Change Quote by Gene Kim
““Just prior to the production push, all developers with changes going out must be present and check in on their IRC chat channel—any developers not present have their changes automatically removed from the deployment package. Rossi continued, “If everything looks good and our test dashboards and canary tests† are green, we push the big red button and the entire Facebook.com server fleet gets the new code delivered. Within twenty minutes, thousands and thousands of machines are up on new code with no visible impact to the people using the site.””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Phoenix Project, 2013
Effective deployment requires strict presence, automated checks, and rapid rollout to ensure stability and minimal user impact.
In simple terms: Deploy with checks and team presence.
Key Takeaway
Implement disciplined, automated deployment processes.
Themes
devops
continuous delivery
automation
Mood
practical
technical
Type
operational
motivational
When to use this quote
- software releases
- incident response
- system scaling
Key Concepts
process discipline
risk management
team coordination
Questions to Reflect On
- How can teams balance automation with human oversight?
- What safeguards prevent accidental rollbacks?
A Different Perspective
Automation can’t replace human judgment in emergencies.
![“Bill Baker, a distinguished engineer at Microsoft, quipped that we used to treat servers like pets: “You name them and when they get sick, you nurse them back to health. [Now] servers are [treated] like cattle. You number them and when they get sick, you shoot them.” quote by Gene Kim](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e7b/gene-kim-2268_health_bill-baker-a-distinguished-engineer-at-m_187582.jpg)
