Implementing Infrastructure as Code. Sponsored by CoOp and ThoughtWorks

Hear author of ‘Infrastructure as Code’, Kief Morris explain how you can take advantage of technologies like cloud, virtualisation and configuration automation to manage IT infrastructure using tools and practices from software development.

These technologies have decoupled infrastructure from the underlying hardware, turning it into data and code. This creates opportunities to apply tools, principles, and practices from software engineering to managing infrastructure.

Moving applications to the cloud has become a commodity - not only for big players, but also for smaller companies that keep an eye on flexibility and resource utilisation. In his presentation “Implementing Infrastructure as Code” Kief Morris, cloud practice lead at ThoughWorks, will share some key principles and recommendations on how to leverage cloud based infrastructure.

To set the context for his talk, Kief will first elaborate on the motivation and also the challenges when using cloud infrastructure. Usually, companies focus on speed - getting a minimum viable product to market quickly and then improve it over time. Cloud technology is lowering the barriers for doing so, but nonetheless there remain some risks in fields like security, performance or stability that one has to bear in mind.

The overall goal must be to go at speed but still remain safe. Fix everything that might impact quality immediately - not after experiencing first outages - and end up in an overall higher quality for your product. Kief Morris, Cloud Specialist

Kief enjoys helping ambitious organisations to harness disruptive ideas in software delivery and operations. These days this includes cloud platforms, infrastructure automation, DevOps, and Continuous Delivery. Originally from Tennessee, Kief has been been building teams to deliver software as a service in London since the dotcom days.