It is now coming up to three years since I started to specialise in recruiting in the DevOps & Cloud space – where I started my journey to learn what they were all about. At the time in Melbourne, these IT specialisations were both just starting to come of age, so I was eager to meet with technical people in the market and gain their thoughts.

Initially, I would receive this kind of feedback – “DevOps is just Development and Operations working more closely together” and “Cloud is just another buzz word around storage”. However as time has marched on and the industry has evolved, both of these areas have matured and flourished to become key parts of the IT industry and imperative to the success of a modern functioning business.

For me, a massive AFL Australian Rules Football (AFL) fan, looking at it closely in a quirky light-hearted way, there perhaps could be some synergies between the evolution of DevOps and Cloud and AFL.

Within DevOps, the time saved for IT Departments can be substantial. Where things can be automated rather than being done manually, processes can be up to 1000% more efficient. Naturally, this creates greater efficiency across a business and this is where I see similarities to the evolution of the modern AFL game. The automation of some IT functions is like the ‘run and gun’ frenetic current style of AFL Football; a much faster efficient game compared to the by-gone style of a more ‘manual’ less efficient game – where it was marked, walk back, take your kick and go long to a pack. In addition to this the removal of things such as a deliberate rushed behind and dragging the ball in – can also be akin to removing the silos of a traditional IT environment – when converting to DevOps.

Whilst the increased capacity of storage and the ability to scale up rapidly through migrating to the Cloud is perhaps reminiscent of current AFL player’s aerobic capacity. Yes, the modern day players seem to be able to go to another level and put more miles in the legs when required. Whereas the AFL players of yesteryear were perhaps similar to the limited storage of the old server racks, once they were at full capacity – there was simply nothing left and nothing more could be gained from them. Hence not being able to scale up for a spike in work-load consumption.

Perhaps this is a cheesy effort to draw parallels between Technology and Sport as our modern world strives to progress and changes at a more frenetic pace than ever before! Regardless, as technology evolves further and DevOps and Cloud specialists continue to be in demand, I look forward to being a #1 ticket holder in watching the play unfold.

Bernie Skinner is a Senior Consultant at Davidson Technology.