Importance of DevOps
In today’s fast-moving environment, it is imperative for companies to continuously update their existing applications. In this process, they often face complications that arise between developers and operational teams. For many years, the companies used the traditional Waterfall model in which the requirements for software were made clear and well-defined in advance. The definition of the product was stable. The Developers developed the software by coding, after which the operational teams were called in for implementation. But today, since the world of Technology is witnessing rapid growth, requirements tend to change very often, and software’s must be developed keeping those changes in mind. The software and web applications need to be marketed and updated faster than ever. New features must be added and advanced tools must be used to quickly debug programs. This all leads to the Agile Development model . However, to achieve results, all the members need to work in unison. The team of developers and the operational team must have the ability to react quickly and efficiently to changes, deploy and monitor the new applications and debug them at the same time. This process leads to the DevOps approach. DevOps can be defined as a set of software development practices and tools that combines software development (Dev) and information technology operations (Ops) to shorten and ease the time consumed for fixes, updates, and deliveries in the systems development life cycle. These practices are carried out keeping in mind the common business objectives and goals. DevOps allows all the team members including developers, the operational teams, system administrators, network managers and business analysts to work together to achieve a common goal.
The DevOps approach requires people with multidisciplinary skills, which are comfortable with the infrastructure, configuration and also have the ability to perform tests and debug software. The DevOps approach has the following consequences: • A lower failure rate of new releases • Faster time to market • Faster recovery/ bug fixing time • Shortened lead time between fixes
Benefits of integrating DevOps with the existing software development process: 1. Quicker identification and rectification of software defects With better communication and collaboration between operations and software development, it is much easier to identify and rectify defects at any stage of the development cycle using DevOps. 2. Better resource management There are scenarios where the developers and testers are constantly waiting for resources to arrive that cause delays in delivery. Agile with a DevOps approach helps to fill these gaps and reduces the waiting time significantly. 3. Less human errors DevOps reduces the chances of failure due to human intervention during development and operation process by deploying frequent duplications. It is possible to control the rate of application failures with multiple deployments in a defined timeline. 4. Improved version control DevOps helps you to keep a track on the version control to ensure changes to the code and environment. This translates into increased IT and organizational performance. 5. Ensure Stability with DevOps DevOps ensures to bring stability and reliability. Organizations with DevOps get their deployment many times faster than their rivals with 50% lesser chances of failure. 6. Increased empathy between team members DevOps ensures enhanced empathy between team members. It puts an end to I, me and
myself silos mentality of people and encourages all the members to work in unanimity towards a common goal. 7. Proper use of time Organizations with DevOps spend an estimated 22% less time on unplanned work and rework. This way, they are able to spend approximately 29% more time on new work or new projects. Conclusion: DevOps is a great approach for companies that are online and are constantly innovating. Using this approach, the ‘time to market’ is considerably shortened, which in turn provides huge financial benefits to companies.