How DevOps Evolved: From Agile Roots to Global Conferences

Time 1: 2007

Belgian independent IT consultant

DevOps history begins with Patrick Debois, a Belgian IT consultant who worked on a large data‑center migration project. He performed testing and validation, collaborating with both development (Dev) and operations (Ops) teams, and quickly realized the stark cultural differences between them.

Frustrated by switching between agile development rhythms and traditional operations firefighting, he recognized the need to bridge the two worlds.

Time 2: June 2008

San Francisco – Velocity conference and The Agile Admin blog

O'Reilly launched the first Velocity conference in San Francisco, focusing on web application performance and operations. Attendees recorded the talks and created The Agile Admin blog to share insights, emphasizing the importance of agility in system administration.

Time 3: August 2008

Toronto – Agile Conference 2008 sowed the DevOps seed

At the Agile Conference in Toronto, Andrew Shafer proposed an “Agile Infrastructure” session. Although few attended, Patrick Debois was present and presented his experience applying Scrum and other agile practices to operations.

After a lengthy hallway discussion, they created a Google Group called Agile System Administration to continue the conversation, despite low participation.

Time 4: June 2009

San Jose – Velocity 09 breakout talk

The standout talk “10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr” became a seminal reference for DevOps, introducing the concept of a single center with two pillars – tools and culture – to enable rapid software delivery.

Time 5: October 2009

Ghent – DevOpsDays and the birth of the term

Patrick used Twitter to organize a two‑day event modeled after Velocity, naming it DevOpsDays (Dev + Ops + Days). The event attracted developers, ops engineers, managers, and tool enthusiasts worldwide, and the term “DevOps” quickly spread.

Time 6: 2010

The Agile Admin blog publishes “What is DevOps”

The article defined DevOps as a set of values, principles, methods, practices, and tools, clarified common misconceptions, and linked the definition to the agile manifesto.

Time 7: 2010

Hamburg – DevOpsDays 2 and the rise of Continuous Delivery

Jez Humble presented “Continuous Delivery” at DevOpsDays, offering best‑practice guidance that addressed the early challenges Patrick and Andrew faced. Continuous Delivery, an extension of Continuous Integration, became a core DevOps practice.

DevOps as Agile’s extension in IT

Through this history we see that the initial conflict between agile software development and traditional system maintenance sparked the use of Scrum in ops. Parallel ideas emerged in the United States, leading to blogs and conferences that unified the community.

When Velocity 09 highlighted “Dev and Ops Cooperation,” the industry recognized the massive value of aligning operations with agile business goals.

The first step is to align values: operations must support rapid business evolution, just as agile development does. Treating ops as a customer and emphasizing individuals, collaboration, and responsiveness completes the DevOps loop.

DevOpsDays China was later organized by the Efficient Operations Community and the International Best Practice Alliance, featuring a distinguished speaker lineup and a true celebration of development, testing, and operations.