The Event
Chef was a returning sponsor of DevOpsDays Ohio. This year, the event was held at Shadowbox Live in Columbus on October 31 and November 1. We look forward to continually supporting the DevOps community in coming together to discuss all the things DevOps. Our VP of Community Development, Nathen Harvey, and myself were each invited to speak at the event. Both of our presentations centered around a frequent topic at Chef: the culture of DevOps.
The Presentations
On Day 1, I spoke about the perils of Impostor Syndrome (slides). Though not a frequent topic in the DevOps community, impostor syndrome affects a staggering 70% of people in all fields. I suspect an even higher percentage can be found in the tech realm. In my presentation, I covered tips and tricks to overcoming this anxiety and provided suggestions for further reading. More importantly, I hope it provides some relief and reassurance for those who struggle with Impostor Syndrome as I do!
Nathen Harvey opened Day 2 of the conference with a presentation on the community-side of DevOps (slides). By refocusing our attention on the needs of people on all sides of the DevOps dice, we in turn allow them to focus on the needs of the business, our customers, and our products. At the same time, we gain a new perspective and discover new areas for growth and development, cultivating a continuously evolving and growing product, team, or organization.
Each day, a diverse set of ignite talks were presented. Topics ranged from how to live an unplugged life in the tech world, to the commonalities that could help unite DevOps and ITIL orgs. The full-length presentations touched on serverless architectures, enhanced visibility in an ever-evolving Prod environment, and where we can improve our config management workflow.
The Chef Table
With 15+ sponsors, the event was chock full of great conversations, generally good humor, and of course, sweet swag. On Day 1, Michael Ducy and the DevOpsDays organizers presented the excess funds raised for this event to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. I don’t think I was alone in getting teary-eyed by this gesture.
At the Chef table, we had great conversations around the wide range of tools in the DevOps and IT realms. We also discussed how Chef Automate’s workflow feature can help tie everything together, providing a single workflow for each project, team, and department within a company.
Get Involved
- Meet us at an upcoming DevOpsDays event
- Join the Chef community at Meetups, in online discussions, and more
