DevOps – a foreign concept to some a familiar concept to others so what exactly is DevOps? It is a combination of tools, practices and cultural philosophies that integrate processes between software development and IT teams. DevOps is an acronym derived from the word “development” and “operations”. It reflects the process of incorporating these disciplines into one continuous process. Technology automation, increased team morale, effective communication and collaboration across teams are what DevOps aims to achieve.
So why did DevOps start? Before 2007, organizations used the traditional software development model. In this model, there was a separation between the individuals who wrote the code and the individuals who deployed the code. As a result, the development and IT operations teams had separate but competing objectives, leadership, and key performance indicators. The IT operations and development communities voiced their concerns of their siloed working environment and the flawed nature of the traditional software development model. DevOps was birthed through online forums and local meetups between the two communities.
You may be thinking, I know what DevOps is and why it started but why is DevOps important?
Organizations using DevOps practices can deliver applications and services more frequently with higher quality and stability. A competitive edge is gained by the organization through the speed at which the applications and services are released into the market and the efficiency in which teams can rectify errors. More factors contributing to the organizations competitive edge are their ability to innovate faster than their competitors and the shorter development cycle they adopt.
The software products that are released into the market are of superior quality as the products are passed through streamlined processes i.e., DevOps Lifecyle. The DevOps Lifecycle consists of seven continuous stages which are development, integration, testing, deployment, monitoring, feedback and operations. Continuous development is the process of planning and coding the software to ensure that the entire development process gets broken down into smaller manageable development cycles. This stage is essential as it ensures developers grasp the project expectations and vision.
Continuous testing is the process of thoroughly testing the code for bugs and errors to determine whether the software meets the client’s specifications. This process determines that the code is fully functional, user friendly and flawless. Continuous deployment is the process where code changes are automatically built, tested, and deployed to a testing or production environment. This phase ensures that the code is accurately deployed without affecting the application’s performance.
Continuous monitoring is an essential phase as it is concerned with improving the overall efficiency of the software by monitoring the performance of the application and maintaining the availability and security of the services. This process provides developers with vital information about the developed application. Continuous feedback focuses on the information gathered from the client’s end to determine and analyse the outcome of the application. Through this analysis the team gathers data about the performance of the application, its issues and whether the current version needs to be improved or a new version needs to be released.
The last but not least phase is continuous operations. This phase aims to maintain excellent performance, security, compliance, and smooth customer service. Continuity is the heart of all DevOps operations, and it is crucial to eliminate diversions and other extra steps that hampers development. The above mentioned seven stages contribute to the increased value of software products adding to their exceptionality therefore attracting new clients towards the products.
DevOps improves collaboration and communication across teams by creating an innovative and mutually collaborative environment in which teams work towards a common goal. In this environment, teams can spot errors timeously thereby reducing bottlenecks. This in turn improves overall customer satisfaction as teams are better equipped to rapidly respond to customer needs and the applications released are of the customer’s standard.
All the aforementioned, optimizes efficiency and decreases idle time in organizations thereby reducing the total cost of operations. Total cost of operations, better known as operating costs, are the recurring expenses incurred from the normal day-to-day running of an organization. These are costs related to maintenance and administration of an organization such as rent, payroll, maintenance expenses and cost of goods sold. Operating costs exclude capital expenditures as well as non-operating expenses related to financing i.e., interest and investments. Total cost of operations can be variable costs as they change with production level or fixed costs which remain constant throughout the year.
Properly managing operating costs can increase companies’ profitability and optimize their efficiency of operations. So now that we have covered a Finance 101 crash course and you have an idea of what total cost of operations is, you may be thinking where does DevOps fit in? Well, DevOps can be used to lower operating costs. Let’s dive right in!
Using third party cloud services such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud can help an organization save costs and reduce operational costs. Operational, development and maintenance costs are drastically reduced when the organization’s infrastructure is moved to the cloud as the costs incurred with using a cloud provider is significantly less than the costs associated with building and upkeeping your own infrastructure.
An organization can effectively optimize their tools and resources by reducing their infrastructure usage in areas where it can be reduced i.e., shutting down infrastructure resources when they are not used and launching them again when needed. This is achieved using cloud providers as client’s pay for only what they use allowing them to optimize resource usage and costs spent. DevOps can be used to automatically start and stop the cloud infrastructure whenever it is needed contributing to the efficiency of operations as doing it manually is time-consuming and inefficient.
Implementing DevOps practices in your organization allows for the automation of continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, business processes and infrastructure. Through this practice, developers can focus on high-value tasks as they would not need to manually manage servers, operating systems, database connections, storage, and other infrastructure elements every time they want to develop, test, or deploy a software application. This contributes to the efficiency of operations as time and money are saved through focusing on the development of new features rather than focusing on manually provisioning IT infrastructure.
An organization can better manage their IT costs using DevOps through auditing their processes and resources to get a clearer idea of what makes up their operating expenses. The benefits of using DevOps as a means of running well-run operations and for business growth are endless. From decreasing time, money and effort needed for software development processes to enhancing communication and collaboration between teams and automating mundane processes. DevOps is indeed the future, and it matters.
References
https://testsigma.com/blog/why-devops-is-important-for-modern-businesses/
https://wishdesk.com/blog/why-devops-is-important
https://mindmajix.com/understanding-the-significance-of-devops
https://www.business2community.com/business-intelligence/9-key-benefits-of-devops-02391855
https://www.atlassian.com/devops
https://aws.amazon.com/devops/what-is-devops/
https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/definition/DevOps
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/devops/what-is-devops
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/operating-cost.asp
https://www.deskera.com/blog/operating-costs/
https://www.spiceworks.com/tech/devops/articles/what-is-devops-lifecycle/
https://www.n-ix.com/it-cost-optimization-devops-cost-reduction/
https://www.profisea.com/blog/devops-colledge/how-to-leverage-devops-for-it-cost-optimization/
https://www.bunnyshell.com/blog/how-to-reduce-costs-with-devops
