Simple explanation of DevOps without the complications and information overload. ... DevOps is a concept with different interpretations and definitions, but when you get down to it, it's all about developers and operations teams breaking down silos and working together to innovate faster.
DevOps is one of the hot topics at the moment, and is well on its way up the hype cycle curve. Some are even saying it replaces Agile, thus spelling the end of Agile software development. That isn’t true, though if you’re interested in agile, you should start learning about DevOps. Why? Because although it doesn’t replace agile software development, it complements it very, very well. This article will explain the difference between Agile and DevOps.
DevOps is not a tool DevOps is not a buzzword or a tool or a product. I cannot emphasise this enough. Some vendors and snake oil salesmen will tell you that it is… “buy our complex deployment toolset and you can haz DEVOPS WOOO LOLZ!!”. Don’t listen to them and don’t believe them. You can’t tool your way out of shitty processes and bad ways of working.1
DevOps is rather an attempt to rethink the value chain of software development, especially the end part of the chain (getting it out to customers), and how it fits into an organisation.
DevOps is a rethinking of how we configure and deploy software Traditionally in software development (whether Waterfall or even Agile), there were “development people” who built software. They would move software through various environments, possibly via manual processes, or possibly via automated processes like build pipelines. Usually this would be involve moving software from a dev” environment, then to some kind of “test” environment, and then probably to some kind of “staging” environment. And that was all fine, but that was as far as they could go. Why? Because on the other side of staging was the legendary land of Production. It is the mysterious land where magic, opportunity, threats and risks abound. It is the part of the map with “Here Be Draggyns” written on it. And it’s a place where developers are not allowed to go.
Instead, they do a big “handover” to an Operations team. And the Operations team were responsible for doing a bunch of “deployment” activities to move the code from the Staging environment to the Production environment. This deployment was complicated, more so than all of the other deployments, because:
the production infrastructure was very different to the dev or test or even staging infrastructure there had to be extra checks and balances and processes to make sure it was all ok because hell, this was production! this deployment was done by different people, who had usually never seen or heard of any of this software before. It was thrown “over the fence” to the operations team. Who didn’t usually understand the software and wouldn’t know what to do if it stopped working. At this point, people stopped doing “software development” activities and instead did “software deployment” activities. And the people who did that were different to the people who had done the development activities.
DevOps breaks the boundary between development and deployment So DevOps tries to fix all this. It says:
what if we could put software into “containers” (like a mini virtual server and OS that the software lived inside) and the containers got shipped around to different environments? then moving a container from test to staging to prod wouldn’t really matter, because the software is still sitting inside the same container and thus doesn’t care where it is. what if we had streamlined checks and tests and processes for every environment so moving to production was not a big deal? what if we had automation of not just our tests, but all of our configuration management, environment management, and release management? This is the key one: what if the people moving it to production and looking after it once it is there, worked closely with the people who built the software? Or even better, were the same people who built the software? This is a major rethinking of the structure and roles in a software organisation. It basically says “you build it, you run it”. You are responsible for it working in dev, in test, in staging, AND IN PRODUCTION. And if you do all this properly, with not just automated tests like a good Agile kid, but also by turning your infrastructure into software by containerisation (is that a word? urgh unfortunately, I think it is), then doing this should be a simple process.
Devops complements agile instead of replacing it DevOps does not replace Agile or Lean. It complements Agile and Lean very well, by eliminating waste, removing handovers, and streamlining deployments to enable faster and more continuous deployments to PRODUCTION. Many organisations do Agile, automated testing and continuous delivery but only push their pipelines as far as staging. Because the Operations people say “hey hey you can’t cross that line. That’s our territory: you stay in yours, and we look after ours”.
Agile is the bit in between Lean Startup / Design Thinking and DevOps If you have an idea for a startup and you want to operationalise and scale it, you need to do three things:
you need to find product / market fit, i.e. find if there is a sufficient market for your idea then you need to quickly build your idea finally you then need to release, manage and scale up your idea. There are three good techniques for doing these things:
Use a mix of Lean Startup and Design Thinking for your product / market fit Then use some form of Agile Software Development for building your idea Then use DevOps for releasing and managing it in production. I hope this clarifies the difference between agile and DevOps: more specifically, how DevOps complements, but does not replace Agile.
A company's capability to produce applications and services at high velocity is improved by the DevOps combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools. As a result, products develop and achieve more quickly than they would in organizations using traditional software development and infra-management processes. This speed allows businesses to engage in much more profitable market competition and better customer service.
The Simplified DevOps Process Development and operations teams are no longer "silos" under a DevOps strategy. In some cases, these two teams merge, and the engineers work across the entire application lifecycle —from development and testing to deployment and operations—acquiring a wide range of skills that are not specific to any one role. Using different DevOps models, quality assurance and security teams may also collaborate more closely with development and operations throughout the lifecycle of an application.
Such teams use procedures to automate time-consuming and manual tasks from the past. They use a technological stack and tooling that allows for the quick and reliable operation and evolution of applications. The use of these tools also allows engineers to complete tasks (such as provisioning infrastructure or delivering code) that previously required assistance from other teams, which increases a team's velocity even further.
Benefits of Implementing DevOps in Businesses The following are the key benefits of implementing DevOps in businesses:
High Speed: React quickly so that you can develop for clients faster, better adjust to changing markets, and become more effective at generating business results. The DevOps approach can help your development and operations teams achieve these objectives. Microservices and continuous delivery, for example, enable teams to take control of services and change them more quickly.
Faster Delivery: Improve your distribution rate and speed so you can create and improve your product more quickly. By releasing new features and fixing bugs, you can respond to client requests and gain a competitive advantage more quickly. Continuous integration and continuous delivery practices automate the entire software release cycle, from development to deployment.
Reliability: Check the integrity of application updates and architecture changes to ensure that you can deliver consistently at a faster rate while maintaining a good end user experience. Using techniques such as continuous integration and continuous delivery test each change to ensure it is secure and functional. With the help of monitoring and logging procedures, you can keep track of performance in real time.
Scale: Increase the size of your development and infrastructure operations. When you use automation and consistency, you can effectively and safely manage complex or changing systems. Infrastructure as code, for example, enables more repeatable and efficient management of your development, testing, and production environments.
Improved Collaboration: Form more effective teams by adhering to a DevOps cultural model that emphasises values such as ownership and accountability. Developers and operations teams collaborate closely, sharing many responsibilities and merging workflows. This saves time and reduces waste (eg: Reduced dispatch times among developers and operations, for example, or writing code that considers the eco system in which it is operated)
Security: Control and compliance must be maintained while moving quickly. You can implement a DevOps model without sacrificing security by using automated guidelines and policies, tightly controlled mechanisms, and configuration management strategies. For example, by using infrastructure as code and policy as code, you can classify and then track compliance at scale.
Important DevOps Practices The following are some important DevOps practices that you can easily learn.
Conclusion Effective tooling is crucial to the DevOps paradigm because it allows teams to develop software for their customers and deploy it quickly and reliably. These solutions enable teams to manage complex systems at scale, automate tedious tasks, and keep engineers in charge of the high velocity enabled by DevOps. SLA provides DevOps training in Chennai for both experts and beginners looking to start their careers in this cutting-edge industry.
Source: slajobs.com