Dive Brief:

• Target said it is rebuilding its internal IT capabilities and moving away from outsourcing, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Target announced in March that it would spend $1 billion on technology such as DevOps in 2015.
• DevOps is gaining ground among companies looking to adjust to an increasingly tech oriented and mobile business environment.

Dive Insight:

Target had been outsourcing much of its technology, but under new CIO Mike McNamara, the company intends to bring much of that back in-house. The company also hopes to speed up development and deployment cycles and improve cooperation across teams.

“A year ago, people wouldn’t even use the word DevOps and now it is part of daily conversations in the hallways,” said Ross Clanton, senior group manager at Target.

Previously, Target’s IT organization was complex and difficult for engineers to work in, said Heather Mickman, a director at Target. “Just to get a server provisioned would take 10 different teams to make that happen.”

The company recently created Dojo, an internal incubator environment to teach employees how to work in a DevOps model.

“We are trying to create what an engineering culture should look and feel like in the Dojo,” said Clanton.