DevOps Culture in the CIA

Karthik GaekwadDevOpsDays MountainView 2013

#DevOpsCIA @iteration1 DevOps and the CIA

Howdy!• I’m Karthik Gaekwad

• Senior Web Engineer

• Mentor Graphics Embedded

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOps and the CIADevOpsDays MountainView 2013

• From Austin, TX

• We have great BBQ, chill people and brutal summers!

No Dawg, I’m no secret agent...

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOps and the CIADevOpsDays MountainView 2013

#Dammit

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOps and the CIADevOpsDays MountainView 2013

CULTURE

MEASUREMENT

AUTOMATION

SHARING

Pillars of DevOps

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

Based on...

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

Kinds of Roles...

Analysts OperativesUnderstand trends, and gather intelligence data

Work in the field, James Bond type

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

Sisterhood

• Group of female analysts who were tracking Bin Laden in the 1990’s

• Realized that there was something called Al Queda

• 1995: Code name “Alec Station”

• Goal: Track Bin Laden

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

“I was counseled once in a performance review that I was spending too much time working on bin Laden. They said we were obsessed crusaders, overly emotional, using all those women stereotypes.”

“There were just warning after warning,” she said. “We knew something huge was going to happen.”

Cindy StorerCIA Analyst

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

Other warnings also sent: May, June, July 2001

9/11

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

The first question that was asked by everybody:

How did this happen?

Incredible feeling of guilt of not doing more, and not stopping the tragedy.

Congress blamed CIA for negligence

CIA blamed Alec Station in internal investigation

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

The DB has been running hot for a while now. It’s going

to fail soon.

Cool. That’s non functional, so we’ll

do it later.

In our world....

Sysadmin PM

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

Muffin head!!!I hate the pager, and I

hate the game

WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME????

Sysadmin PM

In our world....

Post 9/11

• Intelligence Gathering

• Strategic -> Tactical

• One Analyst target one specific Al Queda leader (including Bin Laden)

• Many of the sisterhood changed roles

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

Mass Organizational Restructure

• Analysts became Targeters

• Sent to the field

• Worked with Operatives, field agents

• Integrated into elite military units

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

Post 9/11

Distributed teams with various skills not a siloed organization anymore

• Departments CIA had a common goal

• Data Metrics collected -> Actionable

• Shared Intelligence across teams

• People of different roles collaborating

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

Recap

Isn’t this #DevOps?

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOps and the CIADevOpsDays MountainView 2013

CULTURE

MEASUREMENT

AUTOMATION

SHARING

Let’s work together

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

Alison ChaikenEmbedded Linux, Thought Leader

“Get rid of the devs; get rid of the ops; let’s just

find people who can solve problems”

This is Zero Dark Thirty for IT...

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013

“Some books you give to friends, for the joy of sharing a great novel. Some books you recommend to your colleagues and employees, to create common ground. Some books you share with your boss, to plant the seeds of a big idea. The Phoenix Project is all three.”

- Jeremiah Shirk, Integration & Infrastructure Mrg Kansas State University

@realgenekim

Thank You for your time!

• https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/manhunt-the-search-for-bin-laden/index.html

• http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307955885

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhunt:_The_Search_for_Bin_Laden

#DevOpsCIA@iteration1 DevOpsDays MountainView 2013