'Your laptop is disposable, don't keep anything on it' - a sneak preview of the Netflix IT department

Netflix head of IT Ashley Sprague tells Danny Palmer how she is driving a culture that is device agnostic and 100 per cent cloud

Netflix has revolutionised the way we watch television and movies, by allowing us to consume media any time and anywhere on a wide variety of devices from laptops to tablets to games consoles.

Therefore it shouldn't be a surprise that the online steaming service is attempting to revolutionise the way it handles its own IT and devices.

Netflix head of IT Ashley Sprague describes her role as "director of employee technology". She and her 65-strong technology team are attempting to drive internal culture towards being device-agnostic and "one hundred per cent cloud based" in order to encourage innovation and efficiency among Netflix's 2,000-plus employees.

"I think that IT, or what we call employee technology, really has an opportunity to drive the culture and to bring the culture to employees," Sprague told Computing at ServiceNow's Knowledge 15 Conference in Las Vegas.

"If you stick to a standard, traditional IT-type mentality, then you're not driving new talent to the company any more, you're not creating space for innovation," she said. "We're here to make sure everybody is productive, creative and has the tools that they need to innovate and be successful."

Netflix's IT infrastructure is "100 per cent cloud" and the company is "really increasing the adoption of Google Apps", with the device-agnostic nature of Google's online applications being key to that decision.

"We were kind of locked into Microsoft and we had an awesome Exchange environment where uptime was 99.99 per cent," said Sprague.

"So, it was good but when we started to look at our goal of being 100 per cent cloud, we knew we had to choose between one of these cloud services," she said, adding that one key requirement was that it had to be able to support Netflix's "large Mac environment".

"The more we looked at roadmaps outside of Google, it was clear that nobody was going to treat Macs and Windows devices the same," said Sprague, adding: "When you talk about Microsoft, Macs are second-class citizens."

Sprague explained that Netflix doesn't just operate on a single cloud platform, with the firm using services from a wide variety of providers, depending on the task at hand.

"Google is really providing our corporate services and Amazon is providing our production services," she said.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is used to spin up data centres to meet ever-growing customer demand.

"We do have some corporate services in Amazon, that's how we got our data centre, by changing from VMware virtual instances to AWS instances," she explained.

When it comes to the devices Netflix staff can use, there are very few restrictions, Sprague said.

"I think BYOD is really a fad – we've always wanted to use any device. if it can get Netflix on, use it, go right on ahead. And we've made that so easy for employees: they go through our teams to purchase stuff, then we just pay the bill," she said.

Netflix encourages frequent upgrades, meaning that staff really have no need to purchase devices outside of work.

"They could, of course, bring in their own device, but it's just so easy to get one from us or upgrade - we'll let them know when their contract is up, but they sometimes break that because they want the new, shiny thing - and that's okay," Sprague said.

In an effort to encourage a combination of device agnosticism and cloud-based culture, Sprague told Computing that Netflix is looking to implement an annual laptop refresh for all employees.

"It sounds crazy to some people but that helps keep the mindset of 'your laptop is disposable, so don't keep anything on it'. We have cloud services, so use them; that's your backup, your storage, your security and if your laptop is stolen, lost or hacked, then it's a clean slate," she explained.

That clean slate should also make it more difficult for hackers or thieves to steal Netflix shows such as Daredevil, House of Cards or Orange is the New Black as the cloud is likely to be more secure than an individual mobile device. Nonetheless, Sprague still works hard to ensure that IT security is second nature for Netflix staff.

"We put a strong focus on security but we also put a strong focus on educating our employees. Because what we see now is people are the target, not the device; so you're only as secure as your weakest link," she said.

Ultimately, having had the procedures explained to them, it is the responsibility of the employee to act within the guidelines, Sprague said. "We're going to provide you with all these tools to make it better but don't forget about these tips."

As part of Netflix's drive towards cloud, Sprague is looking to provide "identity-as-a-service" across the whole organisation.

"It's a layer which we should be able to provide to the whole company no matter what tools we're trying to authorise against our systems," Sprague said.

"That's a huge one, because it's something which is allowing our teams - and a lot of other teams across the business - to really find out what problems they're trying to solve, what's been hard up until now and how we can do that better," she added.

Asked about her biggest current challenge, Sprague singled out consumerisation and how consumers are increasingly setting the agenda in terms of product and service design.

When hiring staff, Sprague looks for individuals "who can embrace consumerisation and who can help to make it a great platform for our employees".

Providing services that are tailored to the individual, both consumers and staff, is vital to the the future of Netflix, she said.

"Really, if you look at it and turn it into a service that you're providing back to your employees, there's still a lot of room for innovation within consumerisation," Sprague said.