Kubernetes helps us tame sprawling microservices architectures and addressing the increased operational complexity. Kubernetes gives developers abstractions and APIs to deploy and run their services. Yet, the elephant in the room is that to run, maintain and evolve the Kubernetes clusters, we need more ops expertise and most likely a dedicated team to do so. The question that begs to be asked is if we are going back to pre-DevOps isolation between Dev and Ops teams? Is the tradeoff between better operational tools and introducing a new dependency layer on the path for application teams to deliver and run their services worthwhile? Are we making life easier for application teams or instead reducing their end-to-end ownership? Team Topologies is a structured approach for thinking about teams responsibilities and interactions which can help us get the most value out of Kubernetes adoption. This talk draws on research and case studies from the Team Topologies book by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais (IT Revolution Press, 2019) together with first-hand consulting experience from the authors with organizations around the world.

1. TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
The Elephant in the
Kubernetes Room
Team Interactions at Scale
Manuel Pais, Consultant
co-author of Team Topologies - @manupaisable
DevOpsDays Madrid 2020
#devopsdays

2. 2
Is Kubernetes a Platform?
Dev and Ops Equilibrium
Team Cognitive Load
Team Interactions

3. Team Topologies
4
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press (2019)
https://teamtopologies.com

4. Is Kubernetes a Platform?
5

5. 6
Source: https://www.infoq.com/news/2019/03/airbnb-kubernetes-workflow
Melanie’s talk: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/airbnb-kubernetes-services

6. 7

7. Kubernetes “platform”
microservices
ops complexity
8

8. Kubernetes “platform”
deploy & run
abstractions
9

9. 10

10. 11
Still need to...
… sizing hosts
… create/destroy clusters
… update to new K8s versions
… decide on namespaces vs clusters
<insert your fav chore here>

11. 12
Still need to...
… sizing hosts
… create/destroy clusters
… update to new K8s versions
… decide on namespaces vs clusters
worry about security

12. Who is responsible ?
13

13. Who is responsible ?
Who is impacted ?
14

14. 15

15. “A digital platform is a foundation of
self-service APIs, tools, services,
knowledge and support which are
arranged as a compelling internal
product.”
– Evan Bottcher, 2018
16

16. Kubernetes is not your
platform. It’s the foundation.
17

17. “Create a path of
least resistance.
Make the right thing
the easiest thing to do.”
– Evan Bottcher, 2018
18

18. The hardest thing about
platforms is to constantly
evolve & adapt to new &
old customers.
19

19. Dev and Ops:
a fragile equilibrium
20

20. devopstopologies.com

21. devopstopologies.com

22. 23
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/devops-sre/the-2019-accelerate-state-of- devops-elite-
performance-productivity-and-scaling

23. devopstopologies.com

24. 25

25. 26

26. devopstopologies.com

27. Team Cognitive Load
32

28. “Cognitive load is the total
amount of mental effort
being used in the working
memory”
- John Sweller
33

29. Intrinsic
Extraneous
Germane
34
“How are
classes
defined in
Java?”

30. Intrinsic
Extraneous
Germane
35
“How do I
deploy
this app,
again?”

31. Intrinsic
Extraneous
Germane
36
“How do
bank
transfers
work?”

32. Intrinsic (skills)
Extraneous (mechanics)
Germane (domain focus)
37

33. Intrinsic (skills)
Extraneous (mechanics)
Germane (domain focus)
38

34. Intrinsic (skills)
Extraneous (mechanics)
Germane (domain focus)
39

35. Intrinsic (skills)
Extraneous (mechanics)
Germane (domain focus)
40

36. More: ‘Hacking Your Head’
41
Jo Pearce
(@jdpearce)
https://www.slideshare.net/JoPearce5/hacking-your-head-managing-information-overload-extended

37. Be mindful of your
platform choices’ impact
on teams’ cognitive load
42

38. CaseStudy
43

39. “The best part of my day is when I
update 10 different YAML files to
deploy a one-line code change.”
44

40. “The best part of my day is when I
update 10 different YAML files to
deploy a one-line code change.”
– No One, Ever
45

41. 46

42. 47

43. Clarify (platform) service
boundaries and provide
abstractions to reduce the
cognitive load on teams.
48

44. Team Topologies
49
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press (2019)
https://teamtopologies.com

45. 50

46. 51

47. CaseStudy
54

48. 55
Source: https://medium.com/@pingles/convergence-to-kubernetes-137ffa7ea2bc

49. 56
Low-level AWS service calls (EC2, IAM, STS, Autoscaling, etc.) from January 2015 to January 2017

50. “We didn’t change our organization
because we wanted to use
Kubernetes, we used Kubernetes
because we wanted to change
our organization.”
- Paul Ingles
57

51. 58
Low-level AWS service calls since Kubernetes adoption in January 2017

52. 60
enable stream-aligned
teams to deliver work
autonomously with self-
service capabilities ...
Platform Purpose

53. 61
… in order to reduce
extraneous cognitive load
on stream-aligned teams
Platform Purpose

54. “We wanted to scale our teams but
maintain the principles of what
helped us move fast: autonomy,
work with minimal coordination,
self-service infrastructure.”
- Paul Ingles
63

55. Treat the platform
as a product
64

56. Reliable
Fit for Purpose
Focused on DevEx
65

57. 66
on-call support
service status pages
suitable comms channels
response time for incidents
downtime planned & announced
Reliable Platform

58. 67
prototyping
fast, regular feedback
agile, iterative practices
few(er) services, high(er) quality
skilled product management
Fit for Purpose Platform

59. 68
speak the same language
right level of abstractions for
your engineering teams today
#DevEx Focused Platform

60. 69

61. “Kubernetes helps us in a few ways:
- Application-focused abstractions
- Operate and configure clusters to
minimise coordination ”
- Paul Ingles
70

62. Dynamic Database Credentials
Multi-Cluster Load Balancing
Alerts + SLOs
Source (Joseph Irving):https://t.co/99gwRH7dU2

63. 72

64. 73

65. 74
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)

66. 75
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2019
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS

67. 76
...
Addressed critical
cross-functional
needs (GDPR,
security, alerts +
SLOs as a service)
Adoption by HRMT
(Highest Revenue
Making team)
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2019
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS

68. 77
...
Addressed critical
cross-functional
needs (GDPR,
security, alerts +
SLOs as a service)
Adoption by HRMT
(Highest Revenue
Making team)
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2019
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS

69. Team Interactions
82

70. 84

71. 85

72. 86service boundary

73. 87service boundarycognitive load

74. 94
strong collaboration with
stream-aligned teams for
any new service or evolution
Platform Behaviors

75. 95

76. 96
provide support and great
documentation for stable
services
Platform Behaviors

77. 97

78. 98

79. 99

80. 105

81. 106

82. 107

83. 108

84. 112
Source: https://landscape.cncf.io

85. 113

86. 114

87. Getting started with
team-centric
Kubernetes adoption
115

88. How well can the team understand the
platform/Kubernetes abstractions they
need to use on a regular basis?
1 - Assess cognitive load
116

89. What’s the gap between your
Kubernetes implementation and an
internal digital platform?
2 - Define your platform
117

90. Who is responsible for what? Who is
impacted? How do you collaborate on
new platform internal services?
Collaboration vs X-as-a-Service
3 - Team Interactions
118

91. Zalando Kubernetes at Zalando
Mercedes DevOps Adoption at Mercedes-Benz.io
Twilio Platforms at Twilio: Unlocking Developer Effectiveness
Adidas Where Cloud Native Meets the Sporting Goods Industry
ITV ITV's Common Platform v2 Better, Faster, Cheaper, Happier
MAN Truck & Bus How to Manage Cloud Infrastructure at MAN Truck & Bus
Farfetch UX I DevOps - The Trojan Horse for Implementing a DevOps Culture
More platform examples
119

92. 120
https://techbeacon.com/enterprise-it/why-teams-fail-kubernetes-what-do-about-it

93. Thank you!
teamtopologies.com
121
Matthew Skelton, Conflux
@matthewpskelton
Manuel Pais, Independent
@manupaisable
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