back to article French thrash Brits, Germans and Portuguese in IT innovation

UK IT bosses are among the most conservative in Western Europe, focusing on keeping the lights on and shying away from innovation or adopting new approaches such as DevOps. Research from MSP Claranet covering 900 IT decision makers across Europe flagged up France, Spain, and the Benelux countries as the most progressive …

  1. Anonymous Blowhard

    So "IT innovation" = DevOps?

    Meh.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      :IT leaders from the UK report the lowest DevOps adoption rates in Europe

      Indeed, and a good thing it is too. You really want to fly in a plane running software developed by French DevOps programmers?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        You really want to fly in a plane running software developed by French DevOps programmers?

        Don't worry, Striking French air traffic controllers will ensure you never get airborne, thus keeping you safe.

        Although it does make you wonder who wrote the software that brought down that A400M, and what approach they were using?

  2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    DevOps === The latest Fad

    To be replaced by another 'Latest and greatest' just as many companies get it implmemented.

    rinse and repeat thus spending lots of mony, delivering very little but boy does it look good on the managers CV's.

    Time for another round of Golf then Chaps?

    That corner office will soon be in sight.

    1. FuzzyWuzzys
      Happy

      Re: DevOps === The latest Fad

      "Mony" : French currency as pronounced by Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films.

      See also "Minky".

    2. P. Lee

      Re: DevOps === The latest Fad

      A quick look at "the agile admin" website indicates "devops" means getting all the stakeholders to talk the devs during the development process.

      Communication, eh, who'dathought that's a good idea?

  3. Mr_Bungle

    New and Improved! Faster, Stronger, Better! Whatever.

    Yet another DevOps article. Jaw cracking yawn. Faced with a void of disinterest each and every one.

    My utter cynicism indicates that this tiresome buzzword is nothing more than a marketing term for tempting management clowns into wasting time and money.

    Give it a rest eh?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: New and Improved! Faster, Stronger, Better! Whatever.

      You say "marketing term" as if it's a bad thing! :)

      (Now if you excuse me, I have to go back to "empowering your best practice curation processes", and stuff like that.)

    2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: New and Improved! = Warning!

      That one always sets me off.

      How can anything be new and improved?

      Re to the "study" - as there is no clear and universally accepted definition of "DevOps" in the first place ... you know the rest.

  4. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    British developers are doing well

    It's just that along with most British scientists and a lot of engineers we are doing innovation over here, not in the UK

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just finished a 3 month contract in DevOps from a traditional ops background. Traditional ops could be just as agile if you throw out a few bits and pieces, such as good governance and due diligence.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Have you tried scrumming or teabagging or fixie-bearding or whatever it is called now? :)

  6. disgruntled yank

    Fascinating

    "Research from MSP Claranet covering 9,000 IT decision makers across Europe flagged up France, Spain, and the Benelux countries as the most progressive regions."

    A quick visit to Google says that MSP Claranet is a managed services provider. Could this have anything to do with the way the report measures "progressive"?

  7. Gordon 10
    IT Angle

    Call me cynical

    But it seems like the most "innovative" countries are those that have a culture of posing at the café drinking expresso and smoking gitane's when they are meant to be working.

    Just like every lovey in Shoreditch.

    Funny that.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Call me cynical

      You've just described America's current hipsters as well.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Call me cynical

      Are you suggesting places where work is usually done at the last minute, in a panic, by people who might have the wrong specialisation for the job they're carrying out now has a cool new name? You cynic you.

    3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Call me cynical

      That's espresso*. Other than that, good point.

      *I actually know a café that has both espresso and expresso on the menu. The expresso is exactly the same as the espresso - but cotsts +1€. I like that.

  8. PaulAb

    Slow take up....

    How many times has Microsofts cloud crashed in the last year in Europe alone, with days wasted waiting for full recovery, and, if we are resistant to change, doesn't that just mean that many UK IT managers consider that the benefits have not been proven, just like so many Councils and other public bodies that jumped on 'The cloud' and then jumped off again when the cost savings were not realised. Look at the risks the Metropolitan police acknowledge they are taking doing just that.

    It sounds like Claranet have a lot of under-subscribed storage waiting around.

    I think HP, MS, ORACLE etc. Etc. jump on a new buzz word and then have an expectation that the sheep will follow.

    Look at Office 365, useful to a small percentage of users, but it is not essential by any measure, we like many, still use Office 2007 and that is more than enough for 75% of the 'Office' population.

    And don't forget, by time the next survey comes around all us ludites won't be on Nutanix or Proxmox or any other Containerised VM infrastructure...and so it rolls on, and on....and on.....

    1. BurnT'offering

      Re: that is more than enough for 75% of the 'Office' population.

      Yeah, bloody users!

  9. Yag
    Headmaster

    "Do conservative Brit bosses face a DevOps Waterloo?"

    You mean a decisive brit (and some) victory against the french?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Do conservative Brit bosses face a DevOps Waterloo?"

      "You mean a decisive brit (and some) victory against the french?"

      Surely it was more of a Prussian victory with British help - which is why it is so odd that a hundred years later we went to war with our natural allies (Germany) on the side of France and Russia.

      1. Yag

        Re: "Do conservative Brit bosses face a DevOps Waterloo?"

        I know, but I feel I had to keep close to the original sentence.

        BTW : There's no such thing as "natural allies"

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: "Do conservative Brit bosses face a DevOps Waterloo?"

        "Give me night or give me Blücher" - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

        Comment made at a crisis point during during Battle of Waterloo at about 5.45 pm on 18 June. The Military Maxims of Napoleon by Napoleon Bonaparte, David G. Chandler, William E. Cairnes , p. 143.

        Alternatively wording may have been "Night or the Prussians must come": quoted by David Howarth, page 162, "Waterloo: Day of Battle", ISBN=0-88365-273-0

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DevOps is the answer to every question

    Apparently - otherwise this would be a pointless puff piece.

    I'll fetch my coat.

  11. Erik4872

    The DevOps fad...lots of fun!

    It follows that DevOps is going to be the new fad technology to chase. We've spent the last 10 years building up the Social Mobile Agile 2.0 Bubble and have millions of apps whose back-ends need to be looked after. I think the concept is great - sysadmins should know a little about development, and developers should know way more than they do about how their products work in real world systems. What's going to cause people to lose the plot is the millions of tools, frameworks and "single panes of glass" cooked up by these new ops "innovators." I think a lot of this stuff is going to end up shelfware after the hangover wears off.

  12. Dr_N

    Claranet still exists?!

    Wow, I learned something today!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nothing has changed in 200 years

    "scum of the Earth" still describes them well

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Nothing has changed in 200 years

      ""scum of the Earth" still describes them well"

      Describes who well?

      On one account what Wellington actually said was "They were the scum of the Earth, and see what fine fellows we have made of them". The British problem has always been crap management, and when decent management comes along they rise to the challenge. Unfortunately this usually means working for foreign owned countries, or emigrating.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Nothing has changed in 200 years

        It appears to have described the British solders according to https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington

        "The French system of conscription brings together a fair sample of all classes; ours is composed of the scum of the earth — the mere scum of the earth. It is only wonderful that we should be able to make so much out of them afterwards." - Speaking about soldiers in the British Army, 4 November 1813

  14. John G Imrie

    Translation

    It said IT leaders here have “largely adopted a conservative approach: prioritising keeping the lights on and the business ticking over, rather than trying to innovate and differentiate.

    IT leaders would like to have a job at the end of the month rather than jumping on the latest methodology band wagon.

  15. Nolveys
    Mushroom

    Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!

    1. John70

      Mono-doh!

    2. John Styles

      "What about us brain-dead slobs?

      You'll all be given DevOps jobs"

      Monorail, monorail, monorail.

      I've sold DevOps to North Haverbrook, Ogdenville and Brockway.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Go

        "I've sold DevOps to North Haverbrook, Ogdenville and Brockway."

        And it put them on the map!

    3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Monorail

      If you do it right, it just works.

      *shrugs and boards train*

  16. Sir Sham Cad

    El Reg Drinking Game

    That's it. I'm going to come up with rules for an El Reg drinking game. Starting with

    1) Take a drink every time you see the word DevOps

    followed by

    2) Take two drinks if an organisation responds to questions asked of it by El Reg

    3) Down in one if it's Apple

    1. John 104

      Re: El Reg Drinking Game

      That isn't a game, that's just binge drinking. You'd never get off the front page!

      1. ecofeco Silver badge

        Re: El Reg Drinking Game

        That isn't a game, that's just binge drinking. You'd never get off the front page!

        Damn. You beat me to it.

      2. Sir Sham Cad

        Re: El Reg Drinking Game

        I haven't playtested this because I want to live but here goes:

        take 1 drink for:

        DevOps

        Cloud

        Someone or thing goes TITSUP

        Boffin

        Yahoo!Exclamation!Marks! (one for each)

        take 2 drinks for:

        Someone actually responds to an El Reg followup question (3 if it's Apple)

        A commentard asks for the IT angle in a Bootnotes article

        We get a LOHAN update

        finish your pint and get another one for:

        Friday BOFH

        The FAA sort themselves out and approve the LOHAN mission

        Anytime SpaceX do something cool

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We have the longest history in computing...

    We have had time to learn to make progress slowly.

  18. raving angry loony

    It is Friday? No it fucking isn't!

    So a British company that sells services based on DevOps is saying that some areas aren't spending enough on what they're selling, and equates (in a typically slimy salesperson trick) to equate "innovation" with "spending money on what we want them to buy".

    Tell me, how much did El Reg get for this advertising? I think we should be told. Or at least FLAG it as "paid content".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It is Friday? No it fucking isn't!

      Probably need an #elreggate to get some ethics in IT journalism.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well obviously it is because the usual outsourcing incompetents can't in general speak French

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Well obviously it is because the usual outsourcing incompetents can't in general speak French"

      Speaking of which I once came across this comment in some software which had had both English and French authors:

      "je m'emmerde dans ce tas de bagatelles"

      Lit. this pile of unimportant stuff is covering me in shit.

      I have often been tempted to use it since.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just interested does the survey come up with any evidence that this lack of "innovation" is impacting company performance in Germany, Britain and Portugal versus France?

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Last time I looked, Germany and Britain each outperform* France economically (on their own, not combined). Portugal doesn't, but then Portugal is much, much smaller than France.

  21. vikislavinviki

    Culture via Tools

    The real challenge is in the adoption of a continuous improvement process as a working practice.

    For more than a half of century so many companies would like to improve their working processes,but the number of these who succeed is low. The good source for understanding what the Devops movement is trying to promote will be the book "The Toyota Way" .

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Toyota-Way-Management-Manufacturer/dp/0071392319

  22. gz

    "The amount of chaos is in direct proportion to the size of the enterprise."

    DevOps or not, it still applies.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like