WinOps (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsWindows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

" and "

DevOps DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (''Dev'') and IT operations (''Ops''). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. DevOps is complementary to a ...

") is a term used referring to the cultural movement of DevOps practices for a Microsoft-centric view. It emphasizes the use of the

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

and integrating development and

IT operations Data center management is the collection of tasks performed by those responsible for managing ongoing operation of a data center This includes ''Business service management'' and planning for the future. Historically, ''data center management'' w ...

into one fluid method on the Windows platform.

Etymology

The term 'WinOps' was coined at the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

DevOps meetup held at

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

in June 2015. As an amalgamation of Windows and DevOps, it represents the new emphasis on using existing DevOps methodologies in the traditionally less open-source Microsoft space.

Community

Since the first WinOps conference in September 2015, there have been multiple meetups and a second conference which was held in May 2016. The WinOps meetup group has an active community with over 1,000 members. Their motto is "Windows in a DevOps World". They focus on shared experiences using Windows centred products and tools for establishing DevOps goals.

The Linux challenge

Windows and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

are very different; not just technologically, but philosophically. Tools are a major component to establishing DevOps, and the lack of Windows-centric tools limited early Windows DevOps adoptions as most initial supporting technologies emerged from Linux and

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

communities. WinOps boils down to addressing the same challenges as DevOps, using different tools.

WinOps-focused tools

References

{{Reflist Agile software development Microsoft culture Software_development_process