DevOps as the name implies, is a combination of software development and IT operations. This concept was introduced by Patrick Debois to improve the traditional ways of software development process and IT operations. Communication, collaboration, integration and automation are the main principles of this modern approach named DevOps. It allows IT organizations to build and improve small to large scale products at swift pace and efficiency than the conventional software development approaches.
It typically incorporates following:
- Software Development
- Build, Compile Integration
- Quality Assurance
- Software release
- Deployment and Support
Why DevOps Matters: There are a range of benefits involved in using DevOps. Some of them are as follows:
Shorter Development Life Cycle: With the combined efforts of software development and IT operations, applications are ready for use much more quickly than before. It increased the ability to identify and mitigate bugs at any stage of the development cycle. This is very important since companies’ success based on their ability to innovate faster than their competitors do.
Reduced Deployment Failure and Recovery Time: The main reason behind deployment failure is due to the programming defects. With the more frequent code releases, it becomes easy to spot the bugs. Therefore, it reduces the number of deployment failures. Recovery time is much faster because both development and IT teams work together.
Reduced Deployment Failure and Recovery Time: The main reason behind deployment failure is due to the programming defects. With the more frequent code releases, it becomes easy to spot the bugs. Therefore, it reduces the number of deployment failures. Recovery time is much faster because both development and IT teams work together.
Improved Communication and Collaboration: DevOps improved entire software development culture. Now teams can work with more focus on performance instead of individual goals. When teams trust each other, they can experiment; work with freedom and more effectively. Processes do not need to wait for other team to solve a problem. The process becomes increasingly transparent as all individuals work towards a common goal.
Increased Competencies: High efficiency helps to accelerate the development process and makes it less prone to errors. Automation in Continuous integration has improved the code testing process and reduced the amount of manual work required. Now, development team can focus more on completing tasks that cannot be automated. Cloud platforms like AWS and Microsoft Azure can be used to setup DevOps environment.
Reduced Cost and IT staff: Inclusion of the DevOps has reduced the general cost and IT headcount. Automation has restricted the use of resources and cloud instances when not in use can prove to be an effective solution to cut down costs. According to Kevin Murphy from Red Hat, DevOps development teams require 35 percent less IT staff and 30 percent lower IT costs.
Final Thoughts: It has been proved that the demand of implementing DevOps increasing at a very rapid rate. DevOps is not only assisting organizations in continuous software development but also helps in reducing general costs associated with development deployment and maintenance. Organization seems excited to take the benefit of faster application delivery, improved innovation and more stable operating environments.
