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The best DevOps conferences of 2020

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John P. Mello Jr. Freelance writer
 

Whether you just started your DevOps journey or are already practicing its principles, this list of conferences is indispensable for honing your DevOps skills and knowledge. Every team's DevOps implementation is different, so it's important to know your specific requirements and see how teams like yours are following DevOps best practices.

These conferences will keep you up to date on the latest DevOps, cloud, and container management practices while helping you build a network of DevOps practitioners who can show you how to implement specific DevOps practices in your own organization.

Here's TechBeacon's shortlist of the most popular DevOps (and container) conferences of 2020.

January

Microsoft Ignite|The Tour

Twitter: @MS_Ignite / #MSIgnite
Web: microsoft.com/en-ca/ignite-the-tour/#cities
Date: January-May
Location: Sites around the world
Cost: Free, with registration

Microsoft is taking its popular Ignite conference on the road, offering developers and tech professionals several venues to explore the latest developer tools and cloud technologies, as well as to learn new ways to code, optimize cloud infrastructure, and modernize an organization with deep technical training. Cities on the tour so far: Washington, DC; Chicago, Illinois; Shenzhen, China; Seoul, South Korea; Osaka, Japan; Sydney, Australia; Taipei, Taiwan; Singapore; Shanghai, China; Hong Kong; Mumbai, India; Bangalore, India; Johannesburg, South Africa; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Prague, Czech Republic; Copenhagen, Denmark; Zurich, Switzerland; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Madrid, Spain; Tel Aviv, Israel; Berlin, Germany; and Stockholm, Sweden.

Who should attend: Microsoft developers

Agile, Testing & DevOps Showcase

Twitter: @UNICOMSeminars
Web: conference.unicom.co.uk/showcases/2020/january/amsterdam/
Date: January 30
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Cost: Conference, €105 to €495 (time-sensitive discounts available); workshops, €460 to €1,550

This conference draws a good-sized crowd—last year's attendance was 12,000—to listen to some 500 speakers from 30 countries and attend more than 50 workshops. 2019 keynote talks targeted topics such as "Why Focusing on Agile Alone Will Not Save the Day," "How to Implement a Strategic Test Automation Framework in an Agile Environment," and "Getting the Best Out of People, Process and Tools in the Context of Agile and DevOps." In addition to the Amsterdam event, a sister conference will be held February 27 in Manchester, UK.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in the business value of DevOps, as well as developers, DevOps engineers, operations professionals, security professionals, and software architects

February

DevOps Days

Twitter: @devopsdays / #devopsdays
Web: devopsdays.org
Date: February-October
Locations: Over 40 locations worldwide
Cost: Varies, but typically in the $100-$200 range

This conference series, which began in Ghent, Belgium, in 2009, is run by volunteers whose target audience is front-line engineers and their managers. The core team of organizers includes DevOps luminaries such as Patrick Debois and Damon Edwards, who assist local organizers with their events worldwide. Topics often include automation, testing, security, and organizational culture. Since the sponsoring group is decentralized, local organizers handle their own sponsorships, registration, and all other management tasks. For questions about a specific event, contact local organizers.

Who should attend: Developers, operations professionals, and managers

Config Management Camp

Twitter: @cfgmgmtcamp / #cfgmgmtcamp
Web: cfgmgmtcamp.eu/ghent2020/
Date: February 3-5
Location: Ghent, Belgium
Cost: Free

This conference is aimed at IT professionals interested in adopting, improving, and using open-source configuration management frameworks. The event includes community rooms, hackspaces, training sessions, workshops, and keynotes. A number of "fringe" events are available on the last day of the conference that help forum-goers take a deeper dive into topics and technologies talked about at the main event.

Who should attend: Technologists interested in adopting, improving, and using open-source software and frameworks for managing configuration, infrastructure, containers, clouds, virtualization, serverless, and security

DevSecOps Days

Twitter: @DevSecOpsDays
Web: sessionize.com/2020-devsecops-days-rsac-sf
Date: February 24
Location: San Francisco, California, USA
Cost: Included with RSA Conference

This event is part of the RSA Conference. It forgoes vendor pitches and on-stage product demos in favor of full-day sessions. Practitioners present on their DevSecOps experiences and how forum-goers can take those lessons learned and use them in their own organizations.

Who should attend: Developers and DevSecOps practitioners

March

QCon London

Twitter: @QCon, @qconlondon
Web: qconlondon.com
Date: Conference, March 2-4; workshops, March 5-6
Location: London, UK
Cost: Conference, £1,670 to £1,775; workshops, £595 to £1,140 (time-sensitive and bundle discounts available for conference, workshops or combinations of both)

QCon's workshops and conference sessions are conducted by engineers, practitioners, and team leads, and not evangelists, trainers/coaches, or consultants. Topics focus on innovators and early adopters in software companies. In addition to the London event, forums are also planned for São Paulo, Brazil (May 4-6); Guangzhou, China (June 15-19); Beijing, China (April 9-11); New York, New York (June 15-19); Munich, Germany (October 19-21); and San Francisco, California (November 16-20).

Who should attend: Developers, technical team leads, software architects, engineering directors, and project managers

Agile India 2019

Twitter: @agileindia / #AgileIndia2020
Web: 2020.agileindia.org
Date: March 16-22
Location: Bengaluru, India
Cost: Conference, Rs7,000 to Rs36,000; workshops Rs5,000 to Rs27,500

Agile India bills itself as Asia's largest conference on leading-edge software development methods. It's hosted by the Agile Alliance and organized by the Agile Software Community of India. The forum includes an agile coach camp and workshops before the start of the event and more workshops after it's finished. Each day focuses on a theme, including agile mindset day, business agility day, design innovation day, DevEx and DevOps day, and chaos engineering day.

Who should attend: Developers, agile practitioners, consultants, software engineers, thought leaders, DevOps team members and leaders, line-of-business managers, project managers, business analysts, programmers, testers, Q&A practitioners, and UX designers

Netdev 0x14

Twitter: @netdev01 / #netdevconf
Web: netdevconf.info/0x14
Date: March 17-20
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Cost (2019): CA$423.50 to CA$520.30, including VAT (time-sensitive discounts available)

NetDev is a technical conference about Linux networking organized by the NetDev Society, a Canadian nonprofit organization. The event focuses on Linux kernel networking and user-space utilization of the interfaces to the Linux kernel networking subsystem. If you are using Linux as a boot system for proprietary networking, then this conference may not be for you.

Who should attend: Members of the Linux community, network engineers, and security professionals

DevOps Talk Conference

Twitter: @DevOpsTalks, #do2020
Web: devops.talksplus.com/au/devops.html
Date: March 18-20
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Cost: AU$1,099

This is the first in a series of conferences that bring together DevOps leaders, engineers, and architects who are implementing DevOps principles and practices in startups and in leading enterprise companies. They run technical and cultural DevOps complex transformation for large and medium organizations. In addition to the Melbourne event, DTC conferences are being held in Auckland, New Zealand (March 24-26), and Singapore (April 17-19).

Who should attend: DevOps leaders, engineers, and architects

DevSecCon Singapore

Twitter: @devseccon \ #DevSecCon
Web: devseccon.com/singapore-2020
Date: March 18-19
Location: Singapore
Cost: £245 to £495

This is the first in a series of conferences held throughout the year by MyDevSecOps, a global community connecting developers and security. According to the organizers, these events are run by practitioners for practitioners. The forums include talks by key industry figures about making DevOps and security work together, as well as interactive workshops. Additional forums will be held in Sydney, Australia (March 23-24); Boston, Massachusetts (May 27-28); London, UK (September 30-October 1); Tel Aviv, Israel (November); Seattle, Washington (September); and online (June).

Who should attend: DevSecOps and IT security professionals

DevOpsCon

Twitter: @devops_con, #DevOpsCon

Web: devopscon.io/singapore

Date: March 23-26

Location: Singapore

Cost: US$449 to $1,499 (group and time-sensitive discounts available)

This is one in a series of conferences by Re-Think IT focusing on continuous delivery, microservices, containers, cloud, and lean business. Sessions cover topics such as easier CI/CD in a Kubernetes microservices environment, and managing infrastructure as code. Workshops include an agile retrospective for teams. In addition to the Singapore conference, events will also be held in London, UK (April 21-24); Berlin, Germany (June 8-11); and New York, New York (September 28-October 1).

Who should attend: Developers, software architects, IT Ops staff, and CxOs

SRE Con Americas

Twitter: @SREcon / #SREcon
Web: usenix.org/conference/srecon19americas
Date: March 24-26
Location: Santa Clara, California, USA
Cost: Sold out

The SRE conferences are a series of forums for site reliability engineers. The forums focus on resilience, reliability, and performance in complex distributed systems. In addition to the Santa Clara conference, events have also been scheduled for Sydney, Australia (June 15-17); Amsterdam, Netherlands (October 27-29); and Boston, Massachusetts (December 7-9).

Who should attend: SREs, software architects, and developers

DevOps Pro Europe 2020

Twitter: @DevOpsEU
Web: devopspro.lt
Date: March 24-26
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Cost: Conference, €209 to €699; workshop, €265 to €349 (time-sensitive discounts available for conference and workshop)

This conference focuses on the core principles and concepts of DevOps methodology and demonstrates how to use the most common DevOps patterns to develop, deploy and maintain applications on premises and in the cloud. The entire software delivery pipeline is covered from approaches (continuous delivery and integration and such) to tools (Docker, Chef, Puppet, Kubernetes, and more) to technologies (virtualization, containerization, orchestration, and microservices).

Who should attend: Developers, IT professionals, IT managers, consultants, and trainers

KubeCon/CloudNativeCon

Twitter: @KubeCon_ /@CloudNativeFdn / #CloudNativeCon
Web: events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe
Date: March 30-April 2
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Cost: $150-$1,550 (time-sensitive, academic, and individual discounts available)

KubeCon and CloudNativeCon are a single conference sponsored by the Linux Foundation and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). The conference brings together leading contributors in cloud-native applications, containers, microservices, and orchestration. The conference also focuses on open-source projects, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, OpenTracing, Fluentd, Linkerd, gRPC, CoreDNS, containerd, rkt, and CNI. In addition to the Amsterdam conference, sister conferences are scheduled for Shanghai, China (July 28-30), and Boston, Massachusetts (November 17-20).

Who should attend: Application developers, IT Ops staff, technical managers, line-of-business leaders, end users, service providers, CNCF community ambassadors, CNCF contributors, and people looking to learn more about cloud native

April

DevOpsCon

Twitter: @devops_con
Web: devopscon.io/london
Date: April 21-24
Location: London
Cost: Conference, £449 to £1,499, plus VAT; workshop day, £449 to £599, plus VAT (time-sensitive and group discounts available)

Formerly the Jax DevOps conference, DevOpsCon is described by its organizers as a conference for continuous delivery, microservices, cloud, and lean business. It features experts with in-depth knowledge of the latest technologies and methodologies for lean businesses. The forum focuses on accelerated delivery cycles and increased delivery quality. 2020 session topics include "How UX Saves Devs Time, Money, and Sanity"; "How Containerized Pipelines Can Boost Your CI/CD"; "Managing Microservices with Istio Service Mesh"; and "Middleware in the Age of DevOp—Writing Resilient Enterprise Applications for Monoliths vs. Microservices Architectures."

Who should attend: Developers, DevOps engineers, software architects, and managers

PowerShell and DevOps Global Summit

Twitter: @PSHSummit
Web: events.devopscollective.org/event/powershell-devops-global-summit
Date: April 27-30
Location: Bellevue, Washington
Cost: $1,750

This conference is all about Microsoft's PowerShell automation and configuration tool—featuring PowerShell product team members, Microsoft MVPs, developers, sysadmins, PowerShell community members, and other experts doing deep dives on this topic and on DevOps principles and practices. This year's event will have more intermediate-level content and an OnRamp Track for entry-level attendees. The forum is organized by PowerShell.org, which is part of the DevOps Collective, a nonprofit corporation.

Who should attend: Developers and Windows system administrators

GOTO Chicago

Twitter: @GOTOcon, @GOTOchgo, @GOTOamst, @GOTOber, @GOTOcph

Web: gotochgo.com

Date: Conference, April 27-29; master classes, April 30-May 1

Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Cost: Conference, $665 to $1,965; master classes, $845 to $1,690

GOTO conferences are organized by developers. They are highly technical and focus on the latest trends in software engineering. Track topics can vary widely, so check out the GOTO conference nearest you. The 2019 theme for the Chicago event was "What Works." It explored which technologies and methodologies developers need to know now, what the future of software will bring, and how to build more inclusive and collaborative teams. In addition to Chicago, GOTO conferences will be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands (June 8-11); Berlin, Germany (October 21-25); and Copenhagen, Denmark (November 18-22).

Who should attend: Developers, software architects, project managers, system administrators, and DevOps engineers

May

Continuous Lifecycle London

Twitter: @ConLifecycleLon / #CLL20
Web: continuouslifecycle.london
Date: May 13-15
Location: London, UK
Cost (early bird): Conference, £665, plus VAT; workshops, £400, plus VAT

This conference takes a holistic approach to exploring continuous delivery, DevOps, containers, and serverless topics delivered in three tracks and including optional practical workshops. It will also feature some 40 experts sharing real-world experiences.

Who should attend: Development heads, architects, developers, CTOs, engineers, DevOps practitioners, tool specialists, infrastructure specialists, and QA professionals

GlueCon

Twitter: @gluecon / @defrag / #gluecon

Web: gluecon.com

Date: May 20-21

Location: Broomfield, Colorado, USA

Cost: $795 to $1,495

GlueCon has both a software engineering and DevOps focus. Declare conference organizers Kim and Eric Norlin, if you’re tired of sales pitches disguised as talks, sessions that never do more than scratch the surface, throngs of people that seem more concerned with the after-parties than the education, and networking that has no lasting impact, then GlueCon is for you. Topics change from year to year, but they've included serverless architectures, containers, microservices, APIs, DevOps, mobile, analytics, performance monitoring, blockchain applications, and cutting-edge developer platforms and tools.

Who should attend: Software architects, developers, mobile developers and architects, DevOps engineers, enterprise and startup executives, and team managers

June

ChefConf

Twitter: @chef / #ChefConf
Web: chefconf.chef.io
Date: June 1-4
Location: Seattle
Cost (2019): $995 to $1,295

ChefCon covers DevOps topics with a focus on the open-source configuration management tool Chef. According to the conference organizers, sessions are built by and for professionals who drive innovation at the heart of digital transformation in an app-centric world. They say attendees will get a first look at new product innovations and the road map for the Chef Enterprise Automation Stack, as well as deep, hands-on training in full-day workshops delivered by industry experts. A sister conference has been scheduled for June 15-17 in London, UK.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in DevOps and continuous automation

Agile + DevOps West

Twitter: @TechWell / #AgileDevOpsCon
Web: agiledevopswest.techwell.com
Date: June 7-12
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Cost: Conference, $1,945 to $2,195; tutorials, $1,545 to $1,795; conference-tutorial packages, $2,195 to $2,895; conference, tutorial, training packages, $3,495 to $4,695 (time-sensitive discounts available)

In addition to keynote addresses by thought leaders in agile and conference sessions focused on major issues, this conference offers pre-conference training and certification classes, an expo displaying the latest agile software solutions, full- and half-day tutorials, and a leadership summit.

Who should attend: Agile teams and leadership, digital transformation teams, product owners, and managers in the areas of automation, development, test, and release

Monitorama

Twitter: @Monitorama / #monitorama
Web: monitorama.com
Date: June 8-10
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Cost: $700

Monitorama has become popular thanks to its commitment to purely technical content without a lot of vendor fluff. The conference brings together the biggest names from the open-source development and operations communities, who then teach attendees about the tools and techniques that are used in some of the largest web architectures in the world. Its focus is strictly on monitoring and observability in software systems, which the organizers feel is an area in much need of attention. The goal of the organizers is to continue to push the boundaries of monitoring software, while having a great time in a casual setting.

Who should attend: Developers and DevOps engineers, operations staff, performance testers, and site reliability engineers

O'Reilly Infrastructure & Ops Conference

Twitter: @OReillyInfraOps / #OReillyInfraOps
Web: conferences.oreilly.com/infrastructure-ops/io-ca
Date: June 15-18
Location: Santa Clara, California, USA
Cost: Not yet available

This and its sister event in Berlin, Germany (November 16-19), have replaced O'Reilly's Velocity conference. The focus is on providing the training and tools needed to successfully manage existing legacy systems while migrating to modern and responsive, predictive, scalable, and cost-effective infrastructure—without interrupting day-to-day business operations.

Who should attend: Systems engineers, systems architects, application developers, DevOps practitioners, site reliability engineers, cloud engineers, senior developers and engineers, researchers and academics, tech leads and engineering managers, vice presidents of engineering, and teams engaged in operations, infrastructure, and cloud ecosystems

DockerCon US

Twitter: @DockerCon
Web: docker.com/dockercon
Date: June 15-18
Location: Austin, Texas, USA
Cost (2019): $1,080 to $1,600 (time-sensitive and group discounts available); workshops, $100 each

DockerCon is a multitrack conference sponsored by Docker and focusing on that platform and its ecosystem. It includes keynotes, workshops, hands-on labs and a "hallway track" for conference-goers to find like-minded people with whom they can share ideas in a structured way. The family-friendly forum offers childcare services for attendees and activities for spouses.

Who should attend: Developers, DevOps engineers, CxOs, and managers

DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES) London

Twitter: @DOES_EUR / #DOES20
Web: events.itrevolution.com/eur
Date: June 23-25
Location: London, UK
Cost: A rate of €850, plus VAT, is currently available to those willing to commit before the programming has been set.

DOES is more than just a conference about technical and architectural DevOps practices. The event also covers the methods needed to lead widespread change efforts in large organizations. The goal is to give leaders the tools and practices they need to develop and deploy software faster. Attendees can expect to see speakers from many large companies and also engage in ad hoc discussions within a great community and learning environment. A sister event is held later in the year in Las Vegas, Nevada (June 23-25).

Who should attend: Leaders of large, complex organizations implementing DevOps or agile principles and practices; developers; IT operations specialists; CxOs; software architects; and systems and network admins

September

Interop ITX

Twitter: @interop / #Interop
Web: interop.com
Date: September 21-24
Location: Austin, Texas, USA
Cost: All access, $2,499 to $3,099; training, $1,699 to $2,299; conference, $1,699 to $2,299 (time-sensitive, government, education, nonprofits, and group discounts available)

A venerable tech conference, Interop delves into topics such as networking, security, automation/IT management, cloud environments, collaboration, data and analytics, DevOps, hardware/systems, infrastructure, talent/teams/tactics, and wireless/mobility. The first two days of the conference are training workshops, certifications, and deep dives, and the last two offer a smorgasbord of more than 60 50-minute sessions that enable event-goers to build a personal program that meets their business objectives.

Who should attend: CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, developers, software architects, site reliability engineers, and system architects

DevOps World

Twitter: @devopsworldconf / #devopsworld
Web: cloudbees.com/devops-world
Date: September 21-24
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Cost: $799 for early registration, with pricing increasing as time goes on

In addition to attracting thousands of practitioners, developers, managers, and leaders from around the world, DevOps World, previously held with Jenkins World, offers keynotes from industry thought leaders, hundreds of breakout sessions helmed by DevOps leaders, and in-depth training courses and technical workshops.

Who should attend: CxOs, managers, developers, DevOps practitioners, and Jenkins users and partners

October

AnsibleFest

Twitter: @ansible / #ansiblefest
Web: ansible.com/ansiblefest
Date: October 13-15
Location: San Diego, California, USA
Cost (2018): $995

Red Hat's Ansible is an open-source framework for configuration management and automation (infrastructure as code). AnsibleFest brings together members of the Ansible community to share information and learn about the latest developments. The 2019 edition was the largest to date, with hundreds of attendees, more than 90 talks, 25 sponsors, and seven workshops.

Who should attend: Ansible users, developers, and operations professionals

Devops + Automation Summit

Twitter: @DevOpsOrg
Web: events.devopscollective.org/event/devops-automation-summit
Date: October 21-23
Location: Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Cost: $1,550

This conference is staged by the DevOps Collective, a nonprofit organization. According to the organizers, the conference is a gathering of some 400 DevOps and automation professionals and enthusiasts who will be talking about different automation tools and toolsets, across multiple platforms learning best practices and industry standards.

Who should attend: DevOps and automation professionals and enthusiasts

November

Microsoft Ignite

Twitter: @MS_Ignite / #MSIgnite

Web: microsoft.com/en-us/ignite

Date: November 2-8

Location: Orlando, Florida, USA

Cost (2018): Full conference, $2,220; academic, $1,395; student, $995

Microsoft created Ignite in 2014 to consolidate several smaller conferences: Microsoft Management Summit, Microsoft Exchange Conference, SharePoint Conference, Lync Conference, Project Conference, and TechEd. Ignite covers architecture, deployment, implementation and migration, development, operations and management, security, access management and compliance, and usage and adoption. Although it's organized by Microsoft and focuses on its products, it also draws more than 100 vendors that participate in the expo and as sessions speakers.

Who should attend: Microsoft developers

 

Agile + DevOps East

Twitter: @TechWell / #AgileDevEast
Web: adceast.techwell.com
Date (2019): November
Location: Orlando, Florida, USA
Cost (2019): Conference, $2,195; two tutorial days, $1,795; packages,
$2,395 to $4,695 (time-sensitive discounts available)

At Agile + DevOps East, newbies have a chance to get up to speed quickly, and experienced pros can take their teams to the next level with hands-on, in-depth workshops. The 2019 conference included an Agile Leadership Summit and a DevSecOps Summit.

Who should attend: Agile teams and leadership, digital transformation teams, automation, developers, testers, release staff, product owners, and managers

December

LISA

Twitter: @LISAConference / #LISA20
Web: usenix.org/conference/lisa19
Date: December 7-9
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Cost (2019): $1,055 to $1,205 (time-sensitive, government, nonprofit, and group discounts available)

The LISA conference positions itself as a vendor-neutral meeting place for the systems administration community, with a heavy training focus. It's organized by Usenix, the Advanced Computing Systems Association, and LISA (Large Installation Systems Administration). Usenix.org includes numerous videos from previous LISA conferences.

Who should attend: Sysadmins, systems engineers, IT operations professionals, SRE practitioners, developers, IT managers, and academic researchers

That's a wrap

Not all dates, locations, and pricing were available at publication time, especially for events taking place later in the year. In those cases, we provided historical information about the event to give you an idea of what to expect and what you'll get out of attending—and we'll continue to update this list throughout the year.

Mark your calendars and make your choices soon! Prices may vary based on how early you register. Also, remember that hotel and travel costs are generally separate from the conference pricing.

What are your favorite conferences and why? Post your comments below, and let us know if there are any other events or conferences we missed.

Image courtesy of DevSecCon/Dan Murphy.

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