Epilogue - The Practice of Cloud System Administration - page 419

chasing, logistics, and delivery. Each of these is embodied in software and works well, or
not, because of the operational practices involved.
The creation of new products is accelerated by the improved cycle time that brings new
ideas and technologies to market faster. New ideas breed new ideas. Who would have ima-
gined that someday we'd use our phone to run apps that enable us to deposit checks by
taking their picture, reserve a car by pressing a button, or toss disgruntled birds at unstable
structures?
When operations is done right, we are happier in our jobs. We eliminate the terror and
uncertainty of major upgrades. We end the practice of requiring certain tasks to be done at
odd hours that steal our sleep and distract us from pleasure. The stress from our jobs that
hurts our nonwork relationships goes away. We live happier lives. We have more time for
living and loving. We have more freedom to use our time to help others. Happiness multi-
plies love and it overflows us, leading us to share it with others.
These are the early years of all this stuff whose names and definitions are still evolving:
cloudcomputing,distributed computing,DevOps,SRE,theweb,theinternet ofthings.We
are standing at the base of the mountain, looking up, wondering what the future holds.
If you follow every bit of advice in this topic, it will not cure all the world's ills. It will
not end poverty or make food taste better. The advice in this topic is obsolete as we write
it.
But it is a start.
We hope this topic gave you good things to think about. Interesting ideas to try. A start-
ing place. We are merely collectors of the good ideas we've learned from others, read and
heardabout,andoftenbeenluckyenoughtohaveexperienced.Wearescribes.Wehopewe
have translated these ideas and experiences into words that convey their essence without
misrepresenting them orleaving outthe important bits. Where we haven't,we apologize in
advance.
These are the early years. This topic is just one voice. The rest is up to you. Take what
you've learned here and build a better world.