053 — Varun Kavoori: From chaos to control: How Okta nails Salesforce DevOps!

From his early days in the Salesforce ecosystem to becoming a driving force behind Okta’s DevOps strategy, Varun shares candid insights and hard-won lessons.

Jack McCurdy sits down with Varun Kavoori, Principal Salesforce DevOps Engineer at Okta, for a deep dive into his career journey and the evolving world of Salesforce DevOps.

Jack and Varun explore how Okta approaches release management, the power of flexible DevOps practices, and why setting strong guardrails is key to compliance and scale.

Varun lifts the lid on the tools and tactics that keep his team running smoothly, especially on high-stakes release days, and looks ahead to the growing role of AI in the DevOps space.

Whether you’re a seasoned Salesforce engineer or just starting out, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways and fresh perspectives.

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset: https://grst.co/4iCnas2

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About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial: https://grst.co/4iKysKW

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Varun Kavoori and His Journey
03:06 Understanding the Role of DevOps in Salesforce
06:08 Release Management at Okta
08:55 Building a Flexible DevOps Process
11:54 Guardrails and Compliance in Releases
15:00 Scaling the Team and Managing Growth
18:02 Challenges with Metadata and Deployment
20:54 Release Day Process and Code Freeze
23:51 Tools and Techniques for DevOps Success
26:53 Future of DevOps and AI Integration
29:53 Excitement for Salesforce Innovations