The Story Behind harpoon

When harpoon was just an idea, it wasn’t about commercial markets or startups. It was about sailors. Specifically, 18-year-old sailors in the Navy who were responsible for keeping software running on ships—despite having zero specialized training.The reality? If something broke, they had two options: shut the software down until the ship was back at port (not ideal), or fly in an installer on a helicopter armed with CDs and a manual, often spending weeks to fix it.
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At the same time, both the DoD and commercial industries were moving toward container-based deployments and complex tools like Kubernetes, which only made things harder for teams without DevOps expertise.
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So, we asked ourselves: What if anyone—even someone with no technical background—could deploy, install, and keep software running? harpoon was designed to make that possible. From day one, it was important that harpoon be intuitive enough for those sailors to succeed 100% of the time—no helicopters, no lengthy manuals, no third-party help required. A simple screen recording should be enough to guide anyone through the process.Fast forward to today, and harpoon has not only met that goal but surpassed it. We’ve made Kubernetes accessible not just for the Navy but for commercial teams who don’t have DevOps experts. Whether it’s a junior developer, an operations manager, or anyone else, harpoon is here to make Kubernetes easy.