Is DevOps Disrupting the Digital Economy?

One of the trending IT revolutions, DevOps has become a phenomenon of sorts. The approach has an innovative divergence from the traditional programming methods. It is comprehensively helping businesses in terms of releasing their products quicker and more efficiently.

So the pertinent question emerges, Does the future hold a special place for DevOps? Let’s try to delve into the matter…..

As the name hints, DevOps is an advanced set of practices that seamlessly automate the processes between software development and IT teams. This innovative approach is enabling businesses to build, test, and release software faster. In simpler terms, DevOps can be summed up as a sooner process with iterations and no manual work.

Breaking the historical silos in organizations, DevOps is paving a way for continuous change and rapid implementation of ideas. DevOps has apparently changed the dynamics in which development and operations teams have been interacting. This much-needed innovation has reinforced the process of ongoing digital transformation with myriad possibilities in the future. According to a 2015 Gartner report, 9 out of 10 technology companies will fail if they do not adopt DevOps culture.

By the way, the evolving digital economy and its consequential needs always demand disruption – DevOps seems to fit the bill as a next wave of technology.

Why Continuous Integration?

In generic terms, to deliver a product, any team needs three main parameters – people, process, and tools. Clearly, these three aspects must be smoothly integrated so that quality and consistency remain intact. This is when continuous integration (CI) comes into the picture. Essentially, CI is an innovative practice in which developers regularly integrate code changes into a shared repository. Each time when integration takes place in this central storage, the code is validated by automated tests.

CI is a vital component of DevOps culture and has a number of key benefits associated with it. Testers can detect bugs quickly and spot them more easily. This revolutionary practice incorporates ‘revision control’, ‘build automation’, and ‘automated testing’. Application can now be deployable at any point while coding is automatically pushed into production even if new changes are brought into it. A powerful CI setup speeds up the workflow, reduces risk, enables better communication, and encourages teams to make continuous changes. So building applications more incrementally and collaboratively not only saves time but adds to the utility of features.

Continuous Delivery is the road ahead

At the heart of DevOps culture, Continuous Delivery (CD) refers to the ability to continuously deliver integrated code for further deployment. As a result, teams are better able to collaborate and produce software in short cycles as well release more frequently. In other words, there is no need of repetitive and tedious development & testing processes.

Owing to today’s unpredictable market trends and technology changes, developers are required to release software faster and more efficiently. CD allows developers to work on a deployment-ready build architect. The move is instrumental in creating a more agile digital landscape where tasks are automated, improvements are made continuously and software is deployed in a time-bound manner. CD makes teams more productive and gives IT organizations much-needed flexibility to innovate. Additionally, by releasing features to customers on a continuous basis companies can get feedback instantly. It will help them make desired changes to make software more useful.

According to the 2019 State of Database DevOps report, 85% of businesses have already adopted DevOps culture in their operations. 61% of companies have accepted that DevOps has a positive impact on meeting regulatory and compliance requirements.

Image source: ZDnet

 Benefits of DevOps

With immense potential for the future, DevOps is a force-multiplier in terms of effectiveness and productivity. The automated deployments along with proper checks and balances make operations predictable and free workforce from repetitive tasks.

With DevOps coming into practice, AI applications have got a huge shot in the arm. It can take predictive analysis to the next level. Advanced tools such as ‘DevOps Insights’ offer greater deployment quality, enhanced delivery and faster ‘Time to Market’.

Netflix is a shining example of successful DevOps implementation, which has made a significant increase in its delivery and quality. In 2014, an hour of downtime for Netflix would cost them $200,000. So it became important for the ace video streaming service to be absolutely prepared for any kind of technical glitch. They incorporated the DevOps approach and implemented it in an innovative way by developing a powerful DevOps tool, “SIMIAN ARMY”.  This tool created bugs and automatically deployed them in an environment that did not affect users. It considerably helped the Netflix team to effectively troubleshoot with these bugs.

 The DevOps wave has swept the IT industry. Many global enterprises are incorporating it to automate anything and everything. Development and operation teams are now seamlessly collaborating and working together. The crucial components of DevOps – Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery are taking organizational productivity to a higher notch.