Inhouse Vs. Managed DevOps Service: Which Is Better For You?

DevOps is a relatively newer concept. While it has a lot of advantages for a business, it is difficult to choose between its two models namely In-house DevOps and Managed DevOps services. And thus, Inhouse vs Managed DevOps is a common search.

This blog aims to differentiate between the two DevOps models and further help businesses make a suitable choice.    

DevOps Models:   

If a business wants to have a competitive edge in the marketplace, then employing the best software development practices that ensure quality products and facilitate speedy deliveries, is a must.   

DevOps is the answer to this. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. There are two DevOps models to choose from, namely,   

• In-house DevOps team and,  
• DevOps as a service or Managed DevOps   

Now, businesses often are in a dilemma situation as to which model to go for. Do both the models give equally good results or is one better than the other? Which of the two DevOps models is more cost-effective and beneficial for you?  

That’s what we are going to tell you in this blog.  We will address the Inhouse vs Managed DevOps question for businesses to make a better choice.

In-House DevOps:  

Hiring any professional is never a simple task. It involves multiple procedures; before, during, and after onboarding. While the process is long and demands effort, there are also some benefits that a company receives through hired employees.   

Let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of an in-house DevOps team.  

Advantages   

1. More control: With in-house hiring, a business gets direct control of the professional, team, and project.   

2. Better internal integration: The key benefit of hiring an in-house expert is that he/she would be better integrated into the company and align with its internal workflows and culture.   

3. Direct communication: A business directly communicates with its in-house hires, every day and at any time required. The window for miscommunication and misinterpretation is less with in-house hiring.   

4. More security: With In-house hires, sensitive company information, and project details stay confined to the four walls of the company office, offering more project security.   

Disadvantages:   

1. Hiring and retaining costs: Along with hiring, and retaining costs, additional resources are allocated towards training the new hires, familiarising them with company culture, operations, and tech stack.   

2. Lack of broad expertise: With in-house hiring, a business might miss out on the broad industry experience and expertise that the third-party vendor team has due to exposure to multiple clients, and unique project ideas. This further enables them to have a better understanding of the industry dynamics and anticipate trends.   

3. Less flexibility to scale: In-house hiring does not offer businesses the flexibility to scale up or scale down their resources. In case a project grows or contracts, a business needs to hire or fire, bearing heavy costs of both.   

4. Complete responsibility and risk: With in-house hiring, the entire development process, quality control, testing, meeting the deadlines, deployment, and support, are to be looked after by the business.   

Also Read: Grafana vs Kibana

DevOps As A Service Or Managed DevOps:  

DevOps as a service (DaaS) or Managed DevOps is a model where a third-party vendor or external service provider offers a set of DevOps services to the business, typically through the cloud.   

The service provider arranges the infrastructure and tools required for CI and CD, as well as monitoring and logging, and the in-house development and operations teams are responsible for developing and deploying software.  

A study published by Atlassian reported that almost 85% of organizations faced issues when at the time applying DevOps; whether related to a lack of employee skills, outdated infrastructure, or difficulties in adjusting to a new corporate culture.  

While this model has extensive benefits, it also has its pitfalls.   

Advantages:   

1. Fewer costs: With Managed DevOps, an organization saves time, costs, and efforts in hiring, retaining, and training experts. Under this model, you get vetted resources, and recruitment and retaining costs are. Borne by the service provider.   

2. Access to broad expertise: Outsourcing DevOps services gives you access to a bigger talent pool and broad expertise. Outsourced resources have more industry experience and exposure and are agile with dynamic trends.   

3. Flexibility to scale: DevOps as a service offers businesses the flexibility to scale as required. They can scale up or scale down the resources as per the project requirements and scope.   

Moreover, they hire for specific days and hours whenever the DevOps services are required, saving costs and effort.   

4. Focus on core business functions: Opting for DevOps as a service (DaaS) gives internal teams the room to focus on core business operations. Top-priority tasks could be completed in a timely manner while a remote team handles your DevOps tasks.   

5. Shared risk: With Managed DevOps, project risk is shared by both parties involved. While the business is responsible for software development and deployment, the service provider looks after the deployment and support of the software.   

Disadvantages:   

1. Shared control: By opting for Managed DevOps services, a business loses control over its DevOps tasks and might not be able to customize them as per specific needs.   

Additionally, quality issues might arise as services provided might not match the business expectations or standards.   

2. Security risks: With DevOps as a service, sensitive business personal information might be at risk, especially in countries that do not have stringent pricy policies and laws in place.  

3. Time-zone gaps in the case of offshore outsourcing: If a business chooses an offshore outsourcing partner, then the former might face time zone constraints. This can hamper communication between the two parties and lead to project errors or delays.   

Now that we have looked at the two models individually, let’s compare them and conclude which one is better for your business. Thus, Inhouse vs Managed DevOps is what’s coming ahead.

InHouse vs Managed DevOps  

Conclusion

While both the DevOps models, In-house DevOps and Managed DevOps have their pros and cons, the latter comes with relatively more effective and powerful benefits for a business.   

In terms of costs, Managed DevOps allows a business to save upfront expenses and efforts, while effectively carrying out the DevOps tasks by hiring at the right time and for the required duration.   

This further helps an organization to save additional costs and avoid the wastage of a hired resource as DevOps is a practice that is required only at the time of an ongoing software development lifecycle.   

In terms of expertise and experience, it is again a better option as it gives businesses access to already vetted and proficient resources who have worked on multiple projects with different requirements and intricacies.   

They are better equipped to handle out-of-ordinary situations and anticipate the bottlenecks, saving time and avoiding project details.  

This model also allows the business to scale as per requirements. Therefore, DevOps as a service (DaaS) is a more cost-effective and productive model for businesses.  

In short, the idea behind a Managed DevOps model is that the customer need not invest in the resources required for rendering DevOps services. The outsourcing service provider bears these costs – for a fee.  

The service provider also manages the service single-handedly, offering free time to the client’s internal resources and providing them with the expertise that they lack in-house.  

So, in the Inhouse vs Managed DevOps debate, we see the latter as a clear winner for businesses.

However, there are some things to keep in mind while choosing Managed DevOps provider:   

• For the lack of control, a business should regularly communicate with the service provider to ensure the project is going as per the agreed terms.   
• As far as security is concerned, a business should check the third-party data protection policies and measures and legally safeguard its sensitive information and project details through an NDA.   
• While choosing the third-party vendor, a business should ensure that the former has know-how or qualifications in the latter’s domain to give the desired results.  

How Can BigOhTech Help?  

Big Oh Tech’s DevOps as a service assists clients with their DevOps staffing needs and provides highly skilled, professional, and agile DevOps experts.   

From DevOps Consulting, to service to support and maintenance, our experts ensure transparency, productivity, and efficiency in all that they do.   

From time zone flexibility to competitive rates to fast resolution of errors and defects, we offer everything on one platform!  

Reach out for DevOps services today! 

Also Read: Need Of Custom Software Development

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