SRE stands for Site Reliability Engineer
In the IT industry, this is an engineer who is responsible for the reliability of very complex services. A profession appeared at Google and came up with a methodology there. This is understandable, Google is a service that is used by the whole world. This is huge power and great complexity.
On December 14, Google had a glitch, the whole world was at a loss. This is where an SRE engineer is needed. He must not make such mistakes.
The Russian IT market has mastered the DevOps methodology earlier and now there are heated debates about SRE vs DevOps. Someone says that this is the same thing, someone says that SRE is something that logically continues DevOps. In Russia, the profession has just appeared. Large banks that contain large capacities began to think seriously about such guys.
In general, while everyone is arguing, we decided to talk about SRE and DevOps, as well as about working at Google and Tinkoff .
I found one SRE at Tinkoff, before that he worked at Google - at the primary source, so to speak. His name is Dima Maslennikov. We paid special attention to Google, as there is a stereotype that it's fun to work there. We found out that not everyone.
What is DevOps
DevOps – Development and Operation, (, ) , ..
The article contains a short and creatively revised text of the interview. If you want more details or are too lazy to read, watch the full version on my youtube-channel
Farya:
- How did you get into Google?
Dmitry Maslennikov:
- They haunted me for a very long time. They wrote to me on LinkedIn, asked for my resume, but I kept forgetting to send it to them ...
- Why did they play football? It's fucking Google!
- I don’t know, it was good for me in Russia.
- What were you doing at that moment?
- I was a programmer, software architect. Developed the backend.
Why do you think they paid attention to you?
- I have no idea. I had all sorts of big words inscribed in my profile, because I worked for all sorts of Ebay, Samsung. And apparently, the abundance of these big names and technologies that I worked with played a role.
- Did they teach you SRE? Indeed, in Russia this has not been and still is not.
- Yes, and nowhere in the world there is such a thing. Therefore, training takes place at Google for about six months.
- There are wild discussions around the SRE. What is this, is SRE an opposition to DevOps, is it a complement to it?
- When I worked at eBay, I had a good feel for what was before DevOps. There is development (programmers) and there are administrators. And they never see each other. You handed the code to the manager, and it lies somewhere. He, in turn, also passed it on to someone there. And someone somehow exploits this code. DevOps said they should be put together.
- At what point does SRE appear here?
- SRE appears when software becomes overly complex and overloaded. Firstly, the functionality itself is growing very strongly. And this, at times, is imperceptible. Well, what has changed in Google search over the past year or over the past 5 years? And there releases go every week with new functionality! Moreover, it is with functionality.
, , . . , . .
- I can't even imagine what can be updated there?
- For example, you are looking for coffee. First, geolocation. If you are looking for coffee in the field, then you are probably looking for how it is grown or history. If you are looking for coffee in the center of a metropolis, then, probably, have a drink. Or Hilton. Is this a surname or a hotel?
- So, where is the SRE?
- First, the functionality grows, the complexity grows, the load grows. That is, we are reaching more and more people, the Internet is becoming more accessible and accessible. For example, India and other previously inaccessible countries and areas are joining. Everything becomes geographically very broad. And accordingly, people start to consume, the load of the service increases. And that makes it overly complex.
It is one thing to open a service only to Moscow, another - to the whole of Russia. The load is colossal. What's going on? To serve so many people quickly, you need a lot of servers. Services must be available 24x7. Imagine if now your payment will take not 5 minutes, but three days?
And the question is, what is the administrator to do with all this?
- I guess there are many administrators. And they exist in a complex hierarchy to support the whole thing.
- Administrators, according to Google, are not profitable to grow. It is no longer possible to hire so many people. This is why the SRE came about.
- At what point does DevOps become an SRE?
- A very philosophical question. There are tasks and problems. They need to be addressed. For example, if the bank did not complete the transfers, then what to do? To solve the problem. Whether to call it SRE or not call it is unclear.
Well, and this is generally just such an argument about nothing. "Is there life on Mars, is there life on Mars?" Is SRE DevOps, is SRE DevOps? Both SRE and DevOps are all about doing well. This means that we take the best from everywhere, apply it to make users happy.
- So the two methodologies work in tandem?
- Together, but SREs are not administrators, they have more emphasis on programming and automation. Plus, I am constantly drowning because we rarely have to work with administrative methods. And if this happens, then something is wrong with us.
- But this is not the answer to the question.
- They can be brothers, they can have something in common, maybe the same thing - whatever you want. How will the actions change? All the same, it all comes down to one thing: there is software, it must be exploited, we need some people who will solve load problems. And how to call them is the tenth thing.
- Can an SRE become a DevOps or a programmer? In general, what do you need to learn to become a sought-after SRE?
- It seems to me that one should not learn programming, not SRE and DevOps, but think about the process as about engineering, which is present in software development and it is multifactorial.
We recently held a meetup about SRE, we argued a lot, but we agreed on one thing: programmers are no longer needed the way they used to. Everybody needs engineers who can solve problems. When geeks came along who assembled cars in their garages, they were incredibly popular and everyone wanted to be as smart as they are. But the world has changed. Now it is a skill that everyone can have and it is not highly rated. It will be the same with programmers.
About SRE at Google
- Let's talk about Google. There are legends about Google buns for employment. Tell in details.
- Firstly, when you leave your last job, they ask: “How many bonuses will you lose by quitting?”. They will compensate this money so you don't hesitate. Then they rented me an apartment for 3 months, gave me a separate realtor from Google, who selects housing. Or they can compensate you for all the moving costs.
The first week of work, they tell you not about work at all, but about how life in Google and Ireland works. Everything is very calm in the company. There are microkitchens everywhere - fruits, and so on. Communication in microkitchens is a separate culture. There are also three meals a day, massages and once a week you can come to work with your pet.
And there is such a mantra from the manager - "The main thing is, do not burn out, do not overwork."
We also had an interesting story. The guy got a job right after college, and decided to save on housing. He bought the cheapest van, put a bed there. Google has laundries, he charged batteries in the office, showers and towels are also available. The van parked in the office parking lot and went from it to work.
He wanted to quickly pay off his student loan. But then he was forbidden to do so.
- Why?
- There was news in the media, they began to discuss it, but Google does not like a lot of activity. The reputation of the brand, all the work ...
- Why did you leave for Russia and find a job at Tinkoff? This is so atypical. Everyone is trying to get out, and you came back.
- I don't know, the brand is interesting and I have been a client for a very long time. Where else to work in Russia? Well, Yandex, well, Tinkoff. He left because Dublin got bored.
- Why is Dublin boring?
- This small town. This is not Schengen, to go to Europe - you need to get a visa.
In our mentality Dublin is a village. When locals say that they are tired of Dublin, because there is a vibe of a big city, it sounds ridiculous for Moscow residents.
But there were pluses, for example, very calm people. Nobody raises their voice there at all. In Russia, what is not considered a voice raise looks contrasting after Dublin.
- Why is Google boring? What does Tinkoff have that Google doesn't?
- Tinkoff has drive and good aggressiveness.
"We want to grow there, we want to capture markets, we want to be the best."
And on Google: “We're already the best. We've already captured everything. Well, we still want to grab something in China, but there are political problems. "
If you liked it, check out the full interview for more details .