Editorial

How can the public sector get better at DevOps?

July 19 sees an interesting sounding DevOps in the public sector conference that could be useful for any practitioners who want a better overview of the topic

Posted 4 July 2017 by Gary Flood


In two weeks (Wednesday, July 19) Public Sector DevOps & Container Expo, a special conference on how to use the latest tech to support higher quality, more efficient public services opens its doors – and we think you should think seriously about being there when it does.

This is particularly so if you’re interested in DevOps, security and what containers – code that lets applications written for one environment efficiently run in another.

The event, organised by Amazic, a firm that specialises in helping software companies launch in Europe, runs from 8.00am to 5.30am and is being hosted at Cavendish Ventures in the City (go to its Eventbrite post to get all your logistics and registration details).

The day will offer a handy way to hear case studies and best practice advice from public sector professionals who have already done a lot of work on internal digital transformation, plus offers you a way to get up to speed with some of the latest tools, especially Open Source ones, that could help.

These include close-ups on automation and DevOps delivery with Cloudbees Jenkins, containers (Docker) and automation and configuration management (Puppet), among others, making it a very focused event for project managers and developers alike.

Featured speakers will also be of interest to the ThinkDigitalPartners.com readership of public sector ICT buyers and sellers of technology.

That’s because the list of confirmed speakers includes experts like DevOps Lead at the UK Home Office Andrew Martin, and James Stewart, up until last November director of technical architecture at GDS and deputy government chief technology officer (CTO).

Stewart is now an independent consultant (see his new website here), and he told us he’d signed up to speak at the Public Sector DevOps & Container Expo as he thinks it’s a good way to talk about the issues that interest him right now, especially security.

“Recent events have shown us that slow moving organisations using slow-moving software can’t really cope with the threat environment out there.

“Security, like DevOps itself, needs to become much more agile and delivery-focused, being able to respond much quicker to change.

“This event could help your thinking of you agree, and also expose you to some case studies about the practical impact of the tools out there right now.”

For his part, Martin also wants to talk about the security problem, as he plans to talk about the anatomy of major vulnerabilities, demonstrating their applicability to containerised applications, as well as exploring container native security tooling throughout the pipeline.

“I’ll be explaining about how both open- and closed-source vulnerabilities occur, through accidental or malicious action, as well as look at  exploits in relation to vendors’ security best practices,” he told ThinkDigitalPartners.com.

Attendees will be encouraged to regard security as part of their job, looking to  integrate security testing at all stages of the pipeline, plus get a perspective on the impact of major vulnerabilities, he promises.

He also says there will be practical demonstrations of container privilege escalation and the securing of CI servers from malicious actors.

Given the topics to be addressed and the quality of speakers like Martin and Stewart we believe this could be a very useful conference and hope you have time in your diary to attend.

Here are the event details again: hope you find it worthwhile!