Benefits, features and uses of DevOps

You might be probably using software that sounds frustrating to you. That’s why DevOps was introduced. There are an immeasurable amount of benefits that DevOps provides to an organization. Hence, DevOps comes into existence as it reviews the quality of software at every stage of software development. In this guide, we will explore in detail about top 10 benefits of DevOps.

What Is DevOps?  

The full form of DevOps is “development and operations collaboration”. DevOps is the combination of development and operations that facilitates faster development of applications by integrating people, processes, and technology.   

DevOps refers to the practices that help an organization to develop faster products using best practices and tools. This type of practice helps an organization serve its customers in a better fashion.   

Moreover, DevOps primarily refers to the set of methodologies and techniques that enhance faster software delivery, which was lacking in traditional software development models. Thus, DevOps practices make the software development processes fast and reliable.   

The development team adopts DevOps practices so that they address their customer needs and, at the same time, achieve their business goals altogether.  

As the relationship between the development and IT operations teams becomes smoother, software creation becomes faster.   

In a nutshell, DevOps adopts an incremental approach to developing a product. DevOps focuses on completing the project in frequent cycles.   

Additionally, The DevOps approach is all about where the development and operations teams work together. The prime motto of the DevOps approach is to deliver a superior product and provide a better customer experience at the optimal cost within the specified timeframe.   

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Research studies suggest, “DevOps people are proficient in developing software backed with doing IT related administration tasks. Hence, it creates a unified approach by binding everyone to work collaboratively.   

If companies want to provide a better customer experience, they must also manage IT systems. For that, the company ends up hiring administrators who are responsible for managing IT systems.   

DevOps focuses on providing these benefits to the Organization:  

  • Accelerates the development process   
  • Ensures faster delivery of products  
  • Lastly, it Facilitates transparent communication   

Why Is DevOps Needed?  

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Why DevOps

1. In the traditional SDLC approach, everything was performed sequentially, from gathering requirements to designing, developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining.   

However, in today’s scenario, most organizations follow agile methodology, dividing projects into sprints. The project must come live after 2-3 weeks of sprints.  

The agile approach aims to deliver fast projects without compromising the quality aspect. So, it becomes equally important for the development team to adopt DevOps practices.   

2. Under the DevOps approach, every deliverable in every sprint is automatically tested using code coverage and linting tools. Likewise, Code coverage tools help the development team understand how many bugs are present in their software.   

3. The DevOps approach was needed as the traditional software development model enables the development and operations team to work independently. Therefore, the DevOps approach is required to ensure that the development and operations teams are on the same page.   

4. Unlike the traditional SDLC approach, the DevOps approach focuses on deploying the code in an automated fashion. Moreover, there is no involvement of human intervention.   

Consider an example of traditional SDLC – The development team writes code that crashes the software. However, a system crash happened when the operations team deployed the software. The operations team thought of restarting the system to solve the system crash. Now, the development team tested the software on their system, and the system crashed.   

In this case, the development team would blame the operations team, which could lead to miscommunication regarding who is responsible for the system crash.   

Now, here comes the need to adopt DevOps practices where the development and operations team are in close integration with each other, the operations team gives direct access to developers to fix the bugs if any, and the operations team continue to work on the operations side of things.   

Also Read: Managed or In-House DevOps services

Benefits of DevOps   

Benefits of DevOps
Benefits Of DevOps

1. Improved Customer Focus   

As you already know, customers can either make or break your business. It’s always the top priority of businesses to provide an extreme level of satisfaction to their customers. One of the benefits of adopting DevOps practices is to provide quality and testable products to the customer after 2 weeks.   

Additionally, DevOps methodology ensures collaborative working between the development and operations teams, providing a feedback loop system to identify bugs in the early stages of development. Feedback loops are necessary to ensure that the developers and end users are on the same page.   

Adopting DevOps practices in software processes accelerate the delivery of products, thereby providing an increased level of satisfaction for the customers. Furthermore, DevOps use continuous integration and delivery wherein software or an application is tested and released automatically.   

So, The faster you respond to customer needs, the sooner you will get a competitive advantage.   

2. Cross-Cultural Team (Unite Team)  

In the traditional SDLC process, sequential steps must be followed, ranging from designing, developing, and performing the test phase.   

At the same time, DevOps focuses on breaking down the silos by bringing the operations and development team together and directing everyone to work towards achieving a business objective. Here, the development team keeps developing user stories while the operations team gives constant feedback about the code.  

With close collaboration between both teams, there is incremental progress in the project’s development, hence leading to better customer satisfaction.   

3. Simplify The Development Process 

An organization tends to adopt DevOps practices to simplify the development process because, at many times, configurations are different due to different operating systems and dependencies. Here, configuration management will be used as infrastructure as a code.  

Additionally, Infrastructure as a code enables the developers to smoothen their development process regarding how their systems are configured and deployed without manual intervention.   

4. Reduce Cost   

You might have heard this phrase a couple of times – Software that is more affordable to pockets and works great is a good option to consider. By adopting DevOps practices, an organization not only releases faster updates but also reduces costs by cutting down human resources and automating release pipelines, making the deployments much faster.   

For Instance – The continuous integration and continuous delivery in DevOps methodology enable the developers to produce efficient code, identify the bugs in the early stages of development and deliver faster products at a much more affordable cost.   

Let’s consider an example of the Zoho Costing model –   

Zoho is a 1-billion-dollar company that offers its products to customers at $5. Furthermore, Zoho ideology is to serve the mass segment of the population by reducing its costs and making its products affordable to everyone. Therefore, bringing automation and providing products at affordable prices can give businesses a first-mover advantage.   

5. Increase Automation   

Undoubtedly, DevOps automation reduces the chances of manual errors. Code integration and deployment of applications happen faster because the automated tools would ensure no delay, as an automated tool would test all the operations instantaneously. So, an element of human dependency has been reduced a lot.   

Suppose you compare the Devops with the traditional SDLC model. In that case, it can get you an increased ROI for your business because developers need not worry about spending a major chunk of time on repetitive tasks. Thus, the DevOps approach believes in taking the robot out of humans.   

6. Foster Superior Communication   

By adopting DevOps practices, an organization’s communication flow is streamlined. Every team focuses on achieving common business goals collaboratively because happy teams make the business successful.   

Moreover, The mantra of the DevOps approach lies in removing communication barriers between the development and operations teams, providing more value to customers, and developing a product of extreme quality.  

7. Improves Build Quality   

Software and applications are exposed to bugs and vulnerabilities. Adopting DevOps in business processes can help the development team identify bugs in the early phases of development, thereby improving the overall quality of software.   

Additionally, DevOps enhances software quality by using continuous monitoring, testing, and automation.   

8. Security   

As security is the primary concern for most businesses, the prime motto of DevOps is to integrate security practices into the entire development process.  

Additionally, developers can work on the code quickly as the entire development and deployment process is automated. Therefore, automatic testing of bugs is performed on the go because DevOps uses continuous testing and a continuous feedback system to ensure high-quality software.   

Also, the DevOps approach uses automated testing processes to identify vulnerabilities in the early stages of development. Not only this, DevOps uses automated deployment tools to deploy changes in code and monitor the system for security issues.   

9. Rapid Development   

When the development and operation teams work collaboratively, there would be the rapid release of products as everyone is there in the loop, be it Q/A testers, product managers, and developers. If a developer has to add a new feature to the website/app, the entire development team does not have to wait for weeks or months to make the feature live.”

10. Offers Greater Flexibility   

DevOps offers greater Flexibility to developers because continuous delivery and testing ensure the development team rolls out new features or updates quickly in the market.  

Hence, businesses are enjoying the first-mover advantage in launching the products on the go while adapting to the customer’s needs. Thereby, faster releases lead to happier customers.  

Wrapping Up

Now, you get a quick understanding of DevOps culture. DevOps culture is more about shifting your focus from “I have done my job” to the “product/feature is ready to be deployed. “The term might sound like a buzzword for you; however, if you implement DevOps practices in your organization, you could create a long-lasting impact in the mind of customers.   

If you are searching for various ways to adopt DevOps practices, then you can go for our DevOps consulting services now.   

Start your DevOps journey with us   

FAQs  

Q1. What are the key advantages of adopting DevOps practices in software development and operations?  

1. Improved customer focus   
2. Cross-cultural team (unite team)  
3. Simplify the development process  
4. Reduce cost   
5. Increase automation  
6. Foster superior communication  
7. Improves build quality   
8. Security   
9. Rapid development   
10. Offers Greater Flexibility   

Q2. How can DevOps help organizations to improve collaboration and communication between different teams and departments?  

While adopting the DevOps approach in the organization, the gap between the development and operation teams is reduced to a certain extent. DevOps approach emphasizes breaking down the silos and helping them achieve common business goals in the following ways:  

1. DevOps uses continuous integration and delivery, which focuses on breaking down silos between developers, Q/A testers, and operations teams and ensuring everyone is on the same page.   
2. DevOps uses infrastructure as a code, reducing miscommunication between the departments as everyone works with the same infrastructure.   
3. Lastly, DevOps uses automation processes for repetitive or time-consuming tasks wherein various departments can work efficiently. They need not worry about waiting for the other team to perform their tasks.   

Q3. What are some key features and capabilities of DevOps tools and methodologies?  

DevOps tools and methodologies can help to improve communication, collaboration, delivery speed, and software quality. The most common key features and capabilities are as under:
1. First, the Ability to manage and deploy infrastructure as a code such as Ansible 
2. Ability to add hooks for chatting and outbound channels for team and group channels 
3. Integrate with Automation tools such as Static code analyzer, and API Testing to reduce errors 
4. Atomically pick up code changes for continuous integration and Continuous deployment for the production environment. 
5. Able to follow Agile methodologies 
6. Able to support cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and GCP 
7. Lastly, DevOps tools and methodologies offer the ability to provide real-time monitoring and analytics to detect an issue before it happens 

Q4. What are some key benefits of implementing a DevOps culture and mindset within an organization?  

1. There would be transparent communication between the development and operations teams.   
2. There is a continuous feedback loop where the development and operations team can analyze the performance of an application.  
3. Automation of Software processes leads to faster delivery of software

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