We are a volunteer-run community whose ultimate goal is to strengthen all companies in the Cleveland area by introducing DevOps concepts, demonstrating the value of DevOps, and showing how to adopt DevOps in organizations.

DevOps means a lot of things to a lot of people, so we've put together what DevOps means to us as a group.

DevOps is Community.

Like many advancements in business and technology, DevOps did not emerge from academic research nor was it developed by a consultancy. DevOps is defined, advanced, and promoted by the practitioners who self-organize in groups like DevOps CLE. We are the community, or more accurately, one of the many DevOps communities around the world. There is no central governing authority, and thus it's on us to drive and be driven by DevOps around the world.

DevOps CLE will remain a community but will have some structure and organization to keep the community alive and thrive. We will welcome all participants and give everyone the opportunity to contribute in a way that benefits everyone.

DevOps is Technology and Culture Change.

Everyone says it, because it always needs to be said. Engineers who think that phrases like “DevOps is really about cultural change” are cliché and meaningless are exactly who this message is for. They don't understand it, they don't want to understand it, and they're the ones holding the organization back from change. They simply create a third and even more dysfunctional organizational silo called “DevOps”.

DevOps CLE will focus on both culture and technology change, and we will encourage each event to feature content that caters to both. This may mean two topics from two speakers, or a talk that speaks to both.

DevOps is for Enterprises.

While all organizations benefit from automation tools and a collaborative culture, small companies and startups simply don't have the organizational challenges of enterprises.

Not only do enterprises have thousands of people working across disparate teams on decades-old legacy systems, they have centralized governance, security policies, and regulatory compliance that cannot be ignored. DevOps is fundamentally about adopting new technology and culture in these types of organizations. Small companies and startups don't need DevOps; they are already practicing it.

DevOps CLE will strive to help enterprises, and we will feature content that can be applied in large organizations. This doesn't mean we will exclude small companies and startups; in fact, these can be sources of inspiration and large enterprises can certainly learn from them.

DevOps is Diversity.

Many technology communities think of diversity in terms of ethnicity, race, sexuality, religion, and age. Those are important, but DevOps CLE needs to think beyond this.

DevOps is not an elite mode of working, reserved only for the best, brightest, and most talented engineers. It is an organizational practice, and organizations are built with lots of people with lots of diverse backgrounds. We must focus on adapting DevOps for everyone, which means being inclusive of different personalities, skillsets, experiences, learning modes, and communications styles.

DevOps CLE will seek the benefits of diversity of opinion, expertise, and experience while minimizing the divisions that come from intolerance, elitism, and self-promotion.

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