10 DevOps Experts You Should Follow

It may seem like DevOps has been around for a long time, but the truth is that the term is only seven years old. In 2009, Patrick Debois organized the first DevOpsDays event, and the name stuck.

In the years since, the DevOps movement has mushroomed, and it's increasingly becoming the go-to approach for enterprise development and IT operations. According to the Puppet 2016 State of DevOps Report, 22% of enterprises now have a DevOps department called. Meanwhile, Gartner has predicted that by 2016, DevOps will evolve "from a niche strategy employed by large cloud providers to a mainstream strategy employed by 25% of Global 2000 organizations."

Born out of the Agile software development movement -- and closely related to Lean development -- the DevOps approach emphasizes close cooperation between development and operations teams. The industry hasn't settled on a standard definition of DevOps. However, most definitions acknowledge that it is a cultural movement that incorporates continuous integration, continuous delivery, integrated testing, collaboration, automation, and short development cycles.

With no standard for DevOps, many enterprises are looking for experts who can help guide them through this cultural shift. Literally hundreds of consultants, developers, technologists, and pundits blog or tweet about DevOps. Who should you follow? We've got some suggestions.

This slideshow highlights 10 experts who are passionate advocates for DevOps on Twitter and in their personal blogs, where they provide opinions, advice, and guidance. Our selection includes some of the earliest and most prominent leaders from the movement as well as interesting but less-well known voices who are contributing to the spread of DevOps.

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