A Dive into DevOps

Ever wondered how the biggest of Tech giants function so smoothly over multiple branches in the world? What enables them to perform a variety of mind-wrenching tasks with absolute accuracy and efficiency, while also minimizing any potential risks? The answer to these questions is very simple, in fact, just a word: DevOps. Ever heard of it? No? Fret not, I’m here to the rescue. Brace yourselves, as we dive deep into the infinite and amazing world of DevOps, while learning more about the functioning of top-notch Tech firms in the world. Let’s begin!!

Source: devopedia.org

DevOps is a key that combines software development with practices and tools of information technology. This is effective in creating a rapid response and collaborative environment resulting in superior quality software and productive communication. By using best practices, automation, and new tools, DevOps promotes shorter, more manageable iterations.

Why is DevOps a required skill now a days?

Source: altexsoft.com

These days learning new techniques and turning them into useful technologies is a very helpful skill. DevOps has been of great use to humanity in many ways and hence, has been in high demand recently. Let’s dig deeper and learn about some of its basic functionalities:

• Optimizing an organization: The methodology used in DevOps, where development and operations come together, helps optimize workflow. The new outlook is seen to be more data-driven and adaptive which attracts more customers and clients.

Source: altexsoft.com

• Advanced automation: Advancing the standards of efficiency with automation has been a fruitful growth in the world today. Automation, not just with the most effective strategies, but also with a growth mindset, can help envision the best technological solutions.

A top class DevOps team is the one that brings the entire firm together, with professionals across fields like product engineering, security, I.T , operations, and also automation, which helps achieve more productive goals.

• Improves speed of software development: According to a multi-year analysis in the annual accelerated state of DevOps report, top-performing DevOps organizations significantly enhance the speed and stability of software development and deployment. They also successfully meet the crucial operational requirement of assuring that their product or service is accessible to end users.

Source: veritis.com

• People matter the most: The vision of a person is the most important element in the development of technology. A DevOps initiative’s most crucial element is people, not tools. Humans can significantly improve chances of success, for example, a DevOps evangelist - a compelling leader who can dispel preconceptions and worries by outlining the business benefits brought about by the increased agility of DevOps techniques.

Tools and Technologies used in DevOps

Those were some basic functionalities of DevOps. But, what is a technology without its tools! With that, let’s move ahead and learn a bit about the various tools used in the industry:

There are a variety of tools which are most well-liked to interact with various DevOps lifecycle phases when using DevOps toolchain, some of which are discussed below. Although in some cases, companies combine their solutions to concentrate on a specific issue for their users.

The specified tools in DevOps are used in various lifecycle phases, like:

• Planning
• Building
• Deployment
• Operation
• Feedback

Source: ibm.com

Each phase uses specific software and tools, some of which are mentioned below.

In the Planning phase, technologies that enable development and operations teams to divide work into smaller, more manageable chunks for faster deployments, taking a page from the agile manual in doing so are commonly used. This enables the user to gather consumer input more quickly and aids in product optimization. Some popular tools that are used are:

Source: obie.ai

• Jira software
• Slack
• Confluence

In the Building phase, individual development environments are created using open source platforms like Kubernetes and Docker by developers. Users can complete more work by writing code against disposable, virtual versions of production. Popular tools used in the building phase are:

Source: facebook.com

• Docker
• Chef
• GitHub

In the Deployment phase, first, the code is integrated, checked and tested several times a day, hence, making it easier to roll out new features to users as soon as feasible and immediately identify problems, when they initially arise.

Getting all the change, test, and deployment information for a planned release in one location is one of the most difficult aspects of shipping software. A lengthy status report meeting is the last thing anyone needs prior to a release. Release dashboards can be useful in this situation. Popular tools that are used in the testing and deployment phase are:

• Jenkins
• Aws
• Bitbucket
• Aws CodePipeline

In the Operations phase, having barriers and software development projects tracked in various systems is the biggest problem to collaboration between Development and Operations. In order to discover and address issues more quickly, it is important to look for solutions that maintain incidents, modifications, issues, and software projects on a single platform. For notifications to go directly to the developers, companies look for technologies that interact with group chat software. Continuous observability is a crucial skill for the DevOps teams to have. Popular tools used in the operations phase are:

Source: support.atlassian.com

• AppDynamics
• Jira service management
• Pingdom

In the Feedback phase, it is crucial to listen to what the customers are saying about their requirements and whether they are satisfied with the developed item. The culture, procedures, and technologies for routine feedback collection are all part of a continuous feedback evaluation process, as are the resources for drawing conclusions from the feedback. NPS data collection and analysis, churn surveys, bug reports, service requests, and even tweets are all examples of continuous feedback techniques. In the short run, it may seem that analyzing and applying feedback slows down development, but in the long run, it is more effective than introducing new features and pulling out the ones that are not used. Popular tools used in the feedback phase are:

• GetFeedback
• Slack
• Pendo

Conclusion

DevOps deployment has grown rapidly over the past few years, which is evidence of its ability to transform business outcomes. To conclude, DevOps is a representation of how a team comes together and creates something so useful and effective. Now, we know the fundamentals of DevOps and its benefits. That was all from me. The writer of this blog hopes that she was able to clear her readers’ understanding of the world of DevOps and its basic functionalities. Signing off.