We can define DevOps as a combination of rules and practices that blends the development of the software with IT operations. Patric Debois, who hailed from Belgium, coined the term “DevOps” for the first time in 2009. DevOps was brought to decrease the time taken for the system development life cycle, also known as SDLC. DevOps came into existence from the Agile Method.
When software is developed using the DevOps methodology, various software development teams, who are working on the development of the same software, do not maintain isolation within themselves. All the teams are brought together and work cohesively to build software. They work on all the phases of a software development cycle that includes development to testing and deployment.
Microsoft provides Azure DevOps, also known as Microsoft DevOps, which is a SaaS platform. It offers an end-to-end DevOps toolchain for software development and deployment processes. It also provides integration with other tools in the industry along with customization.
What are the features of DevOps?
Let us take a look at the key features of DevOps:
1. Collaboration:
Earlier with the development of software, various teams worked in isolation. DevOps brings these DevOps engineer teams together so that they can work in tandem with each other. This way, they bring out software that has passed through all the rigorous tests and practices.
2. Quantification:
Everything that you work on needs a scale of judgment through which its progress or quality can be measured. When it comes to DevOps, the number of times deployment, failures, time is taken for every deployment can serve as quantifying factors. These factors can help you see how DevOps can help the rapid development of the software compared to traditional software development practices.
3. Automation:
The development department generally offers an increased level of automation. But the same level of automation is not seen with the other operations going on simultaneously. DevOps offer the same level of automation within all the departments to enhance consistency and efficiency which were impossible to address with traditional methods and practices.
4. Holistic:
With DevOps practices, the entire system, DevOps engineer’s teams, and the surrounding ecosystem are considered.
Which practices does DevOps follow?
DevOps follows the list of following practices:
- Configuration of self-service
- Provision automation
- Building continuously
- Continuous integration of the systems
- Continuously delivered
- The release management automation
- Incremental testing practices
What are the Benefits of employing DevOps for System Development?
DevOps brings about a lot of benefits when software development is under consideration. Let us take a look at the benefits it has to offer:
1. Collaboration and communication within the teams:
We saw that the teams that work within a system development life cycle work with integration with each other. Thus, a quality testing team, development team, and security team work cohesively on the same system. This brings about increased efficiency and enhanced productivity. Moreover, all the teams working with each other can communicate the problems and requirements easily.
2. Gradual Updation:
The software system that the team works on, is rolled out gradually in the pieces of versions. First, its initial version is rolled out. Once, the second version is ready, the same is rolled out gradually. This way, if any version is faulty or has issues, the development team can address it and roll back the version.
3. Sharing the end-to-end responsibility:
Every member of the team works toward a unified goal. Thus, they share the responsibility of the system from the development until the deployment phase. Moreover, this leads to the team working with each other in tight integration.
4. Early on solving the problems:
All the tasks within the development lifecycle are performed as early as possible. Thus, all the issues, errors, or bugs within a system can be addressed as soon as they arise.
In addition to the above-listed benefits, there are other benefits of DevOps which are as follows:
Technical Benefits:
a. Continuous delivery
b. Decreased complexity
c. Quick problem resolution
Cultural Benefits:
a. Productive and efficient teams
b. Easy employee management
c. Opportunities for teams to develop professionally.
Benefits for the Business:
a. Quick delivery of the updates and the features
b. Stable operation environments
c. Enhanced communication and collaboration within the teams
d. Focus shifts from bug fixation to innovation
What are the future predictions for DevOps for 2021 and beyond?
As the pandemic set in, it changed the way organizations work. All the teams started working from home using the computer and internet connectivity. It brought a lot of uncertainty across the business and IT sectors. Not only these, but almost every domain also stands affected.
This uncertainty brought a lot of digital transformation within the industries. Thus, with or without pandemic, the following trends will be seen in 2021 and beyond:
1. The Rising Popularity of Microservice Architecture:
The term “Microservice” means a system is looked like a set or collection of services that the teams can work on, individually. When it is used with DevOps, the teams can choose to focus on individually formed units of the system.
This ensures that the delivery happens on time even though the resultant system is very complex in nature. With this approach, the teams can save a lot of time, cost, and resources while developing the system.
It also offers scalability, quick testing, and easier maintenance where the system becomes easily deployable. In addition to this, the teams can also offer customizations as per the requirements of the businesses.
2. DevSecOps will be adopted increasingly:
When a team is focused on achieving a certain level of security within the system, then the DevSecOps approach is applied. With the onset of the pandemic, the teams started working remotely which opened a lot of security loopholes within the system. In addition to this, the cyberattacks increased which brought up the requirement of security as a primary concern.
Thus, businesses will take up DevSecOps rapidly to ensure agile security measures. It also offers early detection of vulnerabilities.
3. Improving Agility through AgileOps:
In the last few years, hybrid and multi-cloud strategic management has been a trend. Moreover, it has brought tremendous success to businesses worldwide. AgileOps works on an IT operational model that uses the approach of agile ways of working.
This brings about the development of high-quality and high-performance applications. With such applications, the applications become highly stable.
Wrapping it up:
DevOps will be a highly adopted approach from 2021 onwards as it ensures team collaboration and development of applications through incremental launches. This approach also saves the businesses a lot of time and cuts down on the costs significantly. DevOps also offers a development model that accustoms the changing market requirements and demands.
This blog originally posted at Zenesys
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