Defining Data-Driven Software Development

Chapter 5. What the SysAdmin Wants

System operators (see Figure 5-1) are chartered with deploying and maintaining the compute, storage, and network resources required to support the users of our applications. The range of tools and techniques available to these professionals is enormous, but the most interesting trends for our purposes here are software-defined infrastructure (SDI) and the DevOps tool market.

Figure 5-1. Software developer and the system administrator

Software-Defined Infrastructure

SDI performs the task of setting up individual hosts, clusters of hosts, and even global-scale service platforms with only a set of scripts. The technology enabling most of this power came with advances in cloud computing, but the market is now so dynamic that tools and techniques exist for using SDI in cloud, on-premise, or hybrid deployment situations. These deployments can include components of every capacity and at every price point. In many cases, several types of storage are available, ranging from the very fast and expensive to the slow and inexpensive. Resources can be made available instantly for a few tenths of a second or might be reserved or purchased in anticipation of years of continuous operation.

DevOps and Serverless Architecture

System administrators are enabling DevOps to do much of the work done previously within the sysadmin domain. The combination of modern ...