How Infrastructure as Code is not being delivered quick enough – #cloud #aws #azure #agile #scrum #kanban #InfrastructureAsCode

I have been working in functional delivery for quite sometime.  Anyone who has seen my CV will know that I am someone who likes to take on new challenges, to learn new things and become seen as the way to do things in whatever area I own.  Recently I took a big step out of a trading organisation and into an infrastructure organisation.  This was a big departure from what I know (and to a certain extent loved doing).  I really enjoyed delivering code to a customer so they can execute their processes and add value to a company – it’s what I have been about for years.  Moving to infrastructure, and more specifically taking on a cloud program was a big shift.

Now, walking into a cloud delivery from a highly functional delivery background was something that worried me, I will confess that networking, installing tin, etc, was and is something that is very foreign.  What I soon noticed is that cloud delivery is actually very aligned to code / functional delivery.  A lot of the best practice for code delivery can port over to the cloud environment quite easily.  Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of network and firewall activity still to be done, but a lot of the elements related to machine builds are no longer the same.  Functional practice and skills really come to the forefront.

What has become apparent over the last two or three months is that people who do infrastructure as a business DON’T know about delivering code.  And people who deliver code DON’T know about delivering infrastructure.

There is a gap.  A BIG one.

Because of this, the people who do infrastructure projects, and who naturally feel they are able to implement cloud, want to use waterfall – they know that process works, and they know they can get it to be successful.  This leads to design, analysis, build out, testing, etc.  which is a process that take months.  A cloud programme can actually be delivered significantly more quickly using agile.  Significantly more quickly.  It has staggered me the small number of people who realise this.

Companies can and should now crash together their functional delivery teams into the infrastructure teams to make the most of the new way of working.  The quicker they do this the quicker they will really understand the potential and power of the cloud, and the quicker they will get the cloud up and running…

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