The Five W’s of DevOps
Since the beginning of the Information Age, much of its progress and constant evolutions came to fruition due to the ideas and advancements that were solidified before. From the dawn of the internet to now cloud computing, much of technology has become an integral part of not only human history but also human life. Recently, one of those technological ideas that seem to be making waves and changing the tech industry as we speak is called DevOps.
Who created DevOps? The word “DevOps” was coined in 2009 by Patrick Debois. The term was formed by combining “development” and “operations” which provides a starting point for understanding exactly what DevOps is. Notably, DevOps isn’t a process or a technology, or a standard, DevOps is referred to, by devotees, as a culture.
What is DevOps? DevOps is a set of practices, tools, and a cultural philosophy that automates and integrates the processes between software development and IT teams. Traditionally, both of these departments were isolated and this often created problems. However, DevOps emphasizes team empowerment, cross-team communication and collaboration, and technology automation to improve upon previous Software Development Life Cycles like the Waterfall Model or Agile Model.
Where is DevOps being adopted? From startups to 100-year-old enterprises, DevOps is becoming a significant influence on IT organizations everywhere. A survey taken by Flexera shows that 74% of companies have implemented DevOps in some fashion. While web natives like Etsy, Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix are examples of DevOps leaders, today, every type of business has gotten into the DevOps act. Mainstream media company Sony Pictures and financial services behemoth Barclays Bank. Even government and quasi-government organizations are embracing DevOps. Take Fannie Mae, for instance, which is using DevOps to transform its business and move from an organization that “does change very slowly to one that changes very quickly.”
Why implement DevOps? Those who have implemented DevOps describe several business and technical benefits, many of which can result in both happier customers and employers. Some benefits of DevOps include:
- Faster, better product delivery
- Faster issue resolution and reduced complexity
- Greater scalability and availability
- More stable operating environments
- Better resource utilization
- Greater automation
- Greater visibility into system outcomes
- Greater innovation
What is the future of DevOps? According to a recent market survey, the DevOps market will exceed $20 billion by 2026, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 24.7% from 2019 to 2026. With such a humungous financial gain to be seen it should be expected that further improvements and developments should be seen in the future. Areas of growth that can already be seen are in Microservices Architecture, Serverless Computing, Low-code Applications, the shift from the DevOps process to DevSecOps, and lastly AI-driven DevOps.
As a software engineer, it is exciting to see how the industry is growing and changing by the day and DevOps is one of those exciting methodologies that might change the tech industry as we know it. With that said, if you enjoyed this read please click on the 👏🏽 icon below to leave applause or leave a comment 💬 with your thoughts on what the future of DevOps might be.
