Investment in Salesforce DevOps has been brewing for a while. Modern developer tooling has become incredibly important for Salesforce to ensure the scale at which they grow is manageable for the whole ecosystem. Devs and admins won’t be happy if they don’t have access to the best tools for the job – a blunt pencil would cause even the most skilled illustrator to struggle.
DevOps Dreamin’ was a first-of-its-kind event for Salesforce. As the name suggests, the event focused specifically on DevOps. Here are some key takeaways.
1. DevOps Center and Community Feedback
Salesforce’s continued investment in DevOps goes hand-in-hand with feedback from the ecosystem. During DevOps Dreamin’, Karen Fidelak (Sr. Director Product Management, Salesforce) explained that they are shaping the DevOps Center based on responses from the community. The aim is to ensure that the platform is capable out of the box, and can provide a real solution for customers who perhaps aren’t as far along in their implementation journey as those who require dedicated tools for DevOps.
The DevOps Center could be a game changer. It’s in closed beta right now, with plans to go into public beta in Summer ’22, and general availability in Winter ’22 (Safe Harbor).
2. Commitment to Growing the Ecosystem
Matt Dickens (Co-founder and Gearset CPO) talked about Gearset’s roadmap and how they’re trying to differentiate in the Salesforce DevOps world.
Gearset is committed to making sure the Salesforce DevOps ecosystem is growing alongside them. The DevOps Launchpad (training platform) is mostly tool-agnostic and talks about DevOps in general terms rather than focusing on Gearset – the conference itself is a testimony to how well you can run a community-led event that’s not focused on a single product. Gearset also runs quarterly summits, DevOps industry survey, and a women in Salesforce DevOps group to promote DevOps in the Salesforce ecosystem. Matt’s thought process demonstrates his passion and resonates with DevOps enthusiasts.
3. Tools to Make DevOps Easier
Several sessions introduced the different tools intended to make Salesforce DevOps easier. For example, Cloud Compliance makes sure you’re able to refresh your sandboxes a lot faster with features such as automating data masking, muting automation, and automating post refresh settings. Elements.cloud helps you get to know your org better, do dependency and impact analysis, as well as get started with GitHub and GitHub Actions for Salesforce DevOps.
4. Networking With Fellow DevOps Enthusiasts
One of the most interesting parts of the event was meeting lots of Salesforce Admins and quizzing them on what Salesforce DevOps means to them. For example, how are they dealing with the apparent focus on developers? After all, it’s not called “AdminOps”…
Coming from a developer background and working mostly with developers, can sometimes provide a skewed view of things. However, it was humbling to see so many customers with different backgrounds and levels of experience take interest in DevOps, from those just getting started with Salesforce, to full-time senior admins with established careers. It was good to take a step back and think about one of the main USPs of Salesforce – configuration first.
Summary
To sum up, DevOps Dreamin’ left attendees supercharged, with a fresh perspective on DevOps and the immense possibilities that lie ahead for this niche area of Salesforce. It may still be in its nascent stage in terms of user adoption, but every day more and more customers are lining up, and SIs are building dedicated Salesforce DevOps practices to support increasing demand. It’s beginning to feel like being a “DevOps Specialist” is now a legitimate full-time job.