us in the technology industry have successfully deployed into the market in recent years. And, indeed, rather than this tip being backhanded mocking, it’s praise. These companies are taking advantage of the opportunity to use software and connected devices in novel ways to establish competitive advantage in their businesses. They’re angling to win customer cash by having better software and technology than their competitors.

And, later revisiting my old IT - SaaS = what? trope…

There’s another “horseman” in the broader industry that’s driving the need to change how IT departments are structured: the rise of SaaS. Before the advent of SaaS across application categories, software had to be run and managed in-house (or handed off to outsources to run): each company needed its own team of people to manage each instance of the application.

Source: 451 Research/ChangeWave

As SaaS use grows more and more, that staffing need changes. How many IT staff members are needed to keep Google Apps or Microsoft’s Office 365 up and running? How many IT staff do you need to manage the storage for Salesforce or Successfactors? Indeed, I would argue that companies use more and more SaaS instead of on-premises packaged software, the staffing needs change dramatically: they lessen. You can look at this in a cost-cutting way, as in “let’s reduce the budget!” Hopefully you can look at it in a growth way instead: we’ve freed up the budget to focus on something more valuable to the business. In most cases, that thing will writing custom software. That is: developers.

Quick Hits

• While I’m normally not a fan of April Fool’s things (you know, humorless kill-joy that I am), I liked the HuevOS, Starbucks DevOpsTogether, and tumblr ones.

• The second in my Pivotal Conversations podcast series is up, talking with James Watters about the new Pivotal Cloud Foundry release. We’re gussying up how we publish the podcasts to please you better.

Fun & IRL

#WorkingFromHome

I’ve been collecting some little aphorisms and such on working from home when you have young kids. I find it extremely challenging, and rewarding at the same time. I’m curious how other people cope. Part of the issue is that, with a 1.5 and 5 year old, about once every 30 minutes someone is crying or wants attention. There’s just no letting up. If you’re the parent working, you have to just ignore it, which is weird.

Here’s something I wrote up recently:

The end of the day is the worst. Your family asks you every five minutes when you’ll be done; they start wanting to play with you. At the same time, you’re desperately trying to find time to get done. Each time they interact with you, it slows you down.

The answer, of course, is the same as always: you have to control access to you in a way that;s not assholey. Lock a door, go to a distant room. You have to hide.

Five year olds aren;t up to speed on the cost of context switching and haven’t read the maker/manager essay.

Anyhow, I think there’s a good presentation in collecting enough tips and, more helpful, counseling to make it work.

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