The term “DevOps” has been highly popular in recent years, and it is frequently characterized as a solution to many problems that allow high-performing businesses to leverage their competitive advantages in technology-based industries.
However, what is the true business value of using such principles, aside from its appeal among computer professionals? Is it just a sophisticated toolset that people want to keep up with technical developments, or does it exist just to make the life of developers easier? The answer to both of these queries is no – DevOps’ popularity didn’t appeared out of nowhere, and its effective deployment and ongoing improvements will result in a significant increase in measurable business value.
DevOps is the process of serving people at scale without having to pay for servers and resources that aren’t being used. It’s a flexible infrastructure that allows you to move faster — collect real-time data and use automation to expand, contract, and balance your infrastructure. That is one major business benefit: You have near-complete control over how people engage with your applications.
The importance of DevOps for the people running the business
Someone will engage with your company via an application unless every connection is in person. The more useful that application gets to your organization, whether it’s internal or external, the more important DevOps becomes. If every employee focuses on a single tracking program, and that application goes down throughout the workday, every employee will remain perfectly still until it is restored, costing you money. If a consumer relies on an app and it goes down, you may never see those customers again.
Although the term “cloud” makes infrastructure appear impenetrable, your application is still out in the world, running on computers. And, because nothing is flawless, those computers occasionally fail. If you’ve incorporated DevOps from the start, your company won’t suffer the same fate. You’ll be in control. This is true both in the event of a power outage and, more importantly, when you’re ready to grow. DevOps approach and automation give you the ability to scale up in a controlled, predictable manner while maintaining seamless operations.
The Benefits of DevOps
Almost all of the code we develop runs on a server, which communicates with another server where the data is stored. This is required prior to the launch of an app. Only a few people have access to it.
The plot changes once the app is launched. It now has actual people who rely on it. You must consider many servers so that if one fails, the application can continue to operate on another. You should also consider how and where people will use the app, as well as how quickly they will use it. In general, the closer a user is to the server, the faster they will be able to access the app. You may require many servers to keep the program up as well as multiple servers to ensure a seamless and fast user experience.
The DevOps framework outlines which data flows to which server and how the servers communicate with one another. “Load balancing” is exactly what it sounds like: a step between the user and the server that directs them to the most appropriate location to access the application. The goal of DevOps automation is to make all of this happen at scale.
The focus is on customers
The change to DevOps is important because it puts the team back in the customer’s shoes. It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that the final aim in software development is actually great software.
Concentrating just on the software causes you to ignore the most critical factor: the consumer. The buyer wants a solution, a usable product that will address their problem. They don’t care about the process as much as they worry about getting a nice product. Because you’re focusing on smaller releases and there’s greater room for immediate feedback, DevOps naturally puts you in the shoes of the consumer.
Teams are brought together to accelerate product delivery.
Another advantage of DevOps is that it allows various teams, to benefit from working in an agile or iterative environment. Over the last decade, development teams have become more agile and have started producing at a faster pace. However, because this happened in isolation, operations teams have found it difficult to keep up and are unable to release software at the same rate. DevOps brings these teams together and speeds up the delivery of software. Is it vital for clients to have a shorter development timeline? Yes, of course. It’s a competitive advantage if you can complete a task twice as quickly while maintaining the same level of quality.
More automated development process
Why worry about automation when new deployments happen only a few times a year? With faster, smaller releases that happen more frequently, a smoother deployment process, powered by automation, will save a lot of time. (Time that could be better spent solving other company issues or promoting innovation.)
However, don’t automate or create new technology tools just for the sake of it. Know why you’re automating and what advantage or time savings you’re hoping to achieve. Not every automation is worth the time and effort it takes to create.
The appeal of DevOps is that you no longer have to choose between product stability and speed (time-to-market; deployment frequency). The DevOps model implies that by following DevOps best practices, you will gradually build the ability to keep both parameters at a high level.
3 main types of advantages
1. Technical Benefits:
A simpler project management method
Quicker problem solution
Smoother and faster product life cycles with continuous delivery.
2. Cultural Benefits:
Motivated, happier, and more productive teams
Improved professional development opportunities and cross-department knowledge exchange.
3. Business Benefits:
Shorter time-to-market for new products and features
More reliable operating environment, resilient to failure;
Improved cross-department collaboration and communication;
More time to innovate and create new features for customers, rather than focusing on maintenance and fixing known bugs.
Identifying the relevant DevOps metrics to make informed decisions
When a server goes down, the code reroutes the user to the next best option. However, DevOps best practices go beyond that. The code makes it simple to increase capacity that matches the rest of your infrastructure when you create a new project.
It continuously monitors the flow of traffic across the infrastructure, allowing you to make informed, cost-effective decisions about where to cut down and increase in real-time. DevOps’ financial benefits are a different story, but with so many people paying for infrastructure they don’t utilize, the savings can be significant.
Incorporating a DevOps mindset into your company
DevOps mindset is more similar to Agile thinking. Every business can benefit from it, but they must first adapt.
In an ideal world, everyone would think about DevOps benefits from the start through including someone who is constantly thinking about infrastructure in the early planning meetings. The earlier you begin these discussions, the easier they will be.