Site Reliability Engineering, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2. The Value of Reliability

By Ben McCormack, Brian Kudzia, David Huska, and Jose Andrade with Garrett Holthaus

The smooth and consistent operation of technology services isn’t discretionary; it’s a critical factor for business success. This chapter discusses Site Reliability Engineering from a perspective that often isn’t considered: as a business investment for the organization. While there are certainly business costs associated with implementing SRE, the measurable return on that investment can be substantial. We’ll examine how SRE principles—such as managing risk, setting service performance goals, reducing repetitive tasks, improving system visibility, and automating processes—not only prevent expensive service disruptions but also drive efficiency and foster innovation throughout the organization.

Why SRE Is Right for Google

Traditionally, engineering teams were organized by separating software development from operations. This usually resulted in suboptimal outcomes because there was poor alignment between operational and software teams to balance stability and feature velocity. This organizational structure led to code being “thrown over the wall” and both teams blaming each other when failures occurred. Additionally, operations teams often fell into the trap of having humans doing repetitive tasks over and over again, which is both unrewarding for the individuals and inefficient for the business.

Over the past two decades, practices like DevOps and SRE have ...