Why DevOps Is Important? All You Need to Know

Software Development is a lucrative business with lots of benefits. The problem, though, is developing software takes a lot of time. This is mainly due to the segregation of various departments in the organisation. DevOps is an integral part of this development. So, Why DevOps is Important and how does it play a crucial role in an organisation?

According to Statista, around 19 per cent of recruiters in 2023 said hiring DevOps has become a challenge due to talent shortage. Many organisations have started to implement DevOps these days. Due to this, the demand for DevOps is growing staggeringly. So, the future of DevOps looks promising. Discover Why DevOps is Important and how it can become a crucial methodology for seamless software delivery and operational efficiency. 

Table of Contents     

1) What is DevOps?  

2) Why is DevOps popular?  

3) Why DevOps is Important?  

 4) Best tools for DevOps  

5)The future of DevOps

6) Conclusion

What is DevOps?  

If you are wondering what DevOps is in this section, you will learn everything about it. DevOps is a procedure that incorporates a set of best practices and techniques(DevOps services) to improve the software development process. DevOps enhances work efficiency by collaborating the development team with the operations team. This collaboration ensures regular delivery of applications, tools and other services to the customers. It focuses on teamwork and team goals rather than individual goals.

Why is DevOps popular?

DevOps is becoming popular because it addresses some challenges and limitations of traditional Software Development models, such as the Waterfall and Agile models.

The Waterfall model is a sequential process where each project phase is completed before moving to the next one. This model can be rigid and inflexible, as it does not allow for changes or feedback during the development process. It can also cause delays and errors as testing and deployment are done at the end of the project.

The Agile model is an iterative process where software is developed in small increments and delivered frequently. This model can be adaptive and responsive, allowing for changes and feedback during the development process. It can also improve quality and speed, as testing and deployment are done continuously. However, the Agile model can also create challenges for collaboration and coordination between development and operations teams, as they may have different goals, tools and processes.

DevOps is a solution that integrates development and operations teams into a single unit that works together throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). DevOps can overcome the drawbacks of both the Waterfall and Agile models, as it enables:

a) Greater security: DevOps can ensure that security is embedded in every stage of the Software Development process, from design to deployment. DevOps can also automate security checks and audits and enable faster detection and resolution of security issues.

b) Increased market speed: DevOps can reduce the time to market for software products, enabling faster delivery of features and updates by properly defining tasks through DevOps roadmap. DevOps can also enable faster feedback loops, customer validation and faster adaptation to changing market demands.

c) Increased conversions: DevOps can improve the user experience and satisfaction with software products, as it enables higher quality and reliability. DevOps can also enable better performance and scalability and better monitoring and analytics of user behaviour and feedback.

d) Customer satisfaction: DevOps can enhance the customer value and loyalty of software products, as it enables more innovation and differentiation. DevOps can also enable more personalisation and customisation and enable more engagement and communication with customers.

e) Environment stability: DevOps can ensure the Software Development environment is consistent and stable, enabling automation and standardisation of tools and processes. DevOps can also enable better visibility and traceability of the software development process and better collaboration and communication among team members.

f) Time availability: DevOps can free up more time and resources for Software Development teams, enabling automation and optimising repetitive tasks. DevOps can also enable more focus and creativity and more learning and improvement.

Why DevOps is Important? 

DevOps is all about bringing the development and operations teams together under one umbrella. By doing this, businesses can manufacture products and services faster than traditional methods. Apart from this, they can rectify errors and release updates at the earliest. This hybrid culture is gaining much traction primarily due to its efficiency. 

Quicker development time  

Before the arrival of DevOps, most organisations followed the conventional Software Development process. In the conventional process, the development and operations teams worked separately. This made it very hard to find whether the software was developed or not.    

Since there's no proper channel linking these two departments, they would have a hard time figuring out when the product will be launched. When the development team passes the created application to the operations team, the operation team could cause a delay. So, issues like these significantly increase the development Life Cycle.   

Less recalls and failures  

At times, a product deployment could fail due to faulty codes, and increased development cycles only make the problem worse. You can write more codes and release more applications by reducing the development cycle. Moreover, reducing the development time also gives you more time to review the codes, and you can spot errors quickly.     

Hence, these techniques promoting such collaboration can significantly reduce deployment failures. Since fewer failures exist, you don't have to worry about rollback, as there will be very few. The time it takes to recover can also massively impact product deployment. When you collaborate with the development team and the operations team, recovering will also become faster and easier. 

Better communication and cooperation  

Combining teams increase the work culture significantly. Plus, they will also become happier, leading to increased productivity. Increased communication and trust will allow more room for innovation and creativity. So, releasing the product will become their primary goal rather than their individual goals. Most importantly, no more waiting for one team to finish their work as everything will be combined. 

Efficiency  

Collaboration of both teams significantly increases work efficiency, resulting in faster development. Apart from increased productivity, there will be fewer errors, too. Other than that, some processes can be automated, and some can only be done manually. You can automate tasks like Software Testing by utilising the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation. This further increases productivity, and your team can focus on the processes that cannot be automated.   

Less cost  

With DevOps, the work is done efficiently, and then there is automation, too. So, you won't need a lot of manpower to do the job anymore. This work efficiency and fewer workforce requirements will monumentally reduce operating costs, resulting in more profits.  

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The best tools for DevOps  

The DevOps life cycle starts with creating, storing, analysing, and reviewing your source code. Source Code Management includes Version Control, issue tracking, code review, packaging, and more. Here are five popular DevOps tools explained in detail: 

Git

Git is a widely used DevOps tool in the software industry. It is a distributed Source Code Management (SCM) tool that remote teams and open-source contributors love. Git lets you track your development work progress. You can store different versions of your source code and go back to the previous version when needed.

Git is also ideal for experimenting, as you can make separate branches and merge new features only when they are ready. Git is primarily a command line tool, but there's also a Graphical User Interface (GUI) client available for those who prefer a more user-friendly way to manage their source code. Many source code editors like Visual Studio Code also have a built-in Git editor tool. Incorporating Git into your DevOps workflow necessitates hosting your source code in repositories, enabling team members to push their work to a shared location.

The most popular online Git repo hosting services are Github, Gitlab, and Bitbucket. You can host public and private repositories on these platforms, track and discuss issues, and manage releases. They also offer additional DevOps features, such as built-in continuous development and security functionalities, code review, auditing and collaboration tools, and more.

Mercurial

Mercurial is a free, distributed revision control tool in Python supported on Windows and Unix. Compared to Git, it is usually a good choice for less experienced developers, with a simpler structure and syntax and an easy and intuitive Command-Line Interface (CLI). 

Mercurial monitors change to ensure your entire team works with the right version of your code. Mercurial’s distributed model means each user has a full copy of the repository on their machine, which is often considered a faster, more flexible way of working. It uses named branching, with each branch as a separate line of development. Mercurial is also very scalable, performing well at handling large codebases, and it has a plugin architecture that lets developers customise as they wish.

It works with major hosting services, including GitHub, Bitbucket, and Google Code. Mercurial also has strong security, supporting authentication and authorisation to manage access to the codebase. Moreover, it encrypts data in transit and at rest to ensure that code and other data are secure.

Apache SVN

Apache SVN (Subversion) is a Source Code Management tool for Version Control to manage and track changes. Apache SVN is good at handling large codebases and managing multiple code versions simultaneously. It is designed to work with other DevOps tools, especially other Apache products like Maven.

SVN uses a centralised repository model, so everyone works on the same version, lowering the risk of conflicts or Version Control issues. The branching model makes it easy to make branches of the codebase for experimental or feature-specific work and then merge those changes back into the main codebase when ready. SVN versioning tracks changes to source code over time, letting teams easily go back to previous versions if needed. 

SVN is very useful in DevOps teams, where fast development and deployment can cause issues that must be fixed quickly. SVN also lets teams manage access to the codebase, ensuring that only authorised users can make changes or access sensitive information. Security is a very important concern for DevOps teams and is integrated throughout the DevOps cycle.

Jira

Jira is a versatile platform for issue tracking and Project Management. It was developed by Atlassian, a leading IT company that offers various software tools, such as Confluence, Bitbucket, Trello, and Statuspage. You can use Jira in the cloud or on your servers. Jira began as a tool for tracking bugs, but it has expanded to cover many other aspects of Software Development. With Jira, you can easily monitor the progress of your projects, create and manage branches and pull requests, view code changes, handle dependencies and releases, and more. 

Jira also supports Agile Project Management, which is based on iterative and incremental development. Jira provides Scrum and Kanban boards, two different ways of implementing Agile, and roadmaps and reporting tools. Jira features a robust automation engine that enables you to design automation rules effortlessly using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

You can automate not only Jira tasks but also connect and integrate them with other tools, such as Bitbucket, GitHub, or Microsoft Teams. Jira’s integrations are essential for its value, as it is part of the Atlassian Open DevOps suite of cloud tools.

SonarQube

SonarQube is an open-source tool for code review that works with 27 programming languages. It is great for analysing the source code of multi-language applications. It helps you maintain code quality and security throughout the development process by automatically applying thousands of static code analysis rules. 

SonarQube’s most distinctive feature is quality gates. SonarQube evaluates your source code for bugs, vulnerabilities, code smells, coverage, and duplications and determines whether it meets the quality gate criteria for release. You can also use quality gates to review pull requests and decide whether to merge them. SonarQube not only checks the overall health of your code but also identifies new issues that arise. It also gives you helpful visualisations that show you the state of your code base. 

SonarQube can run in the cloud or on-premises and connects with many DevOps tools, such as GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Azure Pipelines, Bitbucket, and more. You can set up SonarQube with little configuration. SonarQube enhances security by adding continuous code inspection to your DevOps workflow, making it one of the best DevSecOps tools.

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The Future of DevOps

The future of DevOps is dependent on increased automation and integration of AI and Machine Learning. This emphasises more efficient, seamless and secure software delivery, which will enhance collaboration and innovation across different IT teams. Let us discuss more in detail about the future of DevOps:

Automation

Automation in DevOps will streamline complex processes, reducing manual errors and increasing efficiency. Let us see some more ways automation will influence the future of DevOps:

a) Organisations can give quicker responses to market changes with the help of automation. It will also accelerate the DevOps cycle and help keep the business competitive.

b) Automation will ensure that the processes will have less human error and are consistent and reliable. Every deployment will have the same set of procedures, making the results more stable and predictable.

c) With the help of automation, the bridge between development, operations and IT teams will be connected, and the shared environment will have better communication and collaboration.

d) Automation allows DevOps practices to be scaled more effectively. With the increase in infrastructure and complexity of applications, these automated processes can manage the complexities more efficiently than manual efforts.

e) Automation greatly reduces labour costs as it requires minimum manual interventions, which leads to faster deployment and a reduction in costs in projects.

Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps)

Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations or AIOps will have a significant impact on the future of DevOps in several ways. Some of these are:

a) With the help of AIOps, organisations can predict potential issues and failures within the system. This analysis will allow the DevOps team to address the problems and reduce downtime, which will improve system reliability.

b) It will also help in intelligent decision-making and automated processes. This will optimise workflows and manage resource allocation, which will automate even complex tasks. This will help in enhancing the overall efficiency of DevOps practices.

c) With the help of AIOPS, incident management can be efficiently handled. It can quickly identify, categorise and address IT issues. 

d) It also facilitates continuous feedback learning cycles, which is essential for DevOps. With the help of operational data, actionable insights and strategies can be derived, which will help in refining the process.

e) AIOPs provide a unified view of the IT environment. It allows collaboration between development and operation teams which is crucial in breaking down silos and promoting a more unified DevOps culture.

Cloud optimisation

Cloud optimisation will play a crucial role in shaping the future of DevOps through several key contributions:

a) With effective strategies of cloud optimisation, the DevOps teams which are working on scalable, cloud-native applications can avoid the misuse of any resource, especially if they are still paying for its unused capacity.

b) With the help of cloud optimisation, DevOps teams will scale resources only on demand. There will be flexibility in handling different workloads, which will ensure that the applications are running smoothly in spite of any demand.

c) With the help of cloud optimisation tools, the DevOps teams can make informed decisions, which will help in allocating and scaling resources. This will ensure that the applications have the resources without going to waste.

d) The DevOps teams will have an easier time in Cloud Management as it will automate routine tasks such as resource allocation, backups and security checks.

e) The DevOps teams will have an easier time in Cloud Management as it will automate routine tasks such as resource allocation, backups and security checks.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed reading this article and understood Why DevOps is Important and what is the need for DevOps and key differences between devops vs agile.

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