DevOps has been a much-discussed topic in the IT world for many years. The ability to accelerate software development and release more frequent updates can be incredibly valuable in an ever-growing market. Digital transformation is driving more and more companies to rethink and realign their business models, as well as their internal value chains. DevOps is an approach that increasingly integrates software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). Companies that live DevOps principles change the market and leave their competitors behind through higher innovation rates. Let us show you why you should actively live DevOps in your company with the following reasons.
How to make a DevOps model a reality
The DevOps culture
Moving to DevOps requires a fundamental shift in corporate culture and thought patterns. At the core of DevOps is overcoming the dividing lines between two formerly highly isolated business units, development and operations. In some organizations, there may not even be separate teams for development and operations - both tasks fall under the responsibility of engineers. In a DevOps structure, the two teams work together with the goal of optimizing developer productivity and operational reliability. Essential are frequent and open communication, higher efficiency and improved service quality for the customer. Each individual takes full responsibility for the service provided to the customer, which often goes far beyond the traditional accountability model for a portion of the final product. Each team member feels responsible for the optimal fulfillment of customer requirements. Close involvement of the quality assurance and security teams is also possible. Teams in companies using the DevOps model feel responsible for the entire development and infrastructure lifecycle, regardless of the organizational structure.
DevOps intensifies cross-functional collaboration
The main goal of DevOps from a technical perspective is to significantly reduce application release times. But there is much more to this approach: DevOps promotes more intensive collaboration between cross-functional teams. Here, developers work more closely with operations teams to accelerate and increasingly automate the application development and deployment process. But the DevOps approach goes beyond this technical level and impacts the entire corporate culture. DevOps can also foster cross-functional, enterprise-wide collaboration. For example, this can involve managers, developers, administrators and testers working directly with customers to jointly develop a new product.
Faster and more stable software development and deployment.
Several analyses have found that the best-performing DevOps organizations score far better on the speed and stability of software development and delivery, and also meet the most important operational requirement. Namely, ensuring that their product or service is available to end users.
The digital business world and the importance of IT - DevOps.
Today, software is no longer just for supporting business processes. Rather, in the context of digital transformation and cloud technologies, it has become an essential part of every single area of the business. That's why it's more important than ever to accelerate the development and delivery of new software and services.
This is where DevOps comes into its own. In order to really establish DevOps successfully in the company, it is necessary to adapt or modernize existing structures accordingly. To do this, companies must above all break down existing silo structures, improve their communication and establish a new error and learning culture. Companies need to break down their traditional operational structures and reorganize their IT departments and processes. Last but not least, this requires a change in culture.
DevOps More efficient through automation
DevOps is about driving business transformation that includes changes in people, processes and culture. A successful DevOps initiative requires a culture or mindset shift that enables better collaboration between multiple teams - product, engineering, security, IT, operations, etc. - as well as automation to better achieve business goals.
What tangible benefits can DevOps bring? By managing development processes end-to-end, DevOps emphasizes more frequent, reliable and secure software delivery through automation.
The benefits of the DevOps approach include
Scalability
When DevOps practices are implemented from the start, the ability to scale up is built into the infrastructure and architecture. And when many processes are automated (such as testing), you don't spend more time maintaining an extended system (compared to the previous version).
Flexibility
Products built using the DevOps approach are made up of small, independent and easily configurable modules (microservices) that developers can quickly replace, change or add as needed. The infrastructure is also agile in the DevOps approach and can be easily configured at any time. Flexibility is also evident in quick responses to user feedback or sudden problems.
Reliability
Ideally, the process is designed so that you always have a latest working copy of the product, that you get an immediate report on any problem, small or large, and that the release and deployment processes are fully automated. This way, in the event of a disaster, you can perform an immediate recovery or rollback and get the system back up and running in no time.
Speed
All of the above benefits can be summed up in one denominator: No matter what you do - add new features, switch environments, fix bugs, etc. - You can do it much faster with the DevOps approach than without it. And the more complex your system is and evolves, the more you need DevOps.
What are the key DevOps principles?
DevOps implementation varies from company to company, depending on goals and company cultures.
- Create a culture of end-to-end accountability where the entire team is focused on accountable results.
- DevOps focuses on continuous improvement based on customer feedback and speed of delivery.
- It uses automation to streamline and accelerate the development process by improving reliability and efficiency.
- It provides a customer-centric approach and feedback loops to meet customers' changing needs.
- It's learning from mistakes and creating a climate where new opportuniti