Gone are the days where development worked in silos. With digital transformation on the rise and new technologies disrupting the industry, DevOps has become a much needed change that should be implemented within any IT business. As an amalgamation of “development” and “operations”, DevOps essentially signifies an effective collaboration between the two – a parallel effort. And this effort is more of a journey than just a direct destination.
Key Facets of DevOps
To imbibe DevOps as a journey in an organization, an ongoing effort needs to be carried out effectively by the development and operations team to realize certain facets. Although these are different from DevOps (which is considered more as a culture), they play a crucial role in the whole journey and become defining facets within –
- Agility – DevOps essentially, has been defined in terms of agility that is brought in with such implementation in an organization. Agile practices have paved their way to make deliverables faster, efficient and foolproof. Thus, where developers worked in isolation to code and build a product, now witness faster iterations with the synthesis of operations’ teams who help deploy, monitor and provide feedback continuously.
- CI/CD – Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery become key facets within the DevOps journey. CI/CD are essentially driven via automation to achieve rapid iterations in integration and deployment. The SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) becomes efficient in the whole process through faster iterations. From building and testing to deployment, automation plays a crucial role in expediting deliverables. Thus, within DevOps, this is seamlessly corroborated through agile practices and effective collaboration between development and IT teams.
- Cross-training and collaboration – As prominent facets, cross-training and collaboration become key in driving DevOps to fruition. Conventionally, a tussle between the development and operations’ teams created an irreconcilable barrier between the two. But there has been a drastic shift in such a culture – DevOps has bridged that gap seamlessly. This has not only resulted in faster and efficient deliverables to the clients but also a value-add within organizations. Teams’ cross-knowledge sharing and collaborative efforts are increasingly adding to the goodwill of organizations. This journey offers a holistic approach to an organization’s functions as a whole.
- DevSecOps – A new subset within DevOps is making rounds in the market increasingly. The facet of security is seamlessly being amalgamated within the whole DevOps environment – this implies that development, security and operations go hand-in-hand, wherein security is integrated from the very beginning of an SDLC. This is essentially done for achieving a more reliable and robust software that eliminates any and all security vulnerabilities in the product from the get-go. Ushering in as a niche within the domain, DevSecOps in itself has many nuances (which will be elucidated further in our future articles).
- Advent of AIOps – An extremely niche facet, AI is seemingly paving its path within DevOps wherein operations are comprehensively going to be driven by AI. With high automation and streamlined data management in picture, IT teams are already witnessing a shift towards executing operational tasks more effectively. With AI in picture, DevOps will be at an advantageous standpoint – to test, integrate and deploy via automation, more swiftly.
Thus, the key facets within DevOps outline its significance and the growing need of organizations to implement it within their processes. These aren’t an exhaustive set and include much more – from continuous monitoring to feedback – implying how these facets are perennially interlinked.
An Ongoing Journey
It is important to note again, that DevOps is not essentially an end-point which can be reached at – it is more of an ongoing and continuous journey. The facets within clarify its nature – Continuous Integration / Delivery – it becomes imperative for organizations embarking on this journey to keep this effort perennial. Adding continuous testing, monitoring and feedback in the process, the DevOps journey is represented as an infinity loop rather than just a sequential process since its very essence lies in its eternal nature.
Thus, DevOps is here to stay and become even more effective in the coming years. The need of the hour states that organizations should embrace this journey wholeheartedly and in all its glory to expedite their processes, produce effective and reliable deliverables and nurture a collaborative environment and culture within.