If you’re wondering why everyone is talking about DevOps these days, you’re not alone.
Some view it as automation, but others see DevOps as a way to strengthen teamwork and structure. Regardless, startups and gigantic corporations gain significant benefits from implementing DevOps.
So, why is DevOps such an attractive solution?
In this blog, we’ve covered the dynamics of DevOps, its business benefits, and the best practices you should follow.
How Development and Operations Teams (DevOps) Work Together
To give you a brief history of DevOps, the idea was shared by Patrick Debois and Andrew Shaffer in 2007 in their conversation about agile infrastructure. The term was coined in 2009 by Debois, and from there, it spread like wildfire from small tech companies to enterprises.
How did they make this happen?
With experts in both the development team and the operations team, they’ve come up with a DevOps philosophy. It’s a collaboration practice that focuses on communication, automation, and integration of both teams.
Essentially, the goal of DevOps is to create a unified development and operations workflow, bridging the gap between teams. By having developers and IT operations collaborate in the same space, it allows for a more efficient software delivery process.
Implementing DevOps has presented several benefits for businesses. Let’s take a closer look at how DevOps can help you succeed in your organization.
The Top 11 DevOps Benefits for Your Business
If you’re thinking about incorporating a DevOps team into your software development process, you may be uncertain about how it will align with your organization’s goals and requirements.
We recognize that changing your current approach to software development can seem overwhelming, but the advantages of DevOps are substantial, making it a worthwhile consideration.
Here are 11 benefits of DevOps to keep in mind as you make your decision:
1. Faster Product Development
Speed is crucial for businesses in today’s tech landscape. Developers face pressure to produce quality code quickly to meet client demands, while operations teams ensure timely product deployment.
Following the DevOps methodology, both of your teams can accelerate the delivery of software features and updates. At the same time, developers can use automated testing, continuous integration, and continuous deployment to reduce the time it takes for changes to be released.
To stay competitive in the software world and come out ahead of your competitors, it’s essential to have quick iterations and standardized processes. Plus, this will greatly reduce the time required for responding to failures.
2. Eliminate IT Silos
The traditional way of developing software kept each department in its own bubble. Without input from operations, developers create code and design components independently, leading to information silos throughout the pipeline.
One of DevOps’ core benefits is dismantling those IT silos and bringing technical teams together. So it’s goodbye to linear operations and hello to a more agile approach in development and deployment.
When the DevOps teams work side-by-side, they can be quicker to react to changes in the market while being able to complete multiple tasks within their project timeline. This modern way of operating is proven effective over traditional methods due to its increased flexibility and responsiveness towards volatile markets.
3. Empower Digital Transformation
Companies are rapidly adopting digitalization, and a growing number of users are connecting to the Internet and using online services. It’s no surprise that people are more demanding of software with new features than ever before.
According to “Sociedad Digital en España 2020-2021” (Digital Society in Spain 2020-2021) by the Telefónica Foundation, experts estimate that digital transformation could boost Spain’s GDP by 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points annually until 2025 and enhance the productivity of SMEs by 15 to 25%. So, there’s no question that businesses should be taking advantage of this opportunity.
The DevOps model provides the culture shift and tooling necessary to make this happen for business owners like you. Providing stellar digital products and services in a timely manner will lead to more satisfied customers and a successful digital transformation!
4. Prioritizing Customers
Customer satisfaction is the defining factor in any business’s success and longevity. And we’re here to tell you that it’s not easy, especially when people expect a better digital experience.
The customer feedback loop is paramount in the DevOps philosophy. It allows product teams to give and receive feedback from catching problems early in development. That way, you spend less time fixing stuff, and customers get a better experience overall.
The main purpose of using DevOps automation in business is to deliver top-tier software services to customers quickly. While there are many ways to stay agile and effective, nothing is more important than ensuring customer satisfaction and engagement.
5. Fostering Collaboration Among Teams
Even with expert teams, success isn’t guaranteed if they don’t collaborate. It’s like a tug of war; instead of pulling apart, teams should work together towards the same goal.
DevOps implementation enables collaboration and teamwork. Everyone on the team understands how their work contributes to the bigger picture. With a unified objective, your teams can make quicker and better decisions. Slack and other collaborative tools are great ways to initiate conversations, share ideas, and keep everyone on the same page.
When your team faces unplanned work, like unexpected changes or bug fixes, it can hurt morale. Fortunately, one of the core benefits of DevOps is maintaining high morale. With frequent, productive meetings and regular communication, team members can feel connected and inspired to excel in their work.
6. Maximizing Automation Tools
Developers often overlook the power of automation because they haven’t needed it before. If your team is used to infrequent big releases, automation may not have been a priority. But with smaller, more frequent releases, automation can save a lot of time.
Automation with DevOps empowers businesses to create a continuous integration and software delivery system, enabling risk management, production testing, user feedback gathering, logging data points, and seamless deployment. With this process, you’ll have fewer surprises as you update your software.
If you don’t know the right tools to use to automate processes, consider these for your advantage:
- AppDynamics for monitoring
- Jenkins for continuous delivery and integration
- AccelQ for testing
- IriusRisk for security
- Osquery for deployment
7. Unlocking Software Development Innovation
There are several ways to spark business innovation, and one of them is by giving software developers the freedom to create. It’s easier said than done since deadlines and budgets drive most businesses.
DevOps brings in the power of expertise, research data, and process automation to drive innovation. All of these factors combine to give you a high-quality product in the end.
DevOps supports an open scope for any given project as long as the end results are met. For example, an idea that isn’t feasible for one application might work well for another project, and the development process can adapt to such innovation. In short, DevOps provides the space and tools for successful innovation in software delivery.
8. Cost Savings
Whether you are a startup or an established business, saving costs is always beneficial. When you’ve adopted DevOps, here are the ways it can help you save money:
Software release
By automating the release pipeline, DevOps can help you release software more quickly while also reducing the required manpower and cutting down on release costs.
Close monitoring during the early stages
Your team has no difficulty in maintaining performance all the way through, so DevOps teams can identify and fix bugs before they cause significant harm that cannot be reversed.
Maintenance and upgrades
With DevOps, you don’t need to invest much for frequent releases. It’s because the team has already prepared for frequent changes and upgrades.
9. Better Employee Morale
Any organization cannot thrive without passionate, committed employees. It’s the people who make up the core of your business and drive its success.
DevOps culture encourages collaboration and empowers employees to take ownership of their work, leading to better morale and job satisfaction. When employees are invested in their work, they are more likely to be motivated to achieve business goals and take pride in their accomplishments.
Fostering a DevOps environment is a key factor in attracting and retaining top talent, which is essential to the long-term success of any organization. So, if you want to build a successful business, introduce DevOps culture in your workplace and appreciate your team’s efforts!
10. Enhanced Security of Your Business Infrastructure
While developing software faster gives you a competitive edge, it can also present security risks. In the world of technology, hackers are always trying to find weaknesses in your system.
DevOps’s automated processes can help you identify and address security issues quickly so that you don’t have to worry about your infrastructure getting compromised. When you automate security processes such as software updates, code scanning, and configuration control, your system is better protected from malicious attacks.
Not only will DevOps adoption make your system more secure, but it will also provide you with a comprehensive view of the threat landscape so that you can take proactive measures to protect your organization from cyber threats.
11. Greater Adaptability and Scalability
As your business gains competitive advantage, customer base, and revenue growth, the demand for your services or products also increases. You must have a flexible infrastructure to support your business during high-growth phases.
DevOps provides you with a scalable and adaptable infrastructure that can easily accommodate the increasing demands of your customers and business processes.
DevOps facilitates agile methodologies and continuous integration, allowing teams to quickly make changes in response to customer feedback or market trends. So, when the need arises for your business to scale up or down, DevOps will provide you with a reliable and adaptable platform.
The DevOps Practices to Follow
Adapting to new ways to create great software can be intimidating, but following a set of practices can help you implement DevOps successfully.
Here are some of the most important steps to follow when setting up a DevOps environment:
- Improve collaboration between developers and IT teams.
- Invest in automation to reduce manual processes.
- Set up DevOps monitoring and alerting tools.
- Establish a continuous integration process.
- Invest in DevOps-based training for your team.
Get DevOps Services and Software Development from Us!
DevOps will not slow down any time soon. It’s even expanding to cover other areas of business operations, such as BizDevOps and DevSecOps.
If you don’t know where to start or don’t have enough resources, you can always get DevOps services and software development from us. We are a team of highly trained professionals who can help you implement the best DevOps practices quickly and cost-effectively.
With years of experience working with all sorts of industries and software architectures, we know exactly how to leverage the power of DevOps to gain business value.
So get in touch with us today and let us help your business succeed!