Preface

The field of DevOps has become popular and commonplace in recent years. It has become so pervasive that it is easy to forget that before 2008, when Patrick Debois organized the first DevOpsDays conference, hardly anyone had even heard the word.

What does DevOps, which is a portmanteau of the words "developers" and "operations", mean though, and why does it generate such tremendous excitement?

The mission of this book is to answer this seemingly simple question.

The short answer is that DevOps aims to bring different communities, such as the developer and operations communities, together to become a more efficient whole.

This is also reflected in the book. It explores many tools that are useful in DevOps work, and tools that bring people closer together are always preferred to those that create artificial borders between people. The processes we use for software development are also tools, so it is also natural to include aspects of the various Agile schools of thought as they relate to DevOps.

The book also aims, as the title suggests, to be practical.

Let's begin our journey in the land of DevOps!