The DevOps Royale With Cheese - When a Data Supplier Breaks Production

From IT Horror Stories with Jack Smith by Jack Smith

December 1, 2025 · 28 min · Season 1 · Episode 8

About this episode

This episode discusses a DevOps crisis faced by a burger chain in Finland when a data supplier unexpectedly cut off their operational data.

In this episode, we return to Finland, where an international burger chain suddenly found itself cut off from the one thing every fast-food operation needs to function: real-time operational data. A third-party data supplier pulled the plug without warning, leaving kitchens blind, dashboards empty, and the entire workflow stuck on "please wait." What followed was a truly Nordic-speed DevOps rescue mission — rapid troubleshooting, frantic config changes, un-authorized workarounds, and a race to restore data before the lunch rush turned into a customer revolt. From vendor surprises to emergency pipelines, this episode serves up a full stack of DevOps chaos... with cheese. 00:00 Finnish Fiasco 02:02 DevOps Gone Wrong 06:07 The Elixir Adventure 11:52 System Meltdown 17:33 Quick Fixes 24:13 Final Decisions 27:04 Wrap Up

People in this episode

Host: Jack Smith

Topics covered

DevOps
data supplier
production issues
troubleshooting
emergency response

Keywords

DevOps
data supplier
production
troubleshooting
configuration changes
emergency pipelines
fast-food

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: international burger chain

Places: Finland