Technological evolution has brought an increase in the size and complexity of the information technology infrastructure. As a result, IT professionals’ teams have started facing greater demands related to software development. Users growing expectations for improved speed and quality in applications delivery; made imperative the search for more efficient alternatives to improve organizations workflow. It is in this context that DevOps was born.
The adoption of these practices has become so successful that today they are well-known as an effective method to face business transformation challenges. Read on; and find out why the right DevOps application can help you take a step further towards organizational success.
DevOps: What exactly is it about?
The increase in the speed of applications development results useless if it is not possible to offer users a quality product. Taking this into account; DevOps proposes the integration of a multifunctional team of IT professionals with the objective of using their skills to optimize the work and minimize the appearance of errors in the applications delivered.
We can say then that DevOps represents a set of practices and strategies seeking to transform the technical and cultural approach; of the area related to the creation and maintenance of IT infrastructure. In short, it is focused on the increase in the value of products delivered to customers.
The origin of the word DevOps in some way exposes one of the objectives of these practices, which is to achieve development professionals and operations professionals getting to work together.
Although DevOps does not represent a formal methodology; it is essentially influenced by practices previously proposed by Agile and Lean. However, DevOps strategies are novel enough to offer an innovative change in the application development and deployment process.
What are the benefits of DevOps?
These practices offer many benefits that directly benefit IT professionals, customers; and the business at large. Among them we can highlight the following:
The development of a cooperation and integration culture
One of the most significant advantages of DevOps is that it allows the organization to eliminate silos in the IT area. For that purpose, these practices promote the use of tools focused on achieving Devs and Ops constant communication; and responsibility sharing in applications development. As a result, organizations can get more satisfied employees with greater self-confidence; who propose innovative ideas aligned with the organization needs.
High-speed production and continuous service delivery
Traditionally, Devs and Ops play different roles in organizations. Dev’s job consists in developing application code to transmit it then to the Ops; for evaluation in the production environment. As a consequence of this roles’ separation, it appears a barrier that causes many conflicts because despite all the quality controls points that the application goes through; numerous incidents always go together with the start of production. In response, DevOps proposes a different approach in which Devs undertake the entire process production deployment. In this way, Ops may have the opportunity to take on other tasks such as finding the best cloud providers and optimizing costs; resulting in a faster, more consistent and higher quality delivery.
Automation
DevOps helps automate many applications’ lifecycle tasks. For example; it improves the deployment process by eliminating steps; such as connecting to the computer transferring files, stopping the server; and restarting the server. As a result, developers can implement the code they want in the environment they determine; in a simple click, with just the right DevOps tool.
Reduction of errors
The continuous improvement methodology allows the identification and elimination of sources of inconvenience. As a result, the reduction of errors in software deployment through a better structured, systematized; and mature launch process is possible.
Customer satisfaction
Generating updates, patches, and new features quickly and efficiently is imperative to ensure customer satisfaction and meet the expectations of the digital transformation. The integration of professionals proposed by DevOps; allows the organization to achieve an immediate response to customer requirements. Hence, it is possible to offer users innovation in the deployment of high-quality applications.
DevOps best practices
There is no single right way to adopt DevOps, however; there are several good practices that can help you simplify the process. Here are some of them:
Planning
The best way to get a successful implementation of DevOps is to avoid improvisation. That is why it is imperative for you to create a plan in which you determine the objectives of the adoption; and all the steps to follow to achieve them. Remember to foster the integration and make evident DevOps benefits to all the people involved in the adoption project. Only thus, you will be able to achieve a real change in the organizational culture.
Control
To achieve a real breakthrough you must keep a good incident management. That will let you locate and solve problems quickly and effectively. For this, we recommend you to use tools that allow the DevOps team to identify dates and authors of any changes executed in the software life cycle.
Monitoring
Monitor every element related to the applications’ delivery. That includes the physical state of servers, network performance, system security, etc. Remember that you can only improve what you can measure. So, take advantage of the results’ analysis to keep track of the progress or possible setbacks in the implementation of DevOps. In this way, it will be easier for the team to get continuous improvement.
Use of tools
Invest in the most suitable solutions to accomplish automation and simplification of processes in your organization; and promote tools sharing among DevOps professionals. There is no such thing as the ultimate DevOps tool, however; the market offers a great set of high-tech solutions you can use, at your convenience; whether it is for code storage, test launches, packaging or application monitoring.
DevOps and ITSM
One of the main concerns that may arise when considering the adoption of DevOps; is the possibility of dealing with a sudden change related to the way all processes are managed in the organization. The truth is DevOps does not imply opposition to other good practices such as those proposed by ITSM. Quite the contrary, with the right use; both methodologies can be strengthened by generating a synergistic relationship.
There are already leading ITSM solutions such as Freshservice that integrate features (such as incident management); focused on helping new DevOps professionals. Organizations can use this kind of tools to simplify the process of integrating DevOps in their ITSM approach.
The smartest strategy to face this ever-changing business world is the one that encourages innovation. Let us help you grow and innovate through more efficient solutions. Contact us for free and expert advice on leading tools.
