Focus: Agile DevOps

Your expert guide to building collaborative, cross-functional teams

 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide In this e-guide:

Businesses in every industry are finding themselves under
Overcoming the business
pressure to out-innovate their competitors, and push out new
and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption products and services to customers at an ever-increasing rate.

Where the IT department is concerned, being able to deliver on

DevOps done right: Creating
both these trends may require a fundamental overhaul of how it
a collaborative and
supportive business culture operates, through the breaking down of organisational silos into
multiple, collaborative, cross-functional DevOps teams.
Want disciplined DevOps
With each of these teams often responsible for overseeing the
software delivery?
continued development of a particular part of an application,
Case study: Trinity Mirror service or website, adopting a DevOps approach to software
Group taps into cloud, agile delivery can rapidly speed up the time it takes to rollout new
and microservices to boost
features and functions.
web user experience
In this guide, we take a closer look at how some household names
Case study: HSBC combines have benefited from DevOps, while sharing some best practice
AWS with agile thinking to
around tackling both the technical and cultural aspects of
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking adopting it successfully.

Caroline Donnelly, datacentre editor

Case study: The need for
speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 1 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption Caroline Donnelly, datacentre editor

The topic of DevOps has dominated discussions at many of the major IT

DevOps done right: Creating
conferences this year, with suppliers and analysts lining up to warn
a collaborative and
supportive business culture enterprises about the business risks of failing to adopt a more agile
approach to software development.

Want disciplined DevOps

Enterprises that want to maintain their competitive edge, it's often claimed,
software delivery?
can no longer afford to embark on large and lengthy software development
and testing cycles, presided over by disparate groups of developers and IT
Case study: Trinity Mirror operations staff.
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost Instead, software should be created in a more collaborative way with
web user experience
developers and operations working in small teams to test and release
updates and new products at a faster rate than ever before, using
Case study: HSBC combines automation and monitoring tools.
AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for But, for enterprises entrenched in the old way of software development,
mobile banking adopting a DevOps style of working isn't going to be easy for CIOs without
buy-in from the whole IT department.
Case study: The need for
speed: Inside the cloud
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Page 2 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

"On the face of it, DevOps sounds brilliantly straightforward, but the worlds
In this e-guide of 'development' and 'operations' hide a variety of job functions. Moreover,
the teams in these camps have traditionally had very little interaction with
Overcoming the business one another," says Gautam Mitra, founder of IT training company Unicom
and technology barriers to
Seminars.
DevOps adoption
"It's relatively easy to put the right tools and processes in place, but you
DevOps done right: Creating can't ignore culture -- and getting these two camps to work together and
a collaborative and collaborate calls for a big change."
supportive business culture
Jumping in with DevOps
Want disciplined DevOps
Ordnance Survey, while famed for the production of paper-based maps, also
software delivery?
develops software for its in-house teams of cartographers and surveyors,
government agencies, utility companies and building firms.
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile Keith Watson, agile delivery manager at Ordnance Survey, has gone down
and microservices to boost
the DevOps route as part of a wider push to improve communication and
web user experience
collaboration between its various teams.

Case study: HSBC combines In the past Ordnance Survey ran a software infrastructure team and a
AWS with agile thinking to second team for building the environments required.
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking "There was a degree of customer dissatisfaction with the service we
provided, in the sense that we couldn't keep up with the demand from
Case study: The need for developers, which meant there were long lead times in providing them with
speed: Inside the cloud
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Page 3 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

environments; and they were created in a manual way with semi-automated

In this e-guide scripts," says Watson.

Overcoming the business "So, not only did it take us a long time to provide these individual
and technology barriers to environments, sometimes they weren't always the same."
DevOps adoption
This often led to disagreements between the software development and
DevOps done right: Creating
infrastructure building teams, as the environments they delivered didn't
a collaborative and always quite fit the bill.
supportive business culture
To rectify this, Watson created small groups of developers and
infrastructure architects, while doing away with the ticketing system used to
Want disciplined DevOps
communicate requests between these groups.
software delivery?

"After they got into the teams, the value of sitting everyone next to each
Case study: Trinity Mirror other became apparent very quickly -- not only in understanding their
Group taps into cloud, agile requirements but they all got to see that the developers and the
and microservices to boost
environment team were real people and they got on quite well," explains
web user experience
Watson.

Case study: HSBC combines Changing the technology game

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for Embracing a DevOps way of working may sometimes require the overhaul of
mobile banking a company's IT infrastructure, and many organisations advocate moving to
the cloud as an important first move.
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speed: Inside the cloud
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

Cloud services -- such as Amazon Web Services EC2 -- can provide DevOps
In this e-guide teams with quick, on-demand access to the computing resources required,
affording them a level of agility they might not get from on-premise
Overcoming the business technologies.
and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption "Cloud, much like DevOps, emerged as a way to improve flexibility in
organisations, helping projects react more quickly to changing
DevOps done right: Creating circumstances," Unicom's Mitra explains.
a collaborative and
supportive business culture "There's some debate about whether cloud is driving/facilitating DevOps or
if DevOps is prompting the need for cloud. No two implementations will be
Want disciplined DevOps the same so, depending on the case in hand, either scenario could hold true
software delivery? -- but what is clear is that DevOps and cloud are intricately linked."

But that's not to say cloud is a necessity for DevOps success, says Jon
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Cowie, staff operations engineer at online marketplace Etsy, which has
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
taken a DevOps approach to software delivery since 2009. Cowie says the
web user experience approach allows it to update the site every 20 minutes with no loss of
service for its 20.8 million users.
Case study: HSBC combines
While he admits the cloud has its place in some DevOps deployments, his
AWS with agile thinking to
firm's operations are underpinned by on-premise infrastructure in its own
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking datacentre.

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

"Because of the way our site traffic works, we don't have to deal with bursts
In this e-guide of traffic, because our traffic pattern follows relatively predictable seasonal
trends, and we are actually able to predict with a high degree of accuracy
Overcoming the business what our traffic is going to look like at any given point," he says.
and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption "If we were dealing with bursty traffic like Netflix and sudden peaks in
demand, it'd be a much different story."
DevOps done right: Creating
a collaborative and Appraise aims before investing in DevOps
supportive business culture
In Ordnance Survey's case, there wasn't much in the way of technology
preparation, recalls Watson, as the organisation was already using internal
Want disciplined DevOps
clouds, side-by-side with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, in
software delivery?
developing software.

Case study: Trinity Mirror Even if they weren't, Simon Parkes, an infrastructure architect at Ordnance
Group taps into cloud, agile Survey, says that wouldn't have stood in the way of the organisation's
and microservices to boost
DevOps push.
web user experience

"There is a danger -- particularly when you look at other case studies on

Case study: HSBC combines DevOps -- that technology can end up being a barrier to getting going,
AWS with agile thinking to because it requires a lot of upfront technology investments in building out
tap into growing demand for
cloud capabilities," says Parkes.
mobile banking
"Because ours was a cultural and working practice change, first and
Case study: The need for foremost, we took the view of just finding a project and getting started
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

straightaway, instead of getting too bogged down in the technology

In this e-guide groundwork."

Overcoming the business Clearly, going down the DevOps route requires a lot of business and
and technology barriers to technology preparation -- and it's not necessarily a way of working that will
DevOps adoption suit every organisation.

DevOps done right: Creating

"There's not a definitive end to DevOps -- it's a way of approaching
a collaborative and development -- but have a good idea about what you hope to achieve before
supportive business culture implementing the change, as the investment can be high," cautions Mitra.

"In other words, don't do it just because everyone else is."

Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?

Next article
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
web user experience

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 7 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption

Caroline Donnelly, datacentre editor

DevOps done right: Creating
a collaborative and A happy, productive and high-functioning IT department, staffed with people
supportive business culture who look forward to coming to work each day, is something all CIOs aspire
to run.
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery? It is an aspiration, though, that many are doomed never to realise unless they
are willing to commit to cultivating a good working culture, says Helen Beal,
Case study: Trinity Mirror
a DevOpsologist at London-based digital transformation consultancy,
Group taps into cloud, agile Ranger4.
and microservices to boost
web user experience
structured and operates, and what IT departments should be looking to
Case study: HSBC combines
AWS with agile thinking to Weekly.
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking
are also to be avoided, because what you are looking to create is a

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
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Page 8 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide contributes to

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption
For IT departments drowning in technical debt and helpdesk tickets (as the
DevOps done right: Creating
legacy technology the business runs on lurches from one system failure to
a collaborative and another), meaningful work can be difficult to come by.
supportive business culture
Particularly as getting whatever system has fallen over back up and running
again takes priority over projects that could improve the customer
Want disciplined DevOps
experience, and deliver real value back to the business.
software delivery?

Addressing problems head-on

Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile In this type of situation, the best thing an IT department can do is resolve to
and microservices to boost address the technical debt and legacy technology problems head-on, says
web user experience Beal.

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to department under pressure to produce more innovation while working with
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 9 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide throttle change in their organisation to give themselves the time and space
they need to tackle the technical debt, but it can be a very h
Overcoming the business
and technology barriers to Not doing so can have a detrimental impact on staff morale, as the IT
DevOps adoption department gets it in the neck whenever one of the creaking legacy systems
the company runs on fails.
DevOps done right: Creating
a collaborative and Stuck in a cycle of firefighting
supportive business culture
This is a situation Oliver Wood, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) architect
now working for managed service provider Solarwinds, knows only too well.
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?

at the time, and it was because I was stuck in that cycle of firefighting,
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile root cause of the issue we were simply fixing the system when it was on
and microservices to boost
web user experience

Getting stuck in a day-to-day rut like that can negatively affect how people
Case study: HSBC combines feel about the quality of the work.
AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for Hannah Foxwell, co-founder and director of cloud platform and automation
mobile banking consultancy Pendrica, experienced this several years ago, while working as
an IT programme manager at a UK supermarket chain.
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speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

The organisation was heavily siloed and operating a sizeable legacy IT

In this e-guide environment, despite the best efforts of Foxwell and her team to keep it up
and running.
Overcoming the business
and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption ship code into this environment reliably. You then dig a little deeper and

DevOps done right: Creating

a collaborative and Before this realisation, though, the tendency in her team was to blame
supportive business culture themselves for any technical difficulties that arose and assume they were
terrible at their jobs.
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror Stopping the break-fix cycle

Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost Getting locked in to a break-fix-style support cycle on a day-to-day basis
web user experience can be physically and mentally draining too, says Wood.

Case study: HSBC combines -fighting, and the root cause is not being
AWS with agile thinking to addressed, you will always be fire-fighting, but what organisations should
tap into growing demand for want are people who are being productive, are happy with what they are
mobile banking doing and not half-
says.
Case study: The need for
speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

It is not just the operations team who find working under conditions like this
In this e-guide a drag, says Beal.

Overcoming the business ll be the ones getting the

and technology barriers to rough end of the deal, as all the annoyed employees complaining at them,
DevOps adoption while operations will are likely to have someone shouting at them to get the

DevOps done right: Creating

a collaborative and The pressure on operations to fix the problem can be exacerbated by the
supportive business culture fact the root cause may be down to an errant piece of code or some other
change the development team is responsible for pushing through.
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?
operations team about the configuration of the environment, but the point is

Case study: Trinity Mirror

says Beal.
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
Culture of collaboration
web user experience

To prevent scenes like this, CIOs should take steps to open up lines of
Case study: HSBC combines communication between all members of the IT department, irrespective of
AWS with agile thinking to job role, and encourage collaboration between the developers, operations
tap into growing demand for
and the support staff to thrive.
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide involvement in a problem is something

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to This can be achieved by breaking down the traditional IT department siloes,
DevOps adoption and reorganising people into small, cross-functional team units, paving the
way for developers, operations and support to work side-by-side in a
DevOps done right: Creating DevOps-like fashion.
a collaborative and
supportive business culture

Want disciplined DevOps

software delivery? she says.

Case study: Trinity Mirror

the operations team who have networks, security and support all separate
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
as well. The end result is that collaboration between developers and
web user experience operation is not very good, or within the operations team itself, and that can

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to
conflict can arise between the disparate groups of people that make up a
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking
workplace environment.

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

Working in this way can contribute to people in these silos feeling as though
In this e-guide they are being pitted against one another, says Foxwell, particularly when it
comes to apportioning blame for outages and system failures.
Overcoming the business
and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption hing

DevOps done right: Creating

a collaborative and
supportive business culture when the environments went down the
developers would get the blame, and it b
Want disciplined DevOps
Cross-functional career development
software delivery?

Depending on the size of the IT department, each cross-functional team can

Case study: Trinity Mirror be tasked with looking all or part of an application, website or service, paving
Group taps into cloud, agile the way for them to create, test and deploy secure and compliant code into
and microservices to boost
production environments multiple times a day.
web user experience

Getting to this point, though, will require CIOs to address how the IT
Case study: HSBC combines organisation views failure, as this can have a direct impact on the creative
AWS with agile thinking to output of these cross-functional teams, says Beal.
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking This is important because innovation and experimentation are intrinsically
linked, and punishing people when their efforts do not pay off may
Case study: The need for encourage them to play it safe in future.
speed: Inside the cloud
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

It is a notion cloud giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) subscribes to, and is
In this e-guide one the organisation credits with allowing it to rapidly expand the
functionality of its platforms and services on a daily basis.
Overcoming the business
and technology barriers to AWS CEO Andy Jassy describes failure as a by-product of innovation, and a
DevOps adoption sign of how high productive its cross-functional teams are.

DevOps done right: Creating are innovating en

a collaborative and he says.
supportive business culture

Want disciplined DevOps

software delivery?
In a bad working culture, employees are often made to feel like failure is a

Case study: Trinity Mirror

impact on their workplace reputation and career prospects, says Beal.
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
web user experience
organisation has built in systems that allow employees to fail safe, fail smart

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to And by that, she means technologies that allow the reinstatement of the last
tap into growing demand for
known good state of system should the deployment of a new piece of code
mobile banking
adversely affect its performance.

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide us to pre-empt system failures, and when they do occur fix it and identify

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to Adjusting CIO attitudes towards experimentation
DevOps adoption
For more risk-adverse CIOs, getting them to adjust their attitude to
DevOps done right: Creating
experimentation and failure may require these cross-functional teams to
a collaborative and engage in a few trust-building exercises first.
supportive business culture

executives who have been in the job 30 or so years and have seen a lot of
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror can do all the time, and get them comfortable with the fact it is possible to
Group taps into cloud, agile do multiple code rel
and microservices to boost
web user experience From a technology perspective, isolating what needed to be done to shore
up and stabilise failure-prone IT systems was relatively straightforward, says
Case study: HSBC combines -in for her DevOps
AWS with agile thinking to transformation plans from the relevant stakeholders.
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking DevOps and continuous delivery, I
was given the remit to embed the principles in my team, but when it came to
Case study: The need for
speed: Inside the cloud
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business Cultivating a working culture that supports experimentation, encourages
and technology barriers to collaboration and celebrates failure will take time, and is often the hardest
DevOps adoption part of any digital transformation project, says Beal.

DevOps done right: Creating

And for this reason, it is important for CIOs not to lose sight of what it is
a collaborative and
supportive business culture process is complete.

y is a long one for a lot of companies because what

Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?
in a certain way and we want to change that. They have habits we would like
to break and reform, and that can be very hard to do,
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
Next article
web user experience

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 17 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption Yvette Francino, guest contributor

The first of Agile's 12 principles reads: "Our highest priority is to satisfy the
DevOps done right: Creating
customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software." In
a collaborative and
supportive business culture Agile organizations, DevOps software teams are tasked with just that. They
are continually improving deployment procedures through the use of a
variety of techniques and practices. These techniques, aligned with Agile
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery? and lean principles, seek to eliminate waste and deliver high-quality software
as quickly as possible to the customer. Let's take a look at six of the
development practices that Disciplined Agile Delivery recommends for
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile
disciplined DevOps teams.
and microservices to boost
1. Canary tests
web user experience

One of the primary reasons DevOps software teams work at frequent, quick
Case study: HSBC combines delivery to customers is in order to get feedback that can then be used to
AWS with agile thinking to
inform future development. Canary tests are those that test the outcome of
tap into growing demand for
delivery of functionality to a subset of customers. By comparing the results
mobile banking
between those who get the function and those who don't, the team has the
ability to evaluate whether the functionality provides the desired outcomes.
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 Focus: Agile DevOps

For example, let's say a company wants to provide a function that will allow
In this e-guide users a discount in order to incentivize them to purchase more; however,
they're not certain whether users will buy additional nondiscounted items as
Overcoming the business hoped, providing an overall positive revenue. The functionality is deployed to
and technology barriers to
a small subset of users and the canary test is passed if the results are
DevOps adoption
positive. The team can decide to further expand the canary tests to a bigger
population to increase the level of confidence that the functionality is acting
DevOps done right: Creating as expected before deploying to all their customers.
a collaborative and
supportive business culture 2. Split tests

Want disciplined DevOps Split tests, also called A/B tests, are similar to canary tests in that they also
software delivery? provide quick feedback to the team by evaluating usage by actual
customers. With split tests, multiple options are available in parallel for users.
Case study: Trinity Mirror By gathering usage data, DevOps software teams are able to gain insights
Group taps into cloud, agile into customer preferences that may, in turn, drive sales or customer
and microservices to boost satisfaction. For example, if there are two different screens available on an
web user experience application that each provide the same functionality, but in a different
manner, and one workflow or screen design is clearly more popular, this may
Case study: HSBC combines help feed decisions about future enhancements or screen designs going
AWS with agile thinking to forward.
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

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 Focus: Agile DevOps

3. Automated regression testing

In this e-guide
Arguably the most important and widely known development strategy,
Overcoming the business automated regression testing will not only provide the high-level of quality
and technology barriers to required before deploying to production, it will save much time and effort
DevOps adoption over extensive and laborious manual testing. Agile teams often promote
practices such as Test Driven Development, in which programmatic unit
DevOps done right: Creating tests are written even before the code is written. Using this practice of
a collaborative and creating the tests first guarantees that DevOps software development
supportive business culture teams will have automated unit tests with all of their code.

Want disciplined DevOps 4. Continuous integration

software delivery?
Once regression tests are automated, a continuous integration system
allows for automatic validation across code from multiple developers or
Case study: Trinity Mirror
teams, as a complete set of regression tests are run every time a developer
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
checks in new code. If a test fails, the code which caused the failure does
web user experience not get integrated into the code base, and the developer is notified of the
failure. In this way, only code that will not introduce a defect will be included
Case study: HSBC combines
in the integrated environment. Other tests such as schema analysis may be
AWS with agile thinking to run to validate the integrity of the build and will help to ensure that the
tap into growing demand for integrated code is high quality.
mobile banking

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 Focus: Agile DevOps

5. Continuous deployment
In this e-guide
The next logical step after continuous integration is the practice of
Overcoming the business continuous deployment. Continuous deployment extends the practice of
and technology barriers to continuous integration by automatically promoting the code to the next
DevOps adoption highest environment, with the potential to deploy all the way to production.
Because the cost of defects is much higher once they're in a production
DevOps done right: Creating environment, some DevOps software teams may want to employ additional
a collaborative and manual tests, though mature teams do have deployment processes
supportive business culture completely automated with no manual intervention.

Want disciplined DevOps 6. Development intelligence

software delivery?
Development intelligence is the use of data warehouse and business
intelligence data that help development teams assess their process and
Case study: Trinity Mirror
delivery effectiveness. Data can be combined and rolled up across an
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
organization and displayed via an integrated dashboard that will inform
web user experience teams of how they're doing and provide insights into areas they could
improve. They might be able to uncover bottlenecks in processes or feed
Case study: HSBC combines
data up at a portfolio level, providing transparency through an organization.
AWS with agile thinking to
There's a lot of confusion about exactly what DevOps means, but put simply,
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking it's about optimizing the software deployment and delivery processes
through the use of automation, tools and techniques. These six development

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Page 21 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

strategies will help your DevOps software teams optimize flow and deliver to
In this e-guide the customer faster and with higher quality.

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to Next article
DevOps adoption

DevOps done right: Creating

a collaborative and
supportive business culture

Want disciplined DevOps

software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror

Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
web user experience

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 22 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption

Caroline Donnelly, datacentre editor

DevOps done right: Creating
a collaborative and The rise of search engine optimisation (SEO) and social networking sites
supportive business culture have drastically changed the way many internet users access and consume
news content, while making the process of engendering brand loyalty that
Want disciplined DevOps bit harder for online publishing houses.
software delivery?
In response to these pressures, regional and national newspaper publisher
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Trinity Mirror Group overhauled its technology strategy and the
Group taps into cloud, agile management of its IT delivery teams to ensure the 100 million unique visitors
and microservices to boost to its news sites each month keep coming back.
web user experience
For Neil McIntyre, director of engineering for digital at Trinity Mirror Group,
and his 70-strong team of developers, product testers, project managers
Case study: HSBC combines
AWS with agile thinking to and system administration staff, this has meant adopting agile working
tap into growing demand for methodologies, cloud-based computing services and new user experience
mobile banking monitoring tools.

Case study: The need for

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 Focus: Agile DevOps

vering the desktop and mobile websites and the

In this e-guide mobile app for our core newspaper business. We ensure that the technology

Overcoming the business he said.

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption e can deliver new code as
frequently as we can and measure the effect of that, because we have to
DevOps done right: Creating make sure everything we do has a positive business and technology impact
a collaborative and
supportive business culture
A move to AWS cloud
Want disciplined DevOps
The preparatory work for this started around 2011- 2012, when Trinity Mirror
software delivery?
Group canned a nine-year partnership with its previous hosting provider, and
set about moving its sites over to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud.
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Around the same time, it also embarked on a push that would see it swap its
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
bespoke content management system (CMS) for an off-the-shelf,
web user experience commercial offering.

The latter move was embarked on as part of a wider redesign of its news
Case study: HSBC combines
sites which include The Daily Mirror, The Daily Record and The
AWS with agile thinking to
Manchester Evening News
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking McIntyre.

Case study: The need for

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Page 24 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

in Amazon, and the migration over to them was also

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to point of failure as it just had one datacentre, and we suffered a few outages
DevOps adoption that ended up being quite expensive. One of the remits I was given, on the

DevOps done right: Creating

a collaborative and During this process, the company considered going down the private cloud
supportive business culture route and sourcing the services of another dedicated hosting provider, but
decided to go with AWS instead.
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?
and their self-service tools for creating instances were way ahead of what

Case study: Trinity Mirror

Group taps into cloud, agile nt to delivering a positive user
and microservices to boost
experience and its past history of outages,
web user experience
and failover datacentres were also a big lure, added McIntyre.

Case study: HSBC combines Performance monitoring challenges

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for As the roll-out of the CMS and its site redesigns progressed through 2012
mobile banking and 2013, McIntyre said his team started to realise the tools they had in
place to monitor the performance of its web properties were not fit for
Case study: The need for purpose any more.
speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 25 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

Particularly when it came to ascertaining, in real-time, what the user

In this e-guide experience was like for visitors to the news sites as his team began rolling
out website code, he added.
Overcoming the business
and technology barriers to formance of page loads
DevOps adoption

DevOps done right: Creating

a collaborative and
supportive business culture For example, if users reported slow page loading times at a specific time of
night on a particular mobile device, it would be difficult for the firm to
Want disciplined DevOps ascertain the cause.
software delivery?

code we released that was causing a problem for a specific mobile

Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
This kicked-off another period of product evaluation in 2014, as the
web user experience
company set about finding a suitable tool to fit the bill, in anticipation of
another wave of website redesigns.
Case study: HSBC combines
AWS with agile thinking to McIntyre said the priority was to find a customisable technology that would
tap into growing demand for
allow it monitor the performance of any part of its front-end operations,
mobile banking
including page loading times and the activities of the third-party tool called
Omniture it uses to measure website traffic.
Case study: The need for
speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 26 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

The organisation had some ambitious page load speed targets to hit in the
In this e-guide
performance analytics tool, mPulse.
Overcoming the business
and technology barriers to bout the mPulse product was the depth and the amount of
DevOps adoption data

DevOps done right: Creating

Having this in place, he explained, paved the way for the organisation to
a collaborative and adopt a continuous delivery approach to rolling out new code across its
supportive business culture sites.

Want disciplined DevOps

frequent enough, but having this product in place allows us to understand
software delivery?

continued.
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile Reorganising the team for continuous delivery
and microservices to boost
web user experience In support of its continuous delivery
underwent a restructure that has seen it adopt a more DevOps-friendly style
Case study: HSBC combines of working too.
AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for -functional, product delivery teams, featuring
mobile banking business analysts, developers and testers that are all working towards
achieving specific business goal, as we move to adopt a more services-
Case study: The need for
speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 27 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

However, there are still some areas still to address before his team is in a
In this e-guide position to release code changes throughout the day, but with mPulse and
a lot of the groundwork has been
Overcoming the business laid.
and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption which
is used across 29 of its core websites and is built using a single code base
DevOps done right: Creating into a microservices architecture.
a collaborative and
supportive business culture This is the process by which a larger web application is built using a
compositive of smaller, modular services that are easier to update
Want disciplined DevOps individually and on an iterative basis, rather than trying to upgrade the entire
software delivery? thing at once.

Case study: Trinity Mirror

it does rely on us taking a more microservice-based approach to what we
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
do. One constraint we have with doing that is the CMS, which is shared
web user experience across many o

Case study: HSBC combines

from a technology perspective into microservices. The more we can do that,
AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking across other product streams.

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 28 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

The
In this e-guide Guardian, Spotify and Netflix. It is a model we are aspiring to, but we have

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption Next article

DevOps done right: Creating

a collaborative and
supportive business culture

Want disciplined DevOps

software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror

Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
web user experience

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 29 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption

Caroline Donnelly, datacentre editor

DevOps done right: Creating
a collaborative and
supportive business culture ensuring they are primed and ready to respond to new competitive threats
and changing customer habits.
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery? With new challenger banks entering the market and looking to disrupt the
status quo, and customers becoming increasingly comfortable with using
Case study: Trinity Mirror
the internet and mobile devices to manage their money, doing things the way
Group taps into cloud, agile you always have is no longer an option for the big banks.
and microservices to boost
web user experience And it is this realisation that is spurring Barclays, Lloyds, Santander and
others to invest in technologies and services that reflect how their
customers want to do business with them in 2016.
Case study: HSBC combines
AWS with agile thinking to
HSBC is no different and is in the midst of a mobile-first digital
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking
transformation push, underpinned by the use of cloud technologies and
DevOps, to ensure it has all bases covered when it comes to catering for the
changing needs and expectations of its customers around the world.
Case study: The need for
speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 30 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide
puter
Overcoming the business Weekly at the recent AWS Enterprise Summit in London.
and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption ppening in the world
and they are always connected, and we need to make sure we offer banking
DevOps done right: Creating services through digital channels, so people can choose how they want to
a collaborative and
supportive business culture
And those preferences can change rapidly as new banking services come to
Want disciplined DevOps market, said Pera. He cited the speed at which consumers have adapted to
software delivery? contactless and mobile payment platforms, with many opting to use these
rather than cash and branch-based services.
Case study: Trinity Mirror
ike using mobile as a vehicle to stay on top of their finances and
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
web user experience
he branch,
others who want to speak to a relationship manager and others who want to
Case study: HSBC combines
do everything through the internet and mobile. As an organisation, we need
AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 31 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

A change in culture
In this e-guide
This has already seen the organisation create HSBC Digital Solutions (HDS),
Overcoming the business whereby more than 2,000 people performing business or technology
and technology barriers to functions across the organisation are working together to develop new
DevOps adoption services and platforms.

DevOps done right: Creating

In parallel with this, the company has created a series of cross-functional
a collaborative and teams, paving the way for it to take a DevOps-style approach to developing
supportive business culture new mobile applications and services in the AWS cloud.

Want disciplined DevOps

department for a while, but we are also injecting in new talent from other
software delivery?
industries, so we can incorporate learnings from people who have [gone
through digital transformation] in other sectors and bring that into our
Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
side the bank,
web user experience
understand how it works and the expectation of how its services operate

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to HSBC is using AWS to house its mobile-focused development and testing
tap into growing demand for
activities, with a view to using it for production workloads later down the line.
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 32 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

-functional teams and developers work in a

In this e-guide way that is effective for them, and reducing the complexity they might have
from living in an on-
Overcoming the business
and technology barriers to ing them access and availability to the latest tools that
DevOps adoption

DevOps done right: Creating

The move to adopt cloud and agile methodologies had to go hand-in-hand
a collaborative and
supportive business culture tools goes up because they begin asking for [the technologies] they need to

Want disciplined DevOps

Early agile adoption
software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror there was a willingness at all levels of HSBC to see its agile ambitions come
Group taps into cloud, agile to fruition to support its wider mobile platform plans.
and microservices to boost
web user experience

Case study: HSBC combines run i

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking way is constraining and hard. It is also difficult to manage those kinds of

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 33 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

The financial services industry is often given as an example of a sector that

In this e-guide has been slow to adopt cloud because of regulatory and security concerns,

Overcoming the business reasons why HSBC chose it over its competitors.
and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption nvironments that are totally dedicated to us and refine the

DevOps done right: Creating and scale effectively, which are all things that are necessary for us to have a
a collaborative and secure, manageable set of technologies.
supportive business culture t also provides a wide portfolio of applications and services within its
ecosystem. So, once we have gone to the effort of securing it, learning how
Want disciplined DevOps to use it and managing it, the tools we can use are quite vast and varied,
software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror With its cloud and DevOps plans in place, the industry will see the
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
web user experience Personalised services

Another priority for the company is to personalise its services for customers
Case study: HSBC combines
and ensure it can respond in real time to any issues that arise for them with
AWS with agile thinking to
the help of big data analytics.
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking
This might include pre-emptive action when a customer is in danger of
missing a credit card payment and getting stung by a late payment fee, for
Case study: The need for
speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 34 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

example, or reminding them about an appointment they might have in branch

In this e-guide to discuss a new mortgage deal.

Overcoming the business -size-fits-all experience and become more

and technology barriers to relevant, personal and timely with the messaging and communication we
DevOps adoption .

DevOps done right: Creating

a collaborative and to the customer experience, it can really help them have the best experience
supportive business culture

Want disciplined DevOps

Next article
software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror

Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
web user experience

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 35 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption Caroline Donnelly, datacentre editor

Every day that developers use the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud
DevOps done right: Creating
platform, they gain access to an average of three new services or features,
a collaborative and
supportive business culture

Over the past three years, the company has accelerated the expansion of
Want disciplined DevOps
functionality in its cloud platforms. During 2013, the company added 280
software delivery?
new features to its cloud platform this year it added 1,000.

Case study: Trinity Mirror In just two days at the AWS Re:Invent customer conference in Las Vegas,
Group taps into cloud, agile the company debuted 24 new products and services, while talking up how
and microservices to boost its ability to innovate at such pace is helping it stay ahead of the competition
web user experience
in the cloud infrastructure services market.

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for more than 70 services, and w
mobile banking anywhere else by a large amount.

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 36 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide platform and

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to Magic Quadrant report, which charts the runners and
DevOps adoption riders of the cloud infrastructure services market,
competitors are currently in a position to match it and its pace of product
DevOps done right: Creating innovation.
a collaborative and
supportive business culture
describes Azure - -rich
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror

Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
learning how to engage with enterprise and mid-market customers.
web user experience
Cross-functional culture

Case study: HSBC combines While likes of Google and Microsoft play catch-up in the cloud, Amazon is
AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
press Q&A at Re:Invent, before explaining how the firm has managed to
mobile banking
speed up its product release rate year on year.

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 37 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide cross-functional teams of people who are all jointly responsible for finding
new ways to improve the customer experience.
Overcoming the business
and technology barriers to This approach will sound familiar to agile and DevOps practitioners, and
DevOps adoption ensures all members of the team develop a sense of ownership and
personal investment in the problems they are trying to solve, said Jassy.
DevOps done right: Creating
a collaborative and
supportive business culture operations, and the reason is we really want to alleviate the finger point you
sometimes see between different people and different functions when they
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?

ownership, so they believe they own the problem together, they are not
Case study: Trinity Mirror
reliant on anybody else, and they c
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
The teams are encouraged to regularly spend time with customers to inform
web user experience
their product designs, and by encouraging the teams to work
independently they can set about incorporating their feedback as quickly
Case study: HSBC combines
as possible.
AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
If they are hearing feedback consistently from customers that something
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 38 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide to use, and that allows us to move v

Overcoming the business Feedback mechanisms

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption Gavin Jackson, managing director of AWS in the UK and Ireland, told
Computer Weekly that the company also has feedback mechanisms built
DevOps done right: Creating
into its platform so users can share their thoughts and frustrations about
a collaborative and using it in real time.
supportive business culture

for us to get an active feedback loop in the

Want disciplined DevOps
moment when someone is experiencing some pain or opportunity.
software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror executive meetings we have in Seattle, we always have customers
Group taps into cloud, agile representing us. A
and microservices to boost
things all the time we always have customers we know are going to be
web user experience

Case study: HSBC combines Ensuring the customer view is represented in senior management meetings
AWS with agile thinking to not just
tap into growing demand for
AWS, said Jackson.
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 39 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide another good way for us to collect feedback from people who are

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption receiving end of feedback from users that can be incorporated into
whatever they are working on.
DevOps done right: Creating
a collaborative and
supportive business culture world is thinking about what services we can offer, and we do under non-
disclosure agreements speak to customers as well as part of our standard
Want disciplined DevOps
software delivery?
Scale-up constraints

Case study: Trinity Mirror There is a tendency for technology companies to become more
Group taps into cloud, agile conservative and risk-adverse as they get bigger, which can slam the brakes
and microservices to boost
on their ability to innovate, said Jassy during the Q&A.
web user experience

-functional teams means the firm can pursue

Case study: HSBC combines product launches and features in several areas at once, which is not always
AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking gger, the senior people walk into a room

Case study: The need for -intended, but as they

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 40 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

in a simultaneous
In this e-guide fashion.

Overcoming the business

and technology barriers to own merits, but we are problem-solving and collaborating with the people
DevOps adoption proposing the ideas to find ways to say yes. We say yes more than others

DevOps done right: Creating

a collaborative and Jassy admitted that not every project given the green light succeeds, but the
supportive business culture company is careful with how it treats abortive endeavours to help sustain its
culture of experimentation.
Want disciplined DevOps
you
software delivery?

Case study: Trinity Mirror

Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
Experiment with new ideas
web user experience

This knowledge ensures that its development teams feel comfortable and
Case study: HSBC combines confident enough to experiment with new ideas, even during periods of
AWS with agile thinking to downtime, said Jassy.
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking
what you find is that everyone in the company even at the most entry
Case study: The need for levels will spend some of their free cycles thinking about new ideas,
speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 41 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

because they know that if they come up with a good idea and it is viable,
In this e-guide

Overcoming the business Taken together, all this has given AWS a sizeable competitive advantage so
and technology barriers to far, but given that the cloud market is still in its infancy the game is not
DevOps adoption necessarily up yet.

DevOps done right: Creating

Higher education-focused software and services provider Ellucian now uses
a collaborative and AWS to deliver its offerings as a cloud-based service to 2,400 institutions in
supportive business culture about 40 countries across the world.

Want disciplined DevOps

product and strategy officer, said the company had chosen AWS over its
software delivery?
competitors because of the breadth and depth of its product portfolio.

Case study: Trinity Mirror

Group taps into cloud, agile -focused
and microservices to boost
Magic Quadrant report, said Williams.
web user experience

However, the company constantly reviews the state of the cloud market to
Case study: HSBC combines ensure the services it offers meet the needs of its growing and global client
AWS with agile thinking to base as part of its ongoing due diligence processes.
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking
new and different and keeping our eyes open for better ways to
Case study: The need for
speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 42 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business ne so, it has

and technology barriers to come back the same. In virtually every respect we have found AWS to be the
DevOps adoption

DevOps done right: Creating

Ellucian is not alone in keeping tabs on what the rest of the market is up to,
a collaborative and despite having nailed its flag to the AWS mast, and Jassy said it is unlikely
supportive business culture that, as the market matures, there will be one cloud giant to rule them all.

Want disciplined DevOps

address infrastructure, software, hardware, datacentre services worldwide
software delivery?

player in this space that captures trillions of dollars.

Case study: Trinity Mirror
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost
smaller handful because scale really matters here, and the breadth of
web user experience

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to Next article
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 43 of 44
 Focus: Agile DevOps

In this e-guide

Overcoming the business

As a CW+
and technology barriers to
DevOps adoption
websites. CW+ m
members-
of having to track such premium content down on your own, ultimately helping
DevOps done right: Creating
a collaborative and
you to solve your toughest IT challenges more effectively and faster than
supportive business culture ever before.

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software delivery?
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Case study: Trinity Mirror Images; Fotalia
Group taps into cloud, agile
and microservices to boost © 2016 TechTarget. No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means
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web user experience

Case study: HSBC combines

AWS with agile thinking to
tap into growing demand for
mobile banking

Case study: The need for

speed: Inside the cloud
innovation engine at AWS
Page 44 of 44