Bet365 Creates DevOPs team to Improve Its Online Services
Online bookmaking giant bet365, through its technology business Hillside Technology, has formed its own specialist DevOps team, with the overarching aim of reviewing and improving how the bet365 platform works, as well as being responsible for future software releases and site development.
The 70-strong team will operate from two bases in the United Kingdom, one in Manchester and one in bet365’s official hometown of Stoke-on-Trent. The group comprises of staff from a number of operational teams within the bet365 organization, including members of software release, IT operations, service delivery, and the problem and incident management teams.
In order to support the DevOps team, Hillside Technology is also in the process of creating an on-site reliability and engineering team, interviews and appointments to which are ongoing at the present time.
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General Aim
The general aim of this new team is to improve the company’s IT operations and processes, and DevOps will take a multi-faceted approach to achieve this aim. It is hoped that this approach will help bet365 improve the reliability of its site, drive down the delay time for introducing new applications on the platform and also will help with current and future development of new software and other projects for bet365.
Part of the process to help the DevOPs team achieve their aim is they will work to identify new methodologies, develop new technologies and come up with new ways to work, that will eventually allow a number of key processes on the bet365 platform to become either wholly, or at least partially, automated.
“Ensuring the platform remains stable and secure”
Speaking about the aims for his new team, Hillside Technologies new chief of the DevOps team Steven Briggs stated:
“I don’t see DevOps changing software development practices. The critical question is how to keep pace with the consistent need to release software, while ensuring the platform remains stable and secure.”
“Modernising our approach to operational and release activity is imperative, and we believe a DevOps approach can help with this.”
Briggs confirmed that part of the teams remit is to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the health of all bet365’s live operations, to increase the level of automation within the IT infrastructure of the company and to share the insights that they gain with individual development teams at bet365.
“Holistic Changes”
Speaking about the current IT infrastructure within the company, Briggs stated:
“We have a large IT estate. We will not have made a holistic change across the whole estate within 12 months, but we will focus on where the needs are greatest.”
“I expect to see greater levels of automation. We’ll also have a much more informative way to understand how one system can impact another area and a shared understanding across the development and platform teams.”
Automating tasks is a positive way to ensure that IT operators and experts are freed from performing simple routine operations and allows them to focus on the more complex tasks and issues that the platform will face.
It will be interesting to see how the new team impacts on the different aspects of the bet365 platform, including of course its esports betting service and markets, like in the case of bet365 League of Legends betting markets.
Read also: Esports: The Convergence of Gaming and Gambling
Image courtesy of Bet365
Since: August 10, 2015
