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Himanshu Bhatt
Himanshu Bhatt

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Introduction to DevOps #2. Life Before DevOps

👋 Short Intro (Why I’m Writing This)

I’m currently learning DevOps and decided to learn in public by documenting my journey.

This blog is part of my DevOps 101 series, where I’m learning DevOps step by step from scratch.

This series is not written by an expert — it’s a beginner learning out loud, sharing:

  • what I understand,
  • what confuses me,
  • and what I learn along the way.

The goal is to build consistency, clarity, and invite discussion.


📌 What This Blog Covers

In this post, I’ll cover:

  • How software was built before DevOps
  • The traditional Dev vs Ops workflow
  • Problems caused by siloed teams
  • Why releases were slow and risky
  • Real pain points that led to DevOps
  • Why DevOps became necessary (not optional)

This blog is about the problem, not the solution yet.


📂 GitHub Repository

All my notes, diagrams, and learning resources for this series live here:

👉 GitHub Repo:

https://github.com/dmz-v-x/introduction-to-devops-101

This repo is updated as I continue learning.


📚 Learning Notes

1. How Software Was Built Traditionally

Before DevOps, software teams usually worked like this:

  • Developers wrote code
  • Operations teams deployed and maintained it
  • Both teams worked separately
  • Communication happened very late

This model worked when:

  • releases were rare
  • software changed slowly
  • systems were small

But as software grew, cracks started showing.


2. The Traditional Dev vs Ops Split

Let’s simplify roles:

Developers (Dev):

  • write features
  • push code
  • move to the next task

Operations (Ops):

  • deploy code
  • manage servers
  • keep systems running

The problem:

  • Dev cared about speed
  • Ops cared about stability

Their goals often conflicted.


3. “Works on My Machine” Problem

One of the most common issues:

“It works on my machine.”

Why this happened:

  • Dev environment ≠ Production environment
  • Manual setup steps
  • No consistency across systems

Result:

  • broken deployments
  • wasted time
  • frustration on both sides

4. Manual Deployments Everywhere

Deployments used to be:

  • manual
  • slow
  • error-prone
  • stressful

Typical deployment flow:

  • copy files manually
  • run commands by hand
  • restart servers manually
  • hope nothing breaks

This made deployments:

  • risky
  • rare
  • scary

5. Slow and Infrequent Releases

Because deployments were risky:

  • releases happened once in weeks or months
  • bug fixes took long to reach users
  • feedback cycles were slow

This slowed down:

  • innovation
  • learning
  • business growth

6. Blame Culture Instead of Ownership

When things broke in production:

  • Dev said: “It worked in my environment”
  • Ops said: “The code is bad”

Instead of fixing systems:

  • teams blamed each other
  • trust decreased
  • morale dropped

No one truly owned the system end-to-end.


7. Scaling Made Everything Worse

As applications grew:

  • more users
  • more servers
  • more complexity

Traditional workflows didn’t scale:

  • manual steps didn’t work anymore
  • human errors increased
  • downtime became expensive

Companies needed a better way.


8. Business Pressure Increased

Modern businesses demanded:

  • faster feature delivery
  • high availability
  • minimal downtime
  • quick rollback when things fail

The old model simply couldn’t keep up.


9. Summary of Core Problems

Traditional software delivery suffered from:

  • siloed teams
  • slow releases
  • manual deployments
  • environment inconsistencies
  • lack of ownership
  • poor communication
  • high failure rates

These problems weren’t edge cases — they were common.


10. Why These Problems Couldn’t Be Ignored

Ignoring these issues led to:

  • unhappy users
  • lost revenue
  • burned-out engineers
  • unstable systems

This pain forced teams to rethink how software is built and run.

And that rethink led to DevOps.


✅ Key Learnings & Takeaways

  • Traditional Dev vs Ops separation caused major problems
  • Manual processes don’t scale
  • Slow releases hurt both users and businesses
  • Blame culture prevents improvement
  • These real-world problems created the need for DevOps

Understanding the pain makes the solution clearer.


💬 Feedback & Discussion

💡 I’d love your feedback!

If you notice:

  • something incorrect,
  • a missing problem,
  • or a better explanation,

please comment below. I’m here to learn and improve.


⭐ Support the Learning Journey

If you find these notes useful:

⭐ Consider giving the GitHub repo a star —

it really motivates me to keep learning and sharing publicly.


🐦 Stay Updated (Twitter / X)

I share learning updates, notes, and progress regularly.

👉 Follow me on Twitter/X:

https://x.com/_himanshubhatt1


🔜 What’s Next

In the next post, I’ll be covering:

👉 How DevOps Came Into Existence (The Shift in Mindset & Practices)

I’ll also continue updating the GitHub repo as I progress.


🙌 Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading!

If you’ve worked in environments like this before,
you’ll probably relate to these problems.

Feel free to:

  • share your experience,
  • agree or disagree,
  • or ask questions in the comments 👋

📘 Learning in public

📂 Repo: https://github.com/dmz-v-x/introduction-to-devops-101
🐦 Twitter/X: https://x.com/_himanshubhatt1
💬 Feedback welcome — please comment if anything feels off
⭐ Star the repo if you find it useful

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