DevOps and the enterprise: Podcast with Automic CTO John Purrier

We’re investigating the nature of these Innovation Engines in a series of What To Think podcasts, sponsored by Pivotal Tracker, and columns by VentureBeat editor at large Dylan Tweney. Tune in here to learn the secrets behind the tech world’s most successful platforms.

John Purrier is a founder and board member of OpenStack, and is currently serving as chief technology officer for Automic, where he is responsible for driving Automic’s automation strategy. John was most recently CTO of CenturyLink Innovation Labs, and before that was strategic and technology leader at Cloud Foundry-based AppFog. There, he led the development and delivery of the first three releases of Microsoft Exchange Server, and led research and development for the Rackspace Cloud.

We talk with him about the transformation of enterprise IT architectures, the shift toward DevOps, and the need to maintain 24/7 uptime in the enterprise. We also discuss the need for automation and integration of enterprise IT services. And we talk about what has happened with OpenStack, and how the “beautiful dream” of open, interoperable cloud platforms as a service (PaaS) hasn’t really come to pass.

“The reality of the matter is that PaaS is not ‘NoOps’ … someone has to keep the platform up and running,” Purrier told me.

Plus, Jordan Novet and I tell you what to think about:

• Twitter’s new algorithmic timeline and its disappointing quarterly results
• The resignation of Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad
• Marc Andreessen sticking his foot in his mouth with comments about colonialism

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