Most of us are familiar with the traditional farms that have existed since humans learned to sow and harvest crops—these farms have provided us with food for centuries. And for a long time, due to the lack of refrigeration and other technology, humans lived near their food sources. But industrialization has also led to centralization of farming systems, with farms getting larger and further from consumers and with distributors depending on preservatives or refrigeration to extend shelf life.

IT industry research has repeatedly shown that DevOps-oriented teams that can ship software quickly and effectively routinely outperform their slower counterparts in terms of company profitability, market share, and just about every competitive business metric that matters. That sort of success comes from restructuring teams in ways that empower them to move faster and get closer to their customers.

Today is day one of the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco, where thousands of security professionals from around the world come together to share new ideas, discuss global security vulnerabilities, and explore the latest technologies in the security industry.

Services are the backbone of our systems. Whether they’re functional microservices or logical components of a traditional application, they are the pieces that make up our businesses. We can’t do the computer thing without services. But who’s responsible for owning a service in your company or organization? The cast of characters involved in the lifecycle of a service is more than just software engineers.

Your customers’ expectations are changing rapidly—they expect on-demand and personalized support whenever they interact with businesses. If one business doesn’t meet their expectations, they can easily order online from a different company, change service providers, or download a different app.