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8 Reasons You Should Adopt DevOps
The most impactful functions in any tech enterprise are development and operations, yet they often get caught up working in silos.
Your business success hinges on the efficient collaboration of these two functions to improve software delivery speed and quality. DevOps service is critical to faster and efficient software delivery.
DevOps, a portmanteau of “Development” and “Operations”, is a set of tools, processes, and practices that combine software development and IT operations to improve software delivery.
Due to the tendency for development and operations teams to work in silos, DevOps acts as the go-between to improve collaboration efficiency.
(Image Source: Liveframe.Org)
Let’s explore, in detail, some of the reasons to adopt DevOps.
1. Efficient Development and Deployment Planning
One of the biggest headaches of any IT Manager is managing cross-functional teams to develop and deploy software in good time. DevOps practices help you plan in advance how both teams will work cohesively to deliver products, meet customer needs and stay competitive.
DevOps methods such as Scrum and Kanban provide practices that define how teams work together. For example, Scrum practices include working in sprints, holding Scrum meetings, and designating time boxes.
These work to reduce blockers quickly and complete work within a fixed period before starting another project.
Kanban manages workflows by visualising work on a Kanban Board, and there’s real-time communication of your work’s progress.
(Example of Kanban Board in software development. Source:commons.wikimedia.org)
2. Continuous Improvement and Software Delivery
Adopting DevOps practices improves the quality of your software when deploying new features and allows you to make changes rapidly.
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) is the practice where you make incremental changes to your code and quickly merge to the source code. This DevOps practice delivers your software to the market faster while addressing customer issues rapidly.
3. Improves Software Security
A subset of DevOps is DevSecOps which combines development, security, and operations. Adopting DevOps practices allows you to build security into your software continuously.
The IT security team is involved in the software development cycle from the start rather than at the deployment stage. Outdated security practices integrate infrastructure security features independently.
With DevOps, software security is a collaborative practice and is considered the foundation before any product development.
4. Improves Customer Experiences
A major benefit to adopting DevOps practices is it lowers the failure rates of new features while improving recovery time. The continuous deployment, testing, and feedback loop ensure faster service delivery and happier customers.
By automating the software pipeline, the development teams focus on creating superior products while the operations team can improve business delivery.
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5. Better Collaboration Among Teams
DevOps practices dismantle silos between teams and improve collaboration.
By adopting methods such as Scrum and Kanban, teams collaborate more efficiently, friction among colleagues is dealt with quickly, and communication flows seamlessly across the organisation.
Since DevOps discourages hierarchies among teams, everyone is responsible for software quality and speedy delivery. This approach reduces cases of low-effort contributors and blame games.
6. DevOps Practices Create More Time to Innovate
DevOps automates repetitive tasks, improves service delivery, and reduces the software development cycle. The methodology frees up time for teams to develop new products and better features.
Unfortunately, inefficient teamwork leads to time wasted fixing errors rather than innovating. Building better products and services leads to a competitive advantage.
Companies that innovate continuously are also better able to react to market changes and take advantage of new opportunities.
7. DevOps Enhances Decision-Making
DevOps helps you leverage data to make better decisions and removes hierarchies that require layers of approvals.
In addition, DevOps practices reduce time spent between design and execution. Scrum and the Kanban approach address blockers as they come, manage workflows efficiently, and tackle projects in sprints.
Fast decision-making based on accurate data is a competitive advantage. Slow decision-making delays go-to-market plans and throttles the implementation of new ideas.
According to a McKinsey Global Survey, only 20% of organisations are good at decision-making, demonstrating room for improvement by adopting DevOps.
8. DevOps Encourages Higher Trust and Better Collaboration
Due to improved collaboration across development and IT operations, teams trust each other more and produce higher quality work. Higher trust leads to improved morale and better productivity.
Conversely, teams working in silos mistrust each other’s new suggestions and ideas.
A culture of trust and collaboration creates transparency in workflows and gives visibility into projects. This approach leads to better development and deployment planning.
The net effect is a collaborative environment that works in unity, solves problems faster, and delivers superior products to the market.
Automation is a critical element of DevOps, but the people within these teams ultimately determine if the DevOps practices you adopt work.
How To Adopt DevOps Practices Successfully
According to Gartner, 75% of DevOps initiatives will not meet expectations by 2022 due to inefficient collaboration, lack of buy-in from employees, trying to do too much quickly, and unrealistic expectations.
Therefore, managers should first identify these roadblocks and address them before applying DevOps practices in their organisations.
The best approach to adopt DevOps successfully is to work with a consulting partner to guide you through the learning, implementation, and maintenance phases.
zsah is a leading DevOps service company in the UK. We provide Infrastructure as code (IAC), support your applications for better client interaction, identify errors in your software, and help you fix any issues that come up.
Our Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings create optimal environments to host and manage your applications in the cloud.
We offer cost-optimised DevOps solutions with transparent plans and consolidated pricing customised to specific needs and budgets. Thus, we base our client partnerships on predictable, recurring monthly expenses. We also advise our customers on effective cost optimisation best practices and techniques.
Finally, we ensure that all our clients benefit from the inherent cost advantages of the cloud model and can focus on their core business without worrying about the value of their DevOps investment.
For more information on how zsah can help your organisation adopt DevOps, get in touch with us today, or reach out to us on Twitter, @zsahLTD, and LinkedIn, zsah.
Recommended reading: How Public Sector Can Unlock Critical Value from Data Using Cloud Computing.