Why DevOps is the Answer
I’m sure we’ve all heard about the Waterfall model; the dinosaur-age method for creating, deploying, and maintaining software. Back in the 1970s, the software development life cycle (SDLC) consisted of seven sequential phases ranging from gathering requirements to deploying and maintaining an application. Many problems quickly arose from such practices, such as being unable to adapt to changes in requirements, miscommunications between teams and users, and long release cycles.
In comes DevOps
Thankfully, we don’t have to deal with the problems of our ancestors in the 21st century, we have DevOps. First coined by Software Developer Patrick Debois in 2009, the term DevOps is an amalgamation of the terms development and operations, it reflects the idea of merging both subjects into one continuing process. Not only does this relatively young methodology change the approach to software development, but it also changes the culture, tools, and practices of the businesses that adopt it.
Now I don’t want to go too much into detail about the process, but I will give a brief overview of how DevOps works and then discuss why it’s a big deal.
The 7 stages of DevOps
Planning- Information about resources, infrastructure, and technologies to be used are determined.
Coding- Code for software is developed based on the roadmap created from the planning stage.
Building- Code is moved to a centralized repository where it can then be tested and formed into a build.
Testing- The build is deployed in a testing environment. Automated tests can now be run to check for performance, stability, and security issues.
Deploying- End users are given access to the applications.
Operating- Feedback is generated through user data on performance and efficiency.
Monitoring- Data from the operating stage is retrieved and analyzed. Feedback is generated to consider through the next iteration of stages.
Notice the use of Gerunds in the 7 stages of the DevOps lifecycle, I chose to write the stages in this way to reflect the fact that these stages are not sequential, but continuous. These tasks are constantly being performed interchangeably throughout the lifecycle of a product. Now that we’ve gotten the basics out of the way, we can talk about why this is so important.
The advantages of DevOps
Speed
Since many procedures and processes are automated in DevOps, the time it takes for such tasks is drastically reduced. How much faster are deployments you ask? Let’s see how DevOps affected Etsy, the global marketplace for all sorts of gifts. Etsy used to deploy about twice a week, yikes! After they decided to automate their testing stage with Jenkins, a DevOps tool built for automation, they now deploy over 60 times a week! So we’re talking about a 6000% increase in deployment speed!
Cultural Impact
Going back to the waterfall method, one of its biggest downsides is a lack of communication. A lack of communication between teams and between a client and the business can destroy an enterprise’s culture. Combining development and operations with DevOps means people will have to step out of their comfort zones. A developer will now have to learn about the cloud and how to utilize it, and an operations person will now have to get their hands a little dirty and code. Since people have to pick up new responsibilities, they’ll have to exit their isolation chambers and speak to a person or two! This sense of increased involvement from multiple teams can have a profound positive impact on a company’s culture.
Issue Resolution
A recent survey on DevOps has shown that Developers spend far less time putting out fires and about 33% more time contributing to improving infrastructure to reduce failure rates. Tying into faster deployment speeds and better developer productivity, developers have far more time to prevent vulnerabilities from turning into a dirty mess down the road.
More automation also means there’s less human interaction, and that’s a great thing in this case. There’s less of a chance of human error when the building, integration, and verification of code are run automatically. In addition to that, about 52% of traditional Ops businesses say they have experienced critical disruptions in their systems at least once per month (report). A majority of these businesses use six or more monitoring systems! Dealing with too much noise and interruptions, many of these teams may benefit from the unified, streamlined approach that DevOps brings.
Developer productivity
Thanks to the automation and efficiency DevOps practices bring, fewer developers are required to handle tasks that would’ve taken large teams a considerable amount of time. A team of 4 developers can now tackle tasks in 2 hours that a team of 8 would take 4 hours. According to a study on DevOps, there is 60% less time handling support cases than traditional ops and 21% less time putting out fires. Traditional Ops is also seen to be 41% more time-consuming overall. With all this extra time saved through the use of automation and continuous integration/continuous delivery, developers have more time to handle other tasks and contribute to the overall improvement of the software.
Efficiency and cost
IT Operational efficiency is one of the main reasons for a business to jump to DevOps. Through the use of automation and open-source tools, a lot of time and space can be freed up for an enterprise. As mentioned before, automation results in less time for features to be deployed and less time spent troubleshooting. This results in a less overall cost of operations for a business, who doesn’t want to save money, right?
Who should make the jump to DevOps?
Any enterprise or development team that struggles with constant downtimes/bugs, lack of communication, slow deployments, or a tight budget should consider a different approach to IT operations. Of course, it can be extremely difficult to change an approach, as the costs of new software/tools need to be determined, training of personnel, and change in culture will all have to be taken into consideration.
However, to ensure you that DevOps is a viable solution, let’s see what those who have hopped over to DevOps have said about its overall impact. According to Atlassian’s DevOps trends survey in 2020, 99% of respondents said DevOps has had a positive impact on their organization and 44% of respondents have said that it lead to them getting a raise. The methodology as a whole can be incredibly beneficial to not only the enterprise but the individual who practices it as well.
Wow, if you made it this far then that means I haven’t bored you to death! Thank you for reading my article. Feel free to add a comment and follow me if you like the content.
