Hire smart people and get out of their way. A lesson from Netflix.

Photo Credits: Love Death and Robots by Riyahd Cassiem

4 years back, at the DevOpsDays Rockies, Dave Hahn (Senior Engineer in Netflix’s Operations and Reliability Engineering team) spoke about how Netflix approaches DevOPS (watch the whole presentation here).

 Netflix, as one of the largest data and telemetry company, which in plain english means: streams videos over the internet, admits that they really don’t think about DevOPS. At all. Dave says “We hire smart people and get out of their way”, which I think it’s the best way to describe DevOPS. As a problem solving, pain releaser cell inside your organization. 

"CDNs can be expensive,” he says "they have requirements around business processes. Any time they have to place a cache somewhere, whether is a data center or an ajax or embedded in a network, they have to have some kind of profit model associated with the placement of that cache. Unless you re on a very large network, they can’t make as much investment in the caching infrastructure”. Consequently Netflix can't put as much netflix (read as noun) out there. so what do you do? You start building your own, says Dave. 

And they do that mainly through Amazon Web Services and Netflix Open Connect CDN, which means Netflix takes their own caching machines and can go on and approach any ISP. The ISP gets a stack of caching equipment for free from the media services provider (read: Netflix) that they put inside their network. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved (the ISP, Netflix and the consumer). The users get content closer to them, the ISP gets transit costs back. 

But let’s look at it from a very objective, factual perspective. What is Netflix? It is basically a large micro services infrastructure ( try not to be affected by the apparent oxymoron). As Dave said at the DevOpsDays Rockies, Netflix is made up of :

• hundreds of micro services

• thousands of daily production changes

• tens of thousands of virtual instances

• hundreds of thousands of customer interactions

• millions of customers (81.5 mil, globally in 2018)

• billions of time series metrics (2.5 bil/minute that are delivered, processed and stored)

• tens of billions of hours streams every quarter;

It kind of looks like this: 

Credits: DevOpsDays Rockies, Dave Hahn, slide show

Netflix does all of the above with tens of operations engineers and no NOCs.

Plus, they don't have data centers anymore , as they started the transition in 2010 and 6 years later they were completely cloud based.

I think this case right here perfectly describes how DevOPS can do most of the pushing and pulling, in a very safe, very efficient manner. 

But what would a DevOPS team bring to YOUR company? you ask.

DevOPS as a Service

DevOPS. The child prodigy of the past decade. It’s collaborative, it’s agile, it’s efficient. Does the job and deserves the hype. 

 "You’ll hear talk of "squads," "chapters" and "tribes” as different flavors of “agile” says Nigel Davis, (contributing writer of Forbes online) adding further the words of Justin R., vice president of digital transformation agency SPR, who [believes there is no "after agile." He thinks the trends we’re seeing now–like DevOps, Continuous Delivery and Lean–are all extensions of it. ]

As companies strive to meet increasingly higher expectations to deploy and ultimately go faster to market or simply stay responsive to customer interactions, DevOPS as part of the effort of achieving all of the above, as a practice, will not go away any time soon. 

The need to innovate at a high enough pace to penetrate or simply remain relevant inside the market is proven to be held back, more often than not, by a set of heterogeneous count of collaterals. All of which, or at least a big portion of them, DevOps is planning to solve and is actively doing so. 

Adopting DevOPS

Adopting devops requires new tools and new skills, but perhaps more importantly devops requires a whole new mindset. It is more of a shift in culture than technology.   Simply put it’s the opposite of "every man for himself". 

Devops focus is in one word: automation. Automation in terms of code testing, infrastructure, workflows, following the “automate everything” optics. Deployments are naturally faster and more frequent. Consequently, this reflects positively in any business model, reducing the probability of bottlenecks to occur, ultimately solving problems. 

So, again, in plain english, the practice of  DevOPS could be summarized as: 

• automating code testing

• automating infrastructure

• automating workflows
  

while continuously measuring application performance. 

The way this works is by slicing the work into small chunks, taking only hours (usually) to integrate, test, monitor and deploy, versus the traditional way of writing large pieces of software over weeks and then spend other weeks (or months even) with testing.

 In other words, DevOPS writes the configuration management code, detailing how the application should be built, which allows DevOPS teams to build infrastructure at scale, in different locations using different types of hardware.  

They also track and document every change made to both codes: application and configuration. 

Drilling even further into how DevOPS teams work, let’s just concentrate on some of the tools we use. 

Tools:

As mentioned, DevOPS means a new set of tools and skills. Here are the most popular and what they do, in a few words: 

Jenkins

 DevOPS Engineers use Jenkins to continuously build and test. 

Github

a tool used for source control, where engineers manage, track and document all changes made to both application and configuration management code. 

Chef/ Puppet/SaltStack 

it’s where DevOPS deploys in an automated fashion across multiple servers (hundreds/thousands) and in different locations. 

New Relic

having hundreds/thousands of servers to manage can be a bit daunting, so tools like New Relic were created to ease reading and analyzing system logs, by providing engineers with a big picture of how the entire application is performing, helping them identify bottlenecks. 

Briefly, adopting DevOPS will enable you to: 

• innovate faster

• be more responsive to business needs 

• have more frequent software releases

• adopt a discipline of application performance monitoring and optimizing in almost real time 

Going the DevOPS route is simply smarter, as having identical development and production environments with the same configuration simply makes things leaner. Software delivery and time to market reduced from months and weeks to days and hours. 

Compliancy, Renewed: Our Ongoing Commitment to Top-Tier Security

Credits: image © Lino Lago

At DevOps Team, security isn’t a checkbox — it’s a promise we uphold every day. That’s why we’re proud to announce that we’ve successfully renewed our security certification, once again under the rigorous audit of Atom Assurance.

This renewal isn’t just about keeping a label current. It’s about doubling down on our long-term commitment to protecting your data, evolving our defenses in tandem with emerging threats, and ensuring consistency at every turn. Working again with Atom Assurance gives us fresh eyes, impartial validation, and new insights to keep improving — not just maintaining — our security posture.

What Renewal Means for You

• Continuity, not reset. Because we worked with the same auditor, we retain a strong baseline of practices already vetted, but we also introduce updates reflecting the latest security landscapes.

  
  

• Stronger rigor. The audit process challenged us to revisit assumptions, tighten weak links, and test real-world scenarios, ensuring our systems can withstand evolving risks.

  
  

• Transparency stays front and center. We remain committed to clear, accountable communication about our security status and improvements.

In renewing, we reaffirm a philosophy: security isn’t a milestone you “reach” — it’s a path you stay on. New threats arise every day; maintaining relevance means never resting on past successes.

A Word on Our Partnership with Atom Assurance

Choosing to audit with the same firm as before was deliberate. Atom Assurance’s deep understanding of our systems, prior history, and high standards allows for continuity plus evolution. Their independent insights help us spot blindspots we might otherwise miss.

Again, their team put our systems through comprehensive scans, policy reviews, process audits, and incident simulations — everything that keeps security from being theoretical and makes it practical and resilient.

Looking Forward: Beyond the Certification

This renewal is a milestone, but the journey continues. In the coming months, we’ll push forward with initiatives like:

• Embedding more real-time monitoring and detection

• Adopting zero trust principles deeper across infrastructure

• Running frequent red teaming and penetration tests

• Strengthening developer training so every line of code is resilient

Thank you to everyone — team members, clients, partners — who trust us and push us to be better. This renewed certification with Atom Assurance is more than a badge. It’s our next step in a long journey of security, reliability, and trust.

Continuing Our Commitment to Security: ISO/IEC 27001 Achieved

Credit: pinterest.com

At DevOps Team, security is not just a checkbox — it’s a core part of how we build, operate, and grow. Following our successful SOC 2 Type II certification, we're thrilled to announce another major milestone: we are now ISO/IEC 27001 certified!

This globally recognized certification demonstrates our unwavering commitment to safeguarding data, managing risk effectively, and maintaining a robust, continually improving information security management system (ISMS).

What Is ISO/IEC 27001?

ISO/IEC 27001 is the international standard for information security management. It outlines best practices for identifying, managing, and reducing information security risks — from physical threats to cyberattacks. Achieving certification requires organizations to:

• Implement and maintain a rigorous ISMS

• Continuously assess and mitigate security risks

• Demonstrate operational resilience and security governance

This certification is awarded only after an independent, in-depth audit conducted by accredited third-party assessors.

What It Means for Our Clients and Partners

With ISO 27001, our clients can be confident that:

• Their data is secure — We have mature, independently audited systems and policies in place to protect sensitive information.

• We’re compliant and proactive — We go beyond checklists to build a culture of security, privacy, and compliance.

• We’re committed to continuous improvement — ISO 27001 is not a one-time achievement. It's a long-term commitment to evolving with the security landscape.

In short, your trust in us is backed by internationally recognized standards.

Why This Matters

The digital world is evolving quickly, and threats are becoming more sophisticated. Earning ISO 27001 certification is part of our ongoing mission to stay ahead — delivering not only high-performing DevOps solutions but also the peace of mind that comes from knowing your systems and data are in safe hands.

We’re incredibly proud of our team for making this achievement possible. It reflects the same values that drive every part of our work: excellence, integrity, and innovation.`

Thank You

To our clients, partners, and team — thank you for being part of this journey. We’re just getting started.

Want to learn more about what this certification means for your business or how we can help strengthen your cloud infrastructure with security at its core? Let’s talk.