This is a very important point.

I agree that, provided you have an IaaS/PaaS setup, you are able to use a DevOps cross-functional team.

However, I am afraid it requires relieving the DevOps team from duties “chaotic by nature”, like those related to major issues with availability, load, storage… (at least if predictability is important for you)

During the last fifteen years, we have struggled to control the chaos inherent to software development. Well-managed iterative lifecycles isolate the team from external distractions (feature requests, changes on existing features, non-critical bugs…). These distractions are delayed until the ongoing iteration is completed, so the team stays focused, and the actual outcome is closer to the plan.

The problem is: How do we fit typical sysadmin “firefights” here? They have the potential to ruin your velocity, and if key people are involved, even delay entire releases…

In a DevOps scenario, either “the Cloud services” handle these issues, or predictability will be sacrified in order to keep agile and cross-functional teams.

Well… we’ll see :)

In this post, I tried to give just enough of an overview to make my point about the relationship between devops and cloud computing. There’s a lot more to say about both topics.

which was on high scalability a few months back, covers some of the same points — and also has some concrete suggestions to move two split, distrustful teams in that direction. In a previous workplace, which had this problem to an extreme degree, this helped us at least get a few people from the opposing team (in that case, dev) working closer together.

right, since agile software development and agile system administration (scrum etc.) Development and Ops can only work in a full fledged team.
OPS System Architects + Dev Application Architects need to work closely together.

But as I said, it’s just old school in new words ;)

regards,

\sh

This workflow is old school, but only now it got momentum and is discussed publicly.

Regards,

\sh