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Benefits of DevOps Methodology

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DevOps as a phenomenon is around for a decade, yet there still is no clear understanding of what it can do for a business and how to implement DevOps workflows in a company. Being one of the leading DevOps services providers, IT SVIT can explain the benefits of DevOps methodology in simple words based on our 5+ years of experience in the field.

First of all, what DevOps is not. It is not a combination of skills of developers, QA specialists and Ops engineers. There are no (and can be none) all-around-skilled specialists that are able to write the code, test it and run it in production on their own. If they do exist, they cost too much for an average business to ever hope to hire them. Therefore, if some “DevOps consulting experts” claim you must sit the Devs, the QA and the Ops teams in a single room and they should teach each other their skills and ricks until the DevOps magic starts to happen — stand up and walk away.

DevOps methodology — automation and waste removal

What is DevOps methodology then? It is a practical implementation of Agile philosophy, a culture of communication and collaboration between the teams and team members, allowing to align the goals of everyone to achieve the business objectives in the most cost-efficient and reliable way. It is a complex of approaches, tools and workflows aimed at removing all waste from your SDLC pipelines (waste are all actions and assets that don’t add value to a final product). 

For example, if under a Waterfall methodology and in an enterprise environment a process of provisioning and configuring a new cluster of testing servers could take anywhere between a couple of days and a couple of months. It was so due to the need to obtain all managerial approvals (and explain to people who think you simply waste money that these servers are actually CRUCIAL to test the new software that will MAKE MONEY), deliver the hardware, install the OS and configure all the software. Nobody was expecting a new software version earlier than in a year at that time, and many enterprise products had biannual update cycles (MS Office 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, etc.)

Just compare this to the speed of software delivery nowadays, where your smartphone apps are updated nearly every time you reboot them. Some companies achieve a speed of 10 releases A DAY which is lightyears faster than once every two years. The apps don’t crash after an update, so you barely notice it at all. Most importantly, your customers come to expect your app will behave the same and will not use your product if it is not updated frequently and seamlessly and new features are not integrated regularly.

DevOps principles and culture

How is it possible? Only due to using the benefits of DevOps methodology: automation of routine tasks, removal of all types of waste, fostering a culture of communication and collaboration which leads to better business productivity and cost-efficiency.

The three basic DevOps principles are CI, IaC and CD.

  • CI or Continuous Integration means working in very short cycles and constantly integrating new code into the main project trunk, so the latest product version can be released at once after successful testing. This is achieved using automated unit tests, shifting all types of testing to the left to find the bugs as early as possible and minimize the time needed to correct them. This helps implement customer and stakeholder feedback rapidly, which builds your brand loyalty.
  • IaC of Infrastructure as Code means building virtualized cloud environments using Terraform manifests — configuration text files written in a declarative language and stored within your Git or other VCS. These can be versioned like any other code, so any required environment can be configured in seconds – not days or months.
  • CD or Continuous Delivery means building such sequences of actions that an output of one operation becomes an input of another operation and every code commit can become a new micro-release after successful testing. This is exactly what enables these seamless daily in-app updates that help you grow the customer base of your products and services.

How to use these benefits then? Hire a reliable company that has ample experience wit providing DevOps services, let them help you upgrade your systems and workflows, adopt the culture of communication and collaboration to reach the common goals — and enjoy the results!

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