Montreal Tech Watch

Editor’s Note: This is a feature article from Alistair Croll, from rednod and bitcurrent. He has extensive executive experience in marketing and operations and is now launching rednod, a “startup accelerator”. Alistair Croll also provided us helpful advice for Blitzweekend; and writes for webware and gigaom.

Web sites matter. And the previously thankless job of web operations is getting more visibility.

O’Reilly called operations the secret sauce of many companies. Which is weird, because a few short years ago, web operators didn’t even know what to call themselves. They were the guy who knew how the load-balancer worked, living in that weird space between web design and networking. They wrote scripts, and understood BGP. But as designers and marketers, we took web operations for granted.

No more. As soon as an app goes live, it needs operating. A few high-profile failures have shown the world that reliable, scaleable websites take good architecture, reliable infrastructure, and constant vigilance. Allen Lewind wrote that “Failing to do so will inevitably cost these companies users, performance and money.”

Operations is also in transition. With cloud computing and on-demand hosting, much of the equipment is out of our hands. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do; on the contrary, operators now need to keep tabs on their managed hosters and virtual machines. So whether you’re a “server hugger” or have all your stuff in the cloud, you need to worry about web operations.

Montreal-based Bitcurrent is a loose federation of analysts and technology pundits that look at the challenges of web operations. Several of the organization’s partners built the underlying components that make the Internet run today; others have built out some of the world’s biggest web applications.

And we want your help. We’re conducting a survey of Web Operations, trying to understand the challenges and trends web operators face.

If you run a web application, head over to Bitcurrent and take the survey. You can respond anonymously if you like. Tell your friends to respond. Spread the word.

In return, you’ll get access to Bitcurrent’s forthcoming report, The State of Web Operations. Plus, in conjunction with MTW, we’re giving away a free pass to the Bitnorth conference that’s happening in September to a random survey respondent. Fill out the survey and you’re automatically entered in the draw.