The New Kingmakers

Foreword

Not very long ago, developers were primarily seen through the geek lens—as smart people that were too idiosyncratic and unsociable to be taken seriously or capable of wielding much influence. Now that’s all changed as developers have attained a new status as the real movers and shakers who hold more power and influence than is known. In high-tech circles, this has opened up an ongoing conversation about how the shifting role of developers is affecting today’s IT organizations.

This phenomenon—described with terms like The Consumerization of IT, The Nerd Economy, and The Rise of the Developer—is what Stephen O’Grady discusses in his book, The New Kingmakers: How Developers Conquered the World. In it, Stephen explains how this shift began and how it will shape the future of business, as a whole, in the years to come. He takes a data-driven, realistic look at the new realities facing today’s IT organizations and the role that development teams are playing in creating them.

At New Relic, we’ve written a lot about The Nerd Economy and how it’s leading us in a new direction. Developers are now wielding unprecedented power. Polyglot environments, database fragmentation, and cloud and open source adoption are only the beginning. As developers, we are shaping product and user experiences in new ways. And organizations that understand and embrace the value of this shift will be the most successful in the years to come.

Today, developers are unquestionably one of the most important assets a business has, regardless of what industry it is in. This book documents developers’ movement out of the shadows and into the light as new influencers on society. It also reveals the larger truth that not just company leaders, but also developers themselves must recognize the role they play in business success. Thus, this new era offers us exciting and unprecedented opportunity: to take pride in our newfound status and ownership of the responsibilities it brings.

—Lew Cirne

CEO, New Relic