Does “Docker” – “Github” – “Ruby” or “Sinatra” etc … mean anything to you?

If not … well that’s certainly not the end of civilization but good to know and any how .. you might hear those terms more often when listening to Millennials or even younger Generations, or while sipping your coffee in one of those fancy new hangouts. To disclose the secret right from the start … these terms are no new Bands or fancy Artist, you may find them in Developer Communities and Application Designers, but what are they good for and why care at all?

I have been talking about becoming agile, composable and flexible and what it means for businesses, how to transform and why. Nowadays everybody is talking about cloud computing and even if you have never touched any electronic device (Computer, Laptop, Smartphone, Tablet etc …) you can not escape from being spilled with the notion of “Cloud” and the ease it delivers to us, consuming services.  Let me try to demystify that whole “Cloud” hype a bit …. so why Cloud at all ….

 …. who would buy a cow for drinking a glass of milk? …

In the past companies grew huge IT (Information Technology) Departments, mainly driven by Technology Innovations. Whenever something new had been invented by Developers – regardless of Hard- or Software – companies have been forced to update their IT Systems in order to support internal and external clients. Over the years the cycles of innovation became to close to keep up with the ever changing technology updates, without making huge investments or dissatisfying the customer – nothing more draggy than a Website “under maintenance”.

What has changed now  –  Demand and Delivery have changed positions!
In the past 20 years we all have been happy with whatever technology was able to give us. Remember how proud we were being among those lucky ones who had a Desktop at work? And when this Desktop got Internet access, and can you recall the day you’ve send your first e-mail? Those days were driven by technology innovation and we – the user – were pretty happy with whatever new features and functions we could use. In these days companies built huge IT-Departments with many People managing Computer Systems. Than we saw a first wave of consolidation in the 90th with the Internet-Hype, but still we were more or less happily consuming whatever we got delivered. In todays world with access anywhere and Computers woven into our clothes, we are the ones who are setting new standards and demanding services cheap, fast, secure,wherever and  whenever we want them. With traditional IT this is impossible to achieve.

Therefore companies are seeking for new ways to deliver services that are changing more often than Linda Evagelista changed hair color. Cloud Computing supports this new delivery model in many ways but with it comes a lot of transformation. It’s not only the Datacenter that needs to be reconfigured and shifted from traditional to agile, it’s also and more important the way Applications and Services are built. And here is where the folks from the headline are joining us.

 …. Docker and Github are new ways to compose applications and make them available in a very smart way. Just as in the  early days of Global Trade, when Ships were sailing around the globe loaded with goods that were packed just as they came on board. It was a whole mass and in stormy weather the load got damaged or jumbled. After a while and still today, goods are packed in container which give the carrier more options to transport a greater variety of goods, more safe. Same applies to Software development today. In the “old days” code had been written in complex languages and for every addition or change the whole crap had to re-written. Nowadays we  use container to build re-usable code-assets or whole applications. If an “App” is outdated we do not re-write the whole thing, but just take a new container with better or changed assets, add it to the service and – done. Sounds easy … yes it is … just by click and go.

       …. Now – what is Ruby or Sinatra than good for ….
Well neither a Song nor the famous Singer is meant here 😉 … these are just 2 samples of some dozens of very light-weighted programming languages. These new code generators are easy to learn and other than most of the old ones (e.g. Cobol, Fortran, C++, Basic or even Java) they are service oriented by design. Some of the older ones like C++, Java or Basic were called Object oriented, the major difference is that these new Buddies are able to integrate whole new services just by copy and paste. I am not a developer or programmer or have deep insight or knowledge about these things but to me its obvious that for being agile everything needs to become removable, composable and light weighted.

Now you know a bit more about what composable means. And as you easily can figure out, it sounds much easier than is ist to realize. Becoming agile means touching everything and don’t consider anything as “good enough” – just because it is not.