Normally, I don’t like to highlight military uses of Kubernetes (people have feelings about that; I do too, for that matter). But, this week, something rather significant happened out in Utah: U-2 Federal Lab achieves flight with Kubernetes. “The U-2 Federal Laboratory successfully leveraged Kubernetes during a local training sortie on a U-2 Dragon Lady assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Sept. 22. This represents the first time Kubernetes has flown on an operational major weapon system in the Department of Defense.” Yes, OpenShift and Kubernetes are in use in ground systems across the US Department of Defense. But, I’ve not heard of Kubernetes running on actual airframes until this week. The fact the team on the U-2 did this is quite stunning. Remember, U-2s were critical intelligence gathering sources on overflight missions during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The U-2 program is a very old and sensitive program to the US government. As high and overarching as my clearances were, I never got close to the U-2 program (compartmentalization works). The U-2 is a critical C4ISR platform used in humanitarian and war fighting missions the globe over. The fact the U-2 program is leaning forward with containers and cloud native thinking makes me ask the same question I asked folks about DevOps and the US nuclear weapons program. “If they can do it, why can’t you?” ...

This is the hell that is America today: It took us a week to get a legitimate COVID-19 test for my daughter. Strep and flu tests were done at the same time; she tested positive for the flu. Hopefully, things are on the upswing there. Just when that turned around for good, I went for a walk to take a break from the stressors of day to day life. Then out of nowhere, Sunny and I were attacked by an irresponsible neighbor’s dog. Immediately taking down the attacking dog resulted in me skinning and bruising my left knee. Then the neighbors didn’t want to take responsibility because we walked up the sidewalk. Can’t I walk up the sidewalk now? I don’t have time for stupid. I’ve never seen this dog before. I’ve lived in this neighborhood for three years. A neighbor that witnessed the whole thing confided in me that the same dog attacked his dog a while back and put it in the hospital. ...

My daughter just informed me she very likely has contracted COVID-19. My apologies but, I’m going to forgo my usual introduction in the newsletter this week. I was going to discuss this lengthy piece but, give it a read instead: The Developer-Led Landscape. DevOps’ish is brought to you by Accurics. They’re cool people doing cool things with cloud native security. Check them out! Scanning Kubernetes IaC configurations with Terrascan People Kubernetes Contributors “It is intended to be the hub for all things related to the Kubernetes Contributor experience. Who exactly is a contributor? We all are - Whether you’re writing docs, reviewing code, participating in the community and its many [Special Interest Groups] SIGs, everyone is welcome. We hope this site will be a pathway to success for our 35000+ Kubernetes contributors, providing current, up-to-date information on community events, contributor resources, Kubernetes SIGs, and more.” One lone hero in production is not sustainable-not for you, not for high-functioning teams, and not for customers who depend on your service. Collaborate well by instrumenting observability from the very beginning, and enable more resilient teams to build more reliable systems sustainably. ...

This is quite clever. DevOps’ish is brought to you by Accurics. Just announced: Terrascan extends Policy as Code to Kubernetes. People One lone hero in production is not sustainable-not for you, not for high-functioning teams, and not for customers who depend on your service. Collaborate well by instrumenting observability from the very beginning, and enable more resilient teams to build more reliable systems sustainably. In our guide, Developing a Culture of Observability, we lay out why o11y culture and tools go hand-in-hand. Learn how to build a culture of observability with Honeycomb. SPONSORED Chris Short: K8s Release Team - Cloud Native Computing Foundation - NVIDIA to buy Arm for $40B - Oracle and TikTok - OpenShift TV - Walmart Brings Back Gateway Computers by Tech Breakfast Podcast I sat down and talked the news with the folks over at Tech Breakfast Podcast. It was a fun conversation in which I shared my assessment of the Tik Tok situation (it is rather dire). ...

General 9-11, war, and mental health warnings This is hell week for me every year. The week before 9-11-2001, I lost my best friend. At the same time, mourning his loss in North Carolina still (I was stationed at Langley AFB, VA). I woke up early the morning after leaving the mountains and the funeral activities in Hendersonville. I was at my parents’ house. They’d taken time off the week before dealing with my dad’s mother’s (my grandmother’s) passing. While they were incredibly helpful, they’d missed all the work they could afford to, so we were leaving that day to be back home by nightfall. I flipped over to the news to see a weather update. I saw one smoking tower. Minutes later, I saw another plane smack into the second tower live. Scarred for life (I studied NYC architecture throughout my youth), I jumped in the shower after telling my ex-wife, “If they hit the Pentagon, we’re leaving, immediately.” She began frantically packing up our miraculously still sleeping daughter and her stuff. ...