DevOps and Agile Operations books
I thought a little google about would bring up a definitive list of books that folk consider to be good reading to get oneself (or most importantly, collegues) into a DevOps / Agile Operations mindset. Nothing came back, so here goes my personal list:
Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software, Michael T. Nygard
I have just completed reading this, and to be honest it’s the reason I wrote this post. A thoroughly excellent book, detailing various patterns, anti-patterns, and case studies surrounding the process of writing, deploying, and monitoring applications that are production ready.
I’ll try to write up a full summary of the book shortly, as the information in it is utter devops gold. Many thanks to Sam from ThoughtWorks for suggesting I read this at ScaleCamp UK. One of the best books I have ever read.
The Practice of Network and System Administration, Thomas A. Limoncelli & Christina Hogan
It’s been a while since I read this, but kudos has to go to Tom and Christine for being two of the first people to start to write down a best-practice for Operations – a core goal of the devops movement in my mind.
I still refer to it every so often when I’m approaching a new facet of my job – setting up a new datacentre, entering management, and so on. Generally there’s some good advice in there for whatever I am about to tackle.
Building Scalable Web Sites, Cal Henderson
If you’re not already aware, Cal Henderson was (is?) the chief software architect for Flickr. He knows a bit about scaling, and like so many of the massive web sites of the world, a large part of this ability to scale comes from a good relationship between development and operations.
The book talks primarily about the various techniques available to you when rapidly scaling your application, but this touches on both sides of the fence – some changes are down to good development and application design, others focus on system architecture and monitoring. All require the co-operation of both sides. Definitely a book that bridges the gaps between Dev and Ops.
What else?
There is absolutely no way that this is a complete list. I have not read enough Agile Manifesto / XP books to recommend one over another (specifically, with respect to Agile Operations, not just Agile Development), and I am sure there are many other books that you have read that give a similar level of ‘wow, good point’ revelations as the books listed above.
So, what are your recommendations? Let us know in the comments.