Author headshot

David Sandilands

Principal Solutions Architect and Community & DevRel Lead

David Sandilands was the Principal Solutions Architect and Community & DevRel Lead at Perforce Puppet, connecting open source innovation with enterprise automation. He played a key role in shaping Puppet’s developer ecosystem, integrations, and community engagement, working closely with both the open source community, and internal product and engineering teams. 

David was a co-author of the 2024 State of DevOps Report, including the 2024 Platform Engineering Edition, and the sole author of Puppet 8 for DevOps Engineers. He regularly contributed technical blogs, tutorials, and presentations that helped organizations modernize infrastructure, adopt platform engineering best practices, and strengthen security and compliance through automation. 

A multiple award-winning innovator in DevOps and infrastructure engineering, David’s work at Puppet provided actionable insights for IT leaders and DevOps teams worldwide. 

Latest Content from David Sandilands

Blog

Get Started with Puppet: A Tutorial for First-Timers

Ready to get started with Puppet and you don’t know where to begin? This Puppet tutorial blog post will guide you through the first few steps and get you automating in no time.
How to & Use Cases, Products & Services
Blog

Scaling DevOps: 6 Tips for Starting Out + 4 Pitfalls to Avoid

DevOps Scaling is the act of adding capacity to your DevOps initiative as needed. In this blog, we cover the elements that often need scaled in DevOps, the challenges they present, and how to get started on the right foot.
DevOps
Blog

What is Configuration Management? Understanding the Configuration Management Process with Examples, Tools & Use Cases

Configuration management helps organizations remain in a desired state without needing to manually track every change. Learn more about what configuration management is and how it works.
Glossary, Configuration Management
Blog

DevOps Best Practices – How to Get Started When Nothing Works

If you’re feeling stuck and stalled in your DevOps journey, it might be time to take a step back. Explore DevOps best practices from the ground up and get moving again on your most important initiatives.
DevOps
Blog

Platform Engineering vs. DevOps: Yes, There's a Difference – Here's Why It Matters

The difference between platform engineering and DevOps is pretty nuanced. In this blog post, we'll make it simple with definitions and examples to explain the basics of platform engineering vs. DevOps.
Platform Engineering, Glossary
Blog

Platform Engineering Team Structure: DevOps Skills + New Roles to Hire for Your Platform Engineering Team

The assumption that platform engineering teams have “killed” DevOps just isn’t true based on our findings from the 2023 State of DevOps report. Our latest thought piece blog dives in based on research from the report.
Platform Engineering
Blog

What is Platform Engineering? Platform Engineering Definition with Examples + Starting Points

Platform engineering isn’t brand-new, but it’s also not well-established. If you’re curious about what it is and how it works, read this blog for quick, simple definitions and answers.
Platform Engineering, Glossary