The world of DevOps is like the director’s cut of a movie.
In filmmaking, the director’s cut refers to a version of a movie that represents the director’s complete creative vision, including scenes that may have been omitted or altered in the theatrical release.
Similarly, DevOps is a methodology or approach that allows for the complete integration and collaboration of development and operations teams throughout the software development lifecycle.
What this means is that you have to go all in. The final project requires the best of resources if not all. Therefore, one must be fairly equipped with up-to-the-minute trends to deliver the best. And when it comes to DevOps, the previous statement can’t be overstated.
The last few years have seen a slew of DevOps trends that have continued to shape the way that developers and operations teams work together. From AI/ML to security and automation.
As we progress into 2023, there are several new or emerging DevOps trends that will be shaping our software development processes.
Let’s have a look at the top 7 of them.
1) AIOps
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know that AI is omnipresent now. Following suit, AIOps has evolved as a prominent DevOps trend in 2023.
AIOps, which stands for Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations, combines artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies with traditional IT operations to enhance automation, monitoring, and incident management.
A recent market research report titled “Global AIOps Market Report (2023–2028)” predicts that the value of the AIOps market will reach $64.44 billion by the year 2028.
AIOps has the capability to identify and interpret data from applications and systems, alerting users to issues, problems, or areas of low efficiency.
It also performs data analysis on a regular basis, replacing older automated systems and serving as the logical progression in IT operations management.
Additionally, AI enables the automation of tasks that were previously carried out manually by humans. As a result, IT teams can experience reduced downtime and allocate their time to other responsibilities such as coding and designing more intuitive systems.
Furthermore, MLOps, which stands for Machine Learning Operations, enhances DevOps by bringing machine learning practices and principles into the software development and deployment lifecycle.
The synergy of AIOps & MLOps protocols enhances DevOps, in that they offer:
1. Collaboration and Integration
2. Versioning and Reproducibility
3. Automation and Continuous Integration/Deployment (CI/CD)
4. Faster Monitoring and Management:
5. Enhanced Scalability and Resource Management
6. Better Governance and Compliance
7. Continuous Learning and Improvement
AIOps and MLOps are poised to revolutionize how DevOps teams operate in the future, slashing manual effort and elevating the quality of software.
As the realm of DevOps expands, brace yourself for a wave of AI-powered tools that are set to surge in popularity, promising to reshape the future of software development and deployment.
2) The Rise of Low Code and No Code Platforms
The emergence of Low Code and No Code platforms like Appian, Claris, etc. is reshaping the landscape of DevOps, bringing about profound changes in software development practices.
These platforms empower developers to create applications with minimal coding requirements swiftly, thanks to their pre-built components and intuitive visual interfaces. This newfound speed and efficiency align seamlessly with the DevOps principle of rapid and agile development.
Following are the key examples of how such platforms are being used in DevOps:
- Building CI/CD pipelines: Used to automate the build, test, and deployment of applications. This can help to ensure that applications are deployed more reliably and efficiently.
- Managing infrastructure: manage infrastructure resources, such as servers, databases, and networks. This can help to simplify the process of managing infrastructure and make it more scalable.
- Monitoring and alerting: monitor applications and infrastructure for performance and availability issues. This can help to identify and resolve problems swiftly.
3) DevSecOps
Think of DevSecOps as an evolved iteration of DevOps that places a firmer emphasis on security and observability, thereby enhancing the overall DevOps approach.
It essentially entails democratizing the best practices in software development, delivery, and operations while prioritizing security measures.
Therefore, operational efficiency is fostered among developer and operations teams by incorporating DevSecOps principles, ensuring seamless collaboration and workflow.
Moreover, DevSecOps focuses on safeguarding business processes from potential third-party attacks, thus bolstering the security posture of organizations.
DevSecOps puts security at the forefront rather than a secondary measure in the pipeline.
Latest DevSecOps trends indicate that 40% of Enterprises perform DAST tests, 50% conduct SAST tests, and the rest scan dependencies and containers. ~devsecopsguides.com
DevSecOps is expected to continue to grow in popularity in 2023. The number of data breaches and cyber-attacks has been increasing in recent years, and organizations are becoming more aware of the need to integrate security into their development processes.
Moreover, DevSecOps is set to become increasingly integrated with other emerging technologies, such as ML and AI that are already at the heart of modern DevOps.
4) GitOps
GitOps has the potential to revolutionize the way that software is developed and deployed. It is a powerful tool that can help teams to improve the way that they develop and deploy software.
Here are some of the benefits of using GitOps:
- Automated deployments: Automates the entire deployment process, from creating the infrastructure to deploying the application.
- Reliability: Ensures that the deployed infrastructure matches the desired state. It helps to prevent errors and outages.
- Security: Helps to improve the security of deployed infrastructure.
- Visibility: Provides more visibility into the entire deployment process.
In 2023, GitOps is rapidly emerging as the preferred DevOps approach for enterprises, equipping them with the necessary resources to maintain a competitive edge.
5) Microservices Adoption
Microservices or Microservice architecture is a software development approach that consists of creating small, autonomous components that interact with each other.
The rise of microservices is significantly influencing the field of DevOps by introducing new paradigms and challenges.
Here’s how the rise of microservices is developing the field of DevOps:
- Continuous Deployment: Supports continuous deployment, allowing independent development, testing, and deployment of services.
- Collaboration: Fosters collaboration between cross-functional teams responsible for individual services. DevOps promotes effective coordination and alignment through continuous integration, automated testing, and shared monitoring tools.
- Scalability and Resilience: Enables granular scalability and DevOps facilitates automated scaling to meet dynamic demands.
- Monitoring and Observability: Monitoring multiple distributed microservices becomes critical, requiring comprehensive observability.
- Configuration Management: Managing diverse configurations across microservices is essential. DevOps employs tools and approaches like infrastructure-as-code for consistent configurations and easier deployment.
- Testing Strategies: Robust testing, including automated unit, integration, and end-to-end tests, ensures the reliability and functionality of microservices.
- Service Discovery and Orchestration: Efficient service discovery and orchestration mechanisms enable communication and coordination between microservices.
The microservices trend is expected to continue growing and evolving in the future, with several key factors driving its expansion like Cloud-Native and Serverless Computing, Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Environments setups, and more focus on Observability and Resilience.
6) Observability Escalation
Observability has become an integral part of the DevOps approach, providing teams with the visibility and insights needed to effectively monitor, analyze, and improve distributed applications.
It enables real-time monitoring, issue detection, performance optimization, incident response, and post-incident analysis, all contributing to delivering a better customer experience and maintaining high application reliability.
The selection of ideal tools matters in the effectiveness of DevOps Observability. While one can develop custom observability tools using open-source software such as Jaeger or Zipkin. Alternatively, organizations can opt to utilize commercial observability tools like LOGIQ.AI, in that we offer a holistic approach to extensive observability.
Long story short, observability will drive proactive issue detection, intelligent automation, comprehensive visibility, real-time monitoring, and continuous improvement in the future of DevOps.
Moreover, it will adapt to distributed systems, foster collaboration, and support the shift-left approach, empowering teams to deliver high-performing and resilient applications.
7) DevOps as a Service
DevOps as a Service (DaaS) is an emerging trend that is influencing the DevOps domain by allowing organizations to handle DevOps management to specialized providers.
DaaS brings expertise, scalability, flexibility, accelerated time-to-value, reduced costs, and the ability to focus on core competencies.
With the growing popularity of DaaS, organizations are recognizing the value it offers in streamlining operations, improving efficiency, and driving innovation in the DevOps space.
In order to concentrate on their core business operations, organizations are turning to outsourcing their DevOps management, entrusting the operational responsibilities to the service providers.
Looking at the current state of DevOps in 2023, an increasing number of organizations will view DevOps as a Service (DaaS) as a viable option for alleviating their operational burden.
Wrapping Up
The DevOps framework has undergone significant evolution in recent years, and its growth is expected to continue as more enterprises embrace its principles.
The emergence of new DevOps trends aims to enhance operational efficiency, surpassing mere automation. These trends focus on continuous improvement to deliver better outcomes for users. This suggests that the DevOps transformation is an ongoing and perpetual process.
In conclusion, the world of DevOps is continuously evolving with the emergence of new trends that go beyond automation. The rise of AIOps, Low Code/No Code platforms, DevSecOps, GitOps, microservices adoption, observability escalation, and DevOps as a Service (DaaS) are reshaping the field of DevOps.
These trends emphasize collaboration, automation, security, scalability, monitoring, and continuous improvement. Organizations are recognizing the value of outsourcing DevOps management to specialized providers to focus on their core business activities.
As we move forward, the DevOps transformation remains an ongoing process, with the industry constantly striving for better outcomes and efficiency in software development and deployment.
