Investments Unlimited

A Novel about DevOps, Security, Audit Compliance, and Thriving in the Digital Age

Helen Beal, Bill Bensing, Jason Cox, Michael Edenzon, Tapabrata Pal, Caleb Queern, John Rzeszotarski, Andres Vega & John Willis

Praise for this book

Investments Unlimited is The Phoenix Project for Information Security! ...A compelling novel that balances business, product, and regulatory concepts with just enough technical detail, and provides a general roadmap for modern governance and automated compliance.
Dana Finster, Technical Expert-Cybersecurity, Walmart
This book does an amazing job of explaining how good DevOps practices can help ensure that your software if safe, secure, and auditable. I learned a lot from it, which I can’t say often after reading DevOps books over the last ten years. This is a must-read for any CISO or executive looking to improve the security and compliance practices in their organization.
Ross Clanton, Chief Architect and Managing Director, American Airlines
Investments Unlimited builds upon years of DevSecOps literature while firmly anchoring the principles into regulated entities like financial services. The technology fable will keep you engaged with relatable stories and conversations, and practical knowledge for you to implement at your own firm and inside your team.
Dr. Branden R. Williams, VP IAM Strategy, Ping Identity
Finally we have a book that can be leveraged by everyone in your organization involved in meeting security, audit, and compliance requirements. You'll be able to apply this practical guidance immediately, and I really appreciate the inclusion of all of the functions and roles required to be successful. It's a great reminder that we are all in this together!
Courteny Kissler, CTO, Zulily
Today, software developers are just as much security engineers, whether they know it or not. In a unique and compelling way, Investments Unlimited illustrates how to safely automate security testing, audit, and compliance to help organizations move faster, safer. It's a fast and fun story that sheds light on a much-needed subject: the importance of bringing security, audit, and compliance out of the shadows and into the everyday life of a developer. Security, audit, and compliance are everyone's job every day. Investments Unlimited joyfully brings to light that these essential functions are enabled by DevOps.
Jim Manico, Founder and Secure Coding Educator, Manicode Security
This book helps overcome the fear and frustration many technology organizations have with audit and compliance. The story of Investments Unlimited builds shared understanding across functions and roles in an engaging way and shows us the practical steps to make more speed, stability, and compliance a reality in our own organizations.
Jeff Gallimore, CTIO, Excella
There are countless books documenting the techniques and tooling of DevOps. But rather than a technical how-to, Investments Unlimited abstracts much of the nitty-gritty to tell the story of what a DevSecOps transformation might look like for the people and teams of an enterprise organization.
Maya Senen, Sr. SRE
This book should be required reading for every software product manager and engineer. Learn how to apply security, compliance, audit, and automated testing capabilities in your organization by reading a fictional story that does a great job relating the challenges faced daily.
Thomas Underhill, JD, Director of Trust Engineering Programs, VMWare

AboutDetailsDownloads

Investments Unlimited, Inc. has accomplished what many other firms in their industry have failed to do: they have successfully navigated the transition from legacy ways of working to the digital frontier. With the help of DevOps practices, Investments Unlimited delivers value to its customers with speed and agility. But now, all that work is about to fall apart. Sure, DevOps helped the company adapt, but it also failed them.

While features moved through the organization swiftly, their governance process became inundated with friction, frustration, and failure. And now, their inability to deliver what they promise has led regulators to slap them with an MRIA (matter requiring immediate attention), the final warning before cease-and-desist letters and fire sales.

With the future of Investments Unlimited on the line, a cross-functional team of executives and engineers has just months to develop a modern governance process that satisfies regulators but doesn’t slow down the company’s ability to compete in the market. It is up to this ragtag team to navigate trials, tribulations, site failures, and supply chain attacks, all on their path to save the company from disaster.

In the vein of the bestselling The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project, Investments Unlimited radically rethinks how organizations can handle the audit, compliance, and security of their software systems—even in highly regulated industries. By introducing concepts, tools, and ideas to reimagine governance, Investments Unlimited catalyzes a more humane way to enable high-velocity software delivery that is inherently more secure.

What's inside

Written by Industry Thought Leaders — Investments Unlimited is written by 9 top leaders in the industry.
Engaging Storytelling — Like bestselling book The Phoenix Project, this books demystifies complex concepts through engaging storytelling.
Ripped from Headlines — Key events in the story are inspired by recent global events affecting information security.
Timely Concepts — The concepts and tools in this book are in high demand by organizations around the globe.

Publication Date: September 13, 2022
Pages: 160
Paperback Dimensions: 6 x 9 inches, black and white
Paperback ISBN: 9781950508532
eBook ISBN: 9781950508549
Audiobook ISBN: 9781950508563
Topics: Audit & Security · Software Delivery & Architecture
Formats: audio · epub

In the libraryInvestments Unlimited Reader's GuideOpen →In the libraryInvestments Unlimited — Audiobook SupplementOpen →In the libraryInvestments Unlimited - ExcerptDownload →In the libraryInvestments Unlimited - Audiobook SampleOpen →

About the authors

9 authors

Helen BealHead of Community, PeopleCert

Affiliation as of 2026-07-24

Helen Beal is the founder and Chief Flow:er at Flowtopia and leads the community and ambassador programs at PeopleCert for DevOps Institute, ITIL, PRINCE2, and LanguageCert. She is an adjunct research analyst for IDC and a writer and speaker on DevOps, AI, and value stream-related topics at industry conferences and corporate events. She is the lead researcher behind the State of VSM Reports and the State of Availability Report, and a co-author of the IT Revolution title, Investments Unlimited. She is a consultant, coach, and strategic advisor for companies large and small, all of whom align with her mission to bring joy to work through fast, frictionless flow and exceptionally delightful customer experiences. She regularly appears in TechBeacon’s DevOps Top100 lists, was recognized as the Top DevOps Evangelist 2020 in the DevOps Dozen awards, and was a finalist for Computing DevOps Excellence Awards’ DevOps Professional of the Year 2021. She has served on advisory and judging boards for many initiatives, including Developer Week, DevOps World, JAX DevOps, and InterOp. When she’s not knee-deep in a value stream, she’s likely outside somewhere warm looking for butterflies or nurturing bees. She once saw a flamingo lay an egg.

Talks by Helen

1:08

VendorDome: The Time is Now - Accelerate DevOps & Agile with VSM

Las Vegas 2020

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Bill BensingCo-Founder, CTO, Attestify

Affiliation as of 2026-09-01

Bill Bensing tranforms Shadow IT into legitimate software development organizations. Bill's recent thought-leadership is proving software devliery velocity and highly secure and compliant software are not mutally exclusive. He lives in Tampa Bay, FL, area.

Talks by Bill

23 min

Policy As Code 2.0: Doing it the Right Way

Las Vegas 2023

16 min

We're Sorry, Love DevOps

Europe 2022

23 min

Dear Security, Compliance, and Auditors, We’re Sorry. Love, DevOps.

Las Vegas 2022

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Jason CoxTechnology Executive

Affiliation as of 2026-09-30

Jason Cox is a technology executive, engineer, researcher, and longtime builder of large-scale systems. His work spans artificial intelligence, AI research and engineering, site reliability engineering, DevOps, developer experience, and enterprise technology, with a focus on turning emerging technologies into practical, scalable solutions. Jason is a frequent speaker who enjoys making complex ideas accessible, practical, and inspiring. He is a co-author of Investments Unlimited: A Novel About DevOps, Security, Audit Compliance, and Thriving in the Digital Age, an open-source contributor, and a firm believer that the future of technology is ultimately about amplifying people and elevating the human experience.

Talks by JasonAll 10 →

25 min

Disney Global SRE - Funding the Magic for Embedded Teams

Las Vegas 2024

22 min

Disney Global SRE - Delivering Shared Service Magic

Las Vegas 2023

23 min

Disney Global SRE – Creating Digital Magic

Amsterdam 2023

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Michael EdenzonFounder & CEO, Fianu

Affiliation as of 2026-07-24

Michael Edenzon is a senior IT leader and engineer that modernizes and disrupts the technical landscape for highly-regulated organizations. Michael provides technical design, decisioning, and solutioning across complex verticals and leverages continuous learning practices to drive organizational change. He is a fervent advocate for the developer experience and believes that enablement-focused automation is the key to building compliant software at scale.

Talks by Michael

21 min

Balancing Act: Lessons Learned from Rapid Adoption of AI in Software Development

Las Vegas 2023

20 min

Automated Governance Changed What We Believed In

Las Vegas 2022

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Tapabrata PalSVP - Head of Developer Platforms, M&T Bank

Affiliation as of 2026-09-01

Dr. Tapabrata "Topo" Pal is a thought leader, keynote speaker, evangelist in the areas of DevSecOps, Continuous Delivery, Cloud Computing, Open Source Adoption and Digital Transformation. He is a hands-on developer and Open Source contributor. Topo has been leading and contributing to industry initiatives around automated governance in DevOps practices. Topo resides Richmond, Virginia with his wife and two children.

Talks by Tapabrata

17 min

Caleb QueernManaging Director, KPMG US

Affiliation as of 2026-07-24

Caleb Queern is a Director in KPMG's Cyber practice and is based in Austin. He has more than 15 years of technology and information security experience. His focus is reducing risk and improving performance so organizations can meet business goals and enable growth. His specialties include secure DevOps and application security, security operations, and operational excellence.

Talks by Caleb

1:08

Auditors' Workshop - What You've Wanted to Ask an Auditor but Were Afraid to Ask

Las Vegas 2019

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John RzeszotarskiVP of Engineering Solutions & Operations, enGen

Affiliation as of 2026-07-24

John Rzeszotarski assists organizations with strategic planning and leadership in the solution and infrastructure focus areas; moreover, John provides thought leadership to large enterprises that need to focus on reliability, scalability, regulatory, and other business considerations. His expertise spans many verticals with a focus on digital, payments, security, development, and his primary passion is solving business and IT problems thru technology, process, and culture transformations.

Talks by JohnAll 5 →

20 min

Automated Governance Changed What We Believed In

Las Vegas 2022

24 min

KeyOps: An Operations Story

London 2018

19 min

Breaking Bad Leadership - The Anti Heroes of DevOps

Las Vegas 2018

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Andres VegaFounder and CEO, M42

Affiliation as of 2026-09-07

Andres Vega helps engineers and organizations securely build large-scale distributed software solutions across multi-cloud environments. During his career, his focus has been on the intersection of cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and software delivery with open-source projects, such as the Linux Kernel, Linux Containers, and container orchestration systems such as Kubernetes. He is an active participate in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as a recognized Technical Oversight Committee Contributor and as Technical Leader in the Special Interest Group for Security (SIG-Security).

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John WillisOwner, Botchagalupe Technologies

Affiliation as of 2026-09-01

John Willis has worked in the IT management industry for more than 35 years. John is currently working as a Distinguished Researcher at Kosli. He is researching DevOps, DevSecOps, IT risk, modern governance, and audit compliance. Previously he was an Evangelist at Docker Inc., VP of Solutions for Socketplane (sold to Docker) and Enstratius (sold to Dell), and VP of Training & Services at Opscode where he formalized the training, evangelism, and professional services functions at the firm. Willis also founded Gulf Breeze Software, an award winning IBM business partner, which specializes in deploying Tivoli technology for the enterprise. Willis has authored six IBM Redbooks for IBM on enterprise systems management and was the founder and chief architect at Chain Bridge Systems.

Talks by JohnAll 24 →