Chapter 29: Further Reading — DevOps and Deployment

Annotated Bibliography

1. The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford (IT Revolution Press, 2013)

A novel-format introduction to DevOps principles through the story of a fictional company's IT transformation. While not a technical manual, this book is the most effective way to internalize DevOps culture and understand why the practices in this chapter matter. Essential reading for anyone who thinks DevOps is "just about tools." The narrative format makes complex organizational concepts accessible and memorable.

2. Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems edited by Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer Petoff, and Niall Richard Murphy (O'Reilly Media, 2016)

The definitive reference on running reliable production systems at scale. Introduces the concepts of error budgets, SLOs (Service Level Objectives), and the Four Golden Signals of monitoring discussed in Section 29.6. While Google's scale is far beyond most vibe coders' needs, the principles of measuring reliability, automating toil, and designing for failure are universally applicable. Available free online at sre.google/sre-book.

3. Docker Deep Dive by Nigel Poulton (Independently published, updated regularly)

A thorough, practical guide to Docker that covers everything from basic container concepts to multi-stage builds, Docker Compose, networking, and security. The writing is clear and example-driven, making it an excellent complement to Section 29.2. Updated frequently to reflect the latest Docker features. Suitable for both beginners and developers looking to deepen their container knowledge.

4. Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation by Jez Humble and David Farley (Addison-Wesley, 2010)

The foundational text on CI/CD practices. Despite its age, the principles remain highly relevant: deployment pipelines, automated testing, configuration management, and release strategies. The book provides rigorous reasoning for why continuous delivery improves both velocity and reliability. Pairs well with Section 29.3's practical CI/CD pipeline examples.

5. Terraform: Up & Running by Yevgeniy Brikman (O'Reilly Media, 3rd edition, 2022)

The most accessible introduction to Infrastructure as Code using Terraform. Covers HCL syntax, state management, modules, testing infrastructure code, and managing Terraform in a team. The third edition includes coverage of Terraform Cloud, Terragrunt, and modern best practices. Directly relevant to Section 29.5 and essential reading for anyone managing cloud infrastructure.

6. The Twelve-Factor App by Adam Wiggins (12factor.net, 2011)

A methodology for building modern, cloud-native applications expressed as twelve principles. Factor III (Config) directly informs Section 29.9's approach to environment management. Factor VI (Processes) shapes containerization strategy. The entire methodology aligns with the deployment practices covered in this chapter. Brief, free, and essential — every vibe coder should read it.

7. Observability Engineering by Charity Majors, Liz Fong-Jones, and George Miranda (O'Reilly Media, 2022)

A modern treatment of observability that goes beyond traditional monitoring. Distinguishes between monitoring (known unknowns) and observability (unknown unknowns), and argues for high-cardinality, high-dimensionality telemetry data. Particularly relevant for understanding how to debug complex issues in production systems. Complements the monitoring and logging practices in Sections 29.6 and 29.7.

8. GitHub Actions in Action by Michael Kaufmann (Manning Publications, 2023)

A practical guide to GitHub Actions, the CI/CD platform most commonly used by individual developers and small teams. Covers workflow syntax, reusable actions, matrix builds, secrets management, and deployment automation. Directly applicable to the GitHub Actions examples in Section 29.3. Includes real-world examples that go beyond the official documentation.

9. Cloud Native DevOps with Kubernetes by John Arundel and Justin Domingus (O'Reilly Media, 2nd edition, 2022)

For vibe coders who have outgrown Docker Compose and need container orchestration, this book provides a practical introduction to Kubernetes without assuming prior experience. Covers deployments, services, health checks, autoscaling, and Helm charts. While Kubernetes is beyond the scope of this chapter's deployment walkthrough, it is the natural next step for applications that need high availability and horizontal scaling.

10. Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software by Michael Nygard (Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2nd edition, 2018)

Focuses on building software that survives real-world production conditions: cascading failures, resource exhaustion, traffic spikes, and deployment errors. Introduces stability patterns (circuit breakers, bulkheads, timeouts) and anti-patterns (integration points, chain reactions, cascading failures). Directly relevant to the rollback and recovery strategies in Section 29.8.

11. Docker Documentation — Best Practices for Writing Dockerfiles

URL: https://docs.docker.com/develop/develop-images/dockerfile_best-practices/ The official Docker documentation on Dockerfile best practices is thorough, well-maintained, and includes detailed explanations of layer caching, multi-stage builds, and security considerations. Bookmark this as your primary reference when writing or reviewing Dockerfiles, including those generated by AI assistants.

12. Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim (IT Revolution Press, 2018)

Based on years of research data from the State of DevOps reports, this book provides empirical evidence for which DevOps practices actually improve software delivery performance. Identifies four key metrics (deployment frequency, lead time, change failure rate, and mean time to recovery) and the capabilities that drive them. Essential for understanding why the practices in this chapter lead to better outcomes.

13. AWS Well-Architected Framework

URL: https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/well-architected/ Amazon's framework for evaluating and improving cloud architectures across six pillars: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and sustainability. While AWS-specific, the principles apply to any cloud provider. Particularly useful when moving beyond PaaS to managing your own cloud infrastructure, as discussed in Section 29.4.

14. Practical Monitoring by Mike Julian (O'Reilly Media, 2017)

A concise, opinionated guide to monitoring that focuses on practical implementation rather than theory. Covers what to monitor, how to alert effectively, and how to build dashboards that actually help during incidents. Addresses alert fatigue, the bane of monitoring systems, and provides a framework for designing alerts that are actionable. A practical companion to the monitoring concepts in Section 29.6.

15. The Fly.io Blog — Articles on Deployment Patterns

URL: https://fly.io/blog/ Fly.io's engineering blog publishes excellent, in-depth articles on deployment patterns, container technology, edge computing, and distributed systems. Articles like "Docker Without Docker," "Scaling SQLite," and their deployment guides provide practical insights for developers deploying applications on modern infrastructure. The writing is technical but accessible, aimed at developers who deploy their own applications.