Startups need to bother about scaling and automating ops at the right time. Can't be thinking about scaling ops from day one. Choose a reasonably sensible setup/framework that will help postpone large-scale automation.<p>BTW, don't put ops on a pedestal. In one of the startups I worked with, the ops dept became powerful to the extent of dictating what software could be hosted. Ops is important especially when you start growing, but make sure they don't supersede the dev team.