What is DevOps?
DevOps, or Developer Operations, is a technology practice used for accelerating the updating and writing of the code that is responsible for creating new apps and services, and updating the apps and features operating within the IT infrastructure. DevOps for IT automates the processes involved in the application lifecycle for faster deployment and product release. DevOps goes beyond CI/CD to enable an instantaneous deployment of products and services within the cloud.
How the DevOps model works?
The DevOps model works through the development and operations teams. In some cases, the quality assurance and the security teams also work together. Through different technological stacks, DevOps technology enables teams to better automate the software development process for a faster and more efficient system.
Why DevOps?
DevOps automates repetitive work, allowing an increase in productivity for developers to focus on software development. DevOps gives developers immediate feedback on the health of the system after deployment. Developers can use the immediate feedback to quickly resolve the system issue to lower its effect. This also improves the end-user experience as issues can be resolved with minimal to no effect on the user.
DevOps Principles and Best Practices
The following are key principles necessary for the DevOps software development process to undergo a smooth, effective, and efficient workflow:
- Automation of the software development lifecycle;
- Collaboration and communication;
- Continuous improvement and minimization of waste; and
- Hyperfocus on user needs with short feedback loops.
In addition to these principles, the following DevOps best practices assist organizations in delivering faster, more reliable updates for their customer base and partners:
- Continuous integration;
- Continuous delivery;
- Situational awareness;
- Automation;
- Infrastructure as code;
- Microservices; and
- Monitoring.
What are the benefits of DevOps?
DevOps services combine development and operations team to create a more efficient software development process. DevOps management brings different teams together to produce benefits such as:
- Increased speed of releasing deliverables;
- Improved collaboration;
- Rapid deployment of products;
- Quality and reliability; and
- Improved security.
Challenges Associated with DevOps in IT
While DevOps combines the skills of different teams and comes with many advantages, challenges can also arise during the process:
- Organization and IT departmental changes;
- Expensive tools and platforms;
- Development and IT tools proliferation;
- Unnecessary or fragile automation;
- Scaling and managing DevOps across multiple teams;
- Riskier deployment due to fail-fast mentality;
- Regulatory compliance; and
- New bottlenecks.
Phases of DevOps Maturity Levels
Stage 1, Initial: A traditional environment where Developers and IT Operations is separate
Stage 2, Managed: Starting to change, focusing on agility in Dev and automation is considered by the Ops team. The key emphasis of this stage is collaboration amongst teams.
Stage 3, Defined: Processes are defined, and automation is established at this level.
Stage 4, Measured: Increased understanding of the overall DevOps process and automation occurs at this stage. Continuous improvement is the theme of this level in the maturity model.
Stage 5, Optimized: The final stage where achievements are viewable, gaps in teams are reduced and employees now receive recognition for their work.
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