Recent posts

Some interesting infrastructure tools

3 minute read

I’ve been advocating better ways of working for delivering infrastructure as code. There are a number of interesting tools around that seem to be addressing ...

Tracer Bullet Pipeline

7 minute read

In order to get the team moving quickly, we’ve kicked this all off using what we’ve called a ‘tracer bullet’ (or ‘trail marker’, for a less violent image). T...

Infrastructure as Data

2 minute read

Infrastructure as Data integrates declarative infrastructure management into a Kubernetes cluster, so you can write infrastructure code and use it with the K...

Structuring code repositories

4 minute read

Given that you have multiple code projects, should you put them all in a single repository in your source control system, or spread them among more than one?...

The Snowflakes as Code antipattern

5 minute read

One of the earliest benefits that drew people like me to infrastructure as code was the promise of eliminating snowflake servers.

Second Edition of Infrastructure as Code

3 minute read

I’ve delivered the second edition of the book to O’Reilly’s production department, and the wheels are turning to have it available by the end of the year. Se...

Platform service models

6 minute read

Many of our clients at ThoughtWorks are building internal services for development teams to use in developing, delivering, and running applications. I’m ofte...

Term: Infrastructure Stack

3 minute read

The term Infrastructure Stack is something I’ve found useful to explain different patterns for organizing infrastructure code. An infrastructure stack is a c...

Using Pipelines to Manage Environments

12 minute read

Tools like Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Azure Resource Manager Templates, Google Cloud Deployment Manager Templates and OpenStack Heat are a great way to d...

Infrastructure as Code has been published

1 minute read

Infrastructure as Code is officially published! The “Pre-order” buttons on Amazon.com and the O’Reilly shop have flipped to “Add to Cart” for both print and ...

Dynamic Infrastructure Platforms

3 minute read

A dynamic infrastructure platform is a fundamental requirement for Infrastructure as Code. I define this as “a system that provides computing resources, part...

Why Infrastructure as Code

1 minute read

The thumbnail definition that I trot out for Infrastructure as Code is using development practices and tools to manage infrastructure. This sounds like a nat...

To production and beyond

less than 1 minute read

I’ve delivered the text of my book to O’Reilly’s production team, which means we’re on the path to publication! The last “early access” release should be ava...

ThoughtWorks sponsors free chapters for download

less than 1 minute read

My employer, ThoughtWorks, is sponsoring a free download of three chapters of my upcoming book, “Infrastructure as Code”. These chapters focus on software en...

Talk at operability.io conference

1 minute read

Last week I gave a talk at the operability.io conference. This was a great conference, small (about 170 people), single track. I met a lot of people I know, ...

Mechanical Sympathy and the Cloud

2 minute read

My former colleague Martin Thompson borrowed the term Mechanical Sympathy from Formula One driver Jackie Stewart and brought it to IT. A successful driver li...

Early Release is available!

less than 1 minute read

I’m excited to announce that an “Early Access” (Raw and Unedited) version of the Infrastructure as Code book is now available for purchase from the O’Reilly ...

The Automation Fear Spiral

1 minute read

At an open spaces session on configuration automation at a DevOpsDays a year or two ago, I asked the group how many of them were using an automation tools li...

What is Infrastructure as Code?

1 minute read

Systems administrators have probably been writing scripts and tools to make their jobs easier since day one. When I joined my first systems team, the mantra ...

Announcing - Infrastructure as Code, the book

1 minute read

I’ve run across many teams who are in the same place I was a few years ago, people who are using cloud, virtualization, and automation tools, but haven’t got...