The Evolution of Automation at Google and Release Engineering

<p>This week we look at <a href= "https://sre.google/sre-book/automation-at-google/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Evolution of Automation at Google</a> and <a href="https://sre.google/sre-book/release-engineering/" target= "_blank" rel="noopener">Release Engineering</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p>The companion discussion to this week's episode starts at 7 pm Eastern. You can join by going to <a href= "https://bookclub.dev/thursdays" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">bookclub.dev/thursdays</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Notes</strong></p> <p>Automation is meta-software, software that acts on other software</p> <p>The Value of Automation</p> <ul> <li>Consistency</li> <li>A Platform</li> <li>Faster Repairs</li> <li>Faster Action</li> <li>Time Savings</li> </ul> <p>The levels of automation</p> <ol> <li>No automation</li> <li>Externally maintained system-specific automation</li> <li>Externally maintained generic automation</li> <li>Internally maintained system-specific automation</li> <li>Systems that don't need any automation</li> </ol> <p><a href= "https://sre.google/sre-book/automation-at-google/#reliability-is-the-fundamental-feature-lqsesM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reliability Is The Fundamental Feature</a></p> <p><a href="https://xkcd.com/1205/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">XKCD: 1205</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Philosophy of Release Engineering</p> <ul> <li>Self-Service Model</li> <li>High Velocity</li> <li>Hermetic Builds</li> <li>Enforcement of Policies and Procedures</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://bazel.build/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Bazel</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Next week we'll read chapter 9 <a href= "https://sre.google/sre-book/simplicity/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Simplicity</a> and chapter 10 <a href= "https://sre.google/sre-book/practical-alerting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Practical Alerting from Time-Series Data</a></p>