Category Archives: Sean Roberts

Infrastructure Masons is building a community around data center practice

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IT is subject to seismic shifts right now. Here’s how we cope together.

For a long time, I’ve advocated for open operations (“OpenOps”) as a way to share best practices about running data centers. I’ve worked hard in OpenStack and, recently, Kubernetes communities to have operators collaborate around common architectures and automation tools. I believe the first step in these efforts starts with forming a community forum.

I’m very excited to have the RackN team and technology be part of the newly formed Infrastructure Masons effort because we are taking this exact community first approach.

infrastructure_masons

Here’s how Dean Nelson, IM organizer and head of Uber Compute, describes the initiative:

An Infrastructure Mason Partner is a professional who develop products, build or support infrastructure projects, or operate infrastructure on behalf of end users. Like their end users peers, they are dedicated to the advancement of the Industry, development of their fellow masons, and empowering business and personal use of the infrastructure to better the economy, the environment, and society.

We’re in the midst of tremendous movement in IT infrastructure.  The change to highly automated and scale-out design was enabled by cloud but is not cloud specific.  This requirement is reshaping how IT is practiced at the most fundamental levels.

We (IT Ops) are feeling amazing pressure on operations and operators to accelerate workflow processes and innovate around very complex challenges.

Open operations loses if we respond by creating thousands of isolated silos or moving everything to a vendor specific island like AWS.  The right answer is to fund ways to share practices and tooling that is tolerant of real operational complexity and the legitimate needs for heterogeneity.

Interested in more?  Get involved with the group!  I’ll be sharing more details here too.

 

All About That Loop. Lessons from the OpenStack Product Mid-Cycle

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OpenStack loves to track developer counts and committers, but velocity without A Feedback loop to set direction is unlikely to get us anywhere sustainable.

LoopLast week, I attended the first day of the OpenStack Product Working Group meeting.   My modest expectations (I just wanted them talking) were far exceeded.  The group managed to cover both strategic and tactical items including drafting a charter and discussing pending changes to the incubation process.

OpenStack needs a strong feedback loop from users and operators back to developers and vendors – statement made during the PM meeting.

The most critical wins from last week what the desire for the PM group to work more closely with the OpenStack technical leadership.  I’m excited to see the community continue to expand the scope of collaboration.

Why is this important?  Because developers and product managers need mutual respect to be effective.

The members of the Product team are leaders within their own organization responsible for talking to users and operators.  We rely on them to close the communication loop by both collecting feedback and explaining direction.  To accomplish this difficult job, the Product team must own articulating a vision for the future.

For OpenStack to succeed, we need to be listening intently to feedback about both how we are doing and if we are headed in the right direction.  Both are required to create a feedback loop.

After seeing this group in action, I’m excited to see what’s next.

Want to read more?

Get involved!  Join the discussion on the OpenStack Product mailing list!

OpenStack PSA: Individual members we need more help – Please Vote!

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1/17 Update: We did it!  We reached quorum and approved all the changes!  Also, I am honored to have been re-elected to the Board.  Thank you for the support.

I saw the latest report and we’ve still got a LONG WAY TO GO to get to the quorum that we need.  Don’t let your co-worker or co-contributor be the one missing vote!

Note: If you thing you should have gotten a ballot email but did not.  Contact the OpenStack Election Secretary for assistance.  OpenStack voting is via YOUR PERSONALIZED EMAIL only – you cannot use someone else’s ballot.

Here’s the official request that we’ve been forwarding in the community

OpenStack Individual Members we need your help – Please Vote!

Untitled drawingIncluded on the upcoming individual elections ballot is set of proposed bylaw changes [note: I am also seeking re-election]. To be enacted, these changes require approval by the individual members. At least 25% of the Individual Members must participate in this election in order for the vote to take effect which is why we are reaching out to you. The election will start Monday January 12, 2015 and run thru Friday January 16, 2015.

The unprecedented growth, community size and active nature of the OpenStack community have precipitated the need for OpenStack Bylaw updates. The updates will enable our community to adapt to our continued rapid growth, change and diversity, while reflecting our success and market leadership. Although the proposed changes only effect a small set of verbiage in the bylaws, the changes eliminate some of the hard coded values and naive initial assumptions that found their way into the bylaws when they were initially created in 2013. Those initial assumptions did not anticipate that by 2015 we would have such a large, active community of over 17,000 individual members, over 430 corporate members, and a large diverse set of OpenStack based products and services.

Through many months of community iterative discussion and debate, the DefCore team and board have unanimously accepted a set of changes that are now placed before you for your approval. The changes replace the original hard coded “core” definition with a process for determining the software elements required for use of the OpenStack commercial trademark. Processes which will also account for future revisions and determinations for Core and Trademark Policy.

Note: Another change sets the quorum level at a more reasonable 10%, so these PSAs should not be required in the future.

Complete details on the proposed changes are located at:
https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Governance/Foundation/2014ProposedBylawsAmendment

Complete details on the 2015 Board Election are located at:
http://www.openstack.org/election/2015-individual-director-election/

Self-Exposure: Hidden Influencers become OpenStack Product Working Group

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Warning to OpenStack PMs: If you are not actively involved in this effort then you (and your teams) will be left behind!

ManagersThe Hidden Influencers (now called “OpenStack Product Working Group”) had a GREAT and PRODUCTIVE session at the OpenStack (full notes):

  1. Named the group!  OpenStack Product Working Group (now, that’s clarity in marketing) [note: I was incorrect saying “Product Managers” earlier].
  2. Agreed to use the mailing list for communication.
  3. Committed to a face-to-face mid-cycle meetup (likely in South Bay)
  4. Output from the meetup will be STRATEGIC DIRECTION doc to board (similar but broader than “Win the Enterprise”)
  5. Regular meeting schedule – like developers but likely voice interactive instead of IRC.  Stefano Maffulli is leading.

PMs starting this group already direct the work for a super majority (>66%) of active contributors.

The primary mission for the group is to collaborate and communicate around development priorities so that we can ensure that project commitments get met.

It was recognized that the project technical leads are already strapped coordinating release and technical objectives.  Further, the product managers are already but independently engaged in setting strategic direction, we cannot rely on existing OpenStack technical leadership to have the bandwidth.

This effort will succeed to the extent that we can help the broader community tied in and focus development effort back to dollars for the people paying for those developers.  In my book, that’s what product managers are supposed to do.  Hopefully, getting this group organized will help surface that discussion.

This is a big challenge considering that these product managers have to balance corporate, shared project and individual developers’ requirements.  Overall, I think Allison Randall summarized our objectives best: “we’re herding cats in the same direction.”

OpenStack Goldilocks’ Syndrome: three questions to help us find our bearings

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Goldilocks Atlas

Action: Please join Stefano. Allison, Sean and me in Paris on Monday, November 3rd, in the afternoon (schedule link)

If wishes were fishes, OpenStack’s rapid developer and user rise would include graceful process and commercial transitions too.  As a Foundation board member, it’s my responsibility to help ensure that we’re building a sustainable ecosystem for the project.  That’s a Goldilock’s challenge because adding either too much or too little controls and process will harm the project.

In discussions with the community, that challenge seems to breaks down into three key questions:

After last summit, a few of us started a dialog around Hidden Influencers that helps to frame these questions in an actionable way.  Now, it’s time for us to come together and talk in Paris in the hallways and specifically on Monday, November 3rd, in the afternoon (schedule link).   From there, we’ll figure out about next steps using these three questions as a baseline.

If you’ve got opinions about these questions, don’t wait for Paris!  I’d love to start the discussion here in the comments, on twitter (@zehicle), by phone, with email or via carrier pidgins.

7 Open Source lessons from your English Composition class

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We often act as if coding, and especially open source coding, is a unique activity and that’s hubris.   Most human activities follow common social patterns that should inform how we organize open source projects.  For example, research papers are very social and community connected activities.  Especially when published, written compositions are highly interconnected activities.  Even the most basic writing builds off other people’s work with due credit and tries create something worth being used by later authors.

Here are seven principles to good writing that translate directly to good open source development:

  1. Research before writing – take some time to understand the background and goals of the project otherwise you re-invent or draw bad conclusions.
  2. Give credit where due – your work has more credibility when you acknowledge and cross-reference the work you are building on. It also shows readers that you are not re-inventing.
  3. Follow the top authors – many topics have widely known authors who act as “super nodes” in the relationship graph. Recognizing these people will help guide your work, leads to better research and builds community.
  4. Find proof readers – All writers need someone with perspective to review their work before it’s finished. Since we all need reviewers, we all also need to do reviews.
  5. Rework to get clarity – Simplicity and clarity take extra effort but they pay huge dividends for your audience.
  6. Don’t surprise your reader – Readers expect patterns and are distracted when you don’t follow them.
  7. Socialize your ideas – the purpose of writing/code is to make ideas durable. If it’s worth writing then it’s worth sharing.  Your artifact does not announce itself – you need to invest time in explaining it to people and making it accessible.

Thanks to Sean Roberts (a Hidden Influences collaborator) for his contributions to this post.  At OSCON, Sean Roberts said “companies should count open source as research [and development investment]” and I thought he’s said “…as research [papers].”  The misunderstanding was quickly resolved and we were happy to discover that both interpretations were useful.

Share the love & vote for OpenStack Paris Summit Sessions (closes Wed 8/6)

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This is a friendly PSA that OpenStack Paris Summit session community voting ends on Wednesday 8/6.  There are HUNDREDS (I heard >1k) submissions so please set aside some time to review a handful.

Robot VoterMY PLEA TO YOU > There is a tendency for companies to “vote-up” sessions from their own employees.  I understand the need for the practice BUT encourage you to make time to review other sessions too.  Affiliation voting is fine, robot voting is not.

If you are interested topics that I discuss on this blog, here’s a list of sessions I’m involved in:

 

 

DefCore Advances at the Core > My take on the OSCON’14 OpenStack Board Meeting

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Last week’s day-long Board Meeting (Jonathan’s summary) focused on three major topics: DefCore, Contribute Licenses (CLA/DCO) and the “Win the Enterprise” initiative. In some ways, these three topics are three views into OpenStack’s top issue: commercial vs. individual interests.

But first, let’s talk about DefCore!

DefCore took a major step with the passing of the advisory Havana Capabilities (the green items are required). That means that vendors in the community now have a Board approved minimum requirements.  These are not enforced for Havana so that the community has time to review and evaluate.

Designated Sections (1)For all that progress, we only have half of the Havana core definition complete. Designated Sections, the other component of Core, will be defined by the DefCore committee for Board approval in September. Originally, we expected the TC to own this part of the process; however, they felt it was related to commercial interested (not technical) and asked for the Board to manage it.

The coming meetings will resolve the “is Swift code required” question and that topic will require a dedicated post.  In many ways, this question has been the challenge for core definition from the start.  If you want to join the discussion, please subscribe to the DefCore list.

The majority of the board meeting was spent discussion other weighty topics that are work a brief review.

Contribution Licenses revolve around developer vs broader community challenge. This issue is surprisingly high stakes for many in the community. I see two primary issues

  1. Tension between corporate (CLA) vs. individual (DCO) control and approval
  2. Concern over barriers to contribution (sadly, there are many but this one is in the board’s controls)

Win the Enterprise was born from product management frustration and a fragmented user base. My read on this topic is that we’re pushing on the donkey. I’m hearing serious rumbling about OpenStack operability, upgrade and scale.  This group is doing a surprisingly good job of documenting these requirements so that we will have an official “we need this” statement. It’s not clear how we are going to turn that statement into either carrots or sticks for the donkey.

Overall, there was a very strong existential theme for OpenStack at this meeting: are we a companies collaborating or individuals contributing?  Clearly, OpenStack is both but the proportions remain unclear.

Answering this question is ultimately at the heart of all three primary topics. I expect DefCore will be on the front line of this discussion over the next few weeks (meeting 1, 2, and 3). Now is the time to get involved if you want to play along.

OpenStack ATL Recap to the 11s: the danger of drama + 5 challenges & 5 successes

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HallwayI’ve come to accept that the “Hallway Track” is my primary session at OpenStack events.  I want to thank the many people in the community who make that the best track.  It’s not only full of deep technical content; there are also healthy doses of intrigue, politics and “let’s fix that” in the halls.

I think honest reflection is critical to OpenStack growth (reflections from last year).  My role as a Board member must not translate into pom-pom waving robot cheerleader.

 

What I heard that’s working:

  1. Foundation event team did a great job on the logistics and many appreciate the user and operator focus.  There’s is no doubt that OpenStack is being deployed at scale and helping transform cloud infrastructure.  I think that’s a great message.
  2. DefCore criteria were approved by the Board.  The overall process and impact was talked about positively at the summit.  To accelerate, we need +1s and feedback because “crickets” means we need to go slower.  I’ll have to dedicate a future post to next steps and “designated sections.”
  3. Marketplace!  Great turn out by vendors of all types, but I’m not hearing about them making a lot of money from OpenStack (which is needed for them to survive).  I like the diversity of the marketplace: consulting, aaServices, installers, networking, more networking, new distros, and ecosystem tools.
  4. There’s some real growth in aaS services for openstack (database, load balancer, dns, etc).   This is the ecosystem that many want OpenStack to drive because it helps displace Amazon cloud.  I also heard concerns that to be sure they are pluggable so companies can complete on implementation.
  5. Lots of process changes to adapt to growing pains.  People felt that the community is adapting (yeah!) but were concerned having to re-invent tooling (meh).

There are also challenges that people brought to me:

  1. Our #1 danger is drama.  Users and operators want collaboration and friendly competition.  They are turned off by vendor conflict or strong-arming in the community (e.g.: the WSJ Red Hat article and fallout).  I’d encourage everyone to breathe more and react less.
  2. Lack of product management is risking a tragedy of the commons.  Helping companies work together and across projects is needed for our collaboration processes to work.  I’ll be exploring this with Sean Roberts in future posts.
  3. Making sure there’s profit being generated from shared code.  We need to remember that most of the development is corporate funded so we need to make sure that companies generate revenue.  The trend of everyone creating unique distros may indicate a problem.
  4. We need to be more operator friendly.  I know we’re trying but we create distance with operators when we insist on creating new tools instead of using the existing ecosystem.  That also slows down dealing with upgrades, resilient architecture and other operational concerns.
  5. Anointed projects concerns have expanded since Hong Kong.  There’s a perception that Heat (orchestration), Triple0 (provisioning), Solum (platform) are considered THE only way OpenStack solves those problems and other approaches are not welcome.  While that encourages collaboration, it also chills competition and discussion.
  6. There’s a lot of whispering about the status of challenged projects: neutron (works with proprietary backends but not open, may not stay integrated) and openstack boot-strap (state of TripleO/Ironic/Heat mix).  The issue here is NOT if they are challenged but finding ways to discuss concerns openly (see anointed projects concern).

I’d enjoy hearing more about success and deeper discussion around concerns.  I use community feedback to influence my work in the community and on the board.  If you think I’ve got it right or wrong then please let me know.