DevOps Demystified

DevOps as a concept started gaining traction somewhere around 2014-15. So essentially in technology parlance it has been around for some time now and one would imagine that would be well understood. Right? Strangely having got into the business ourselves a couple of years ago one has discovered that there exists a significant confusion over what exactly DevOps is. While the technology literate few clearly understand its scope, merits, challenges, etc. there is a sizeable community who know it as an amalgamation of Software Development and Software Operations functions as the name suggests but not much more.

We all know today that it is a must have if we are initiating the digitisation of our businesses with a view on scalability and / or transformation, especially with the rapidly growing / mainstreaming of virtual / cloud infrastructure. However, to understand it better and benefit from it optimally, we need to understand it a bit more in-depth. But first, why do we really need DevOps? What was so wrong with the tried and tested traditional developments methodologies?

Given the rapid advancement in technology and rapidly changing consumer psychosis and needs, in today’s hyper-competitive world a few themes have come to dominate businesses and software professionals alike, namely, Time-To-Market, Agility, Security, Price Sensitivity, etc. What this essentially translates to is not just the need to develop a platform with lightning speed, before someone else beats you to the market, but it also means that the platform needs to be designed in such a way that it is extremely agile and can be altered to newer realities and consumer stories in real time without resulting in any significant downtime. Essentially, the core software architecture should follow the basic plug and play philosophy as opposed to a monolith architecture.

This fundamentally means that software developers no longer have the liberty to first develop, then test and then deploy in a linear environment. Today the reality is that all three need to progress near simultaneously while preserving world class reliability, stability, and security. It is here that true DevOps comes to play, lines completely blur within the traditional functions of Development and Operations. Despite the difference in visions, missions, values, SLA metrics and hierarchies, they need to seamlessly come together unified by common goals. 

Simpler said than done. Ops teams struggle with infrastructure automation and release management, and programmers have no idea about the design requirements pertaining to scalability, firewalls, backup and redundancy. Ensuring that everyone works towards rapid delivery of high-quality software in a way that they meet all the requirements while keeping the integrity and stability of the whole system intact, is a significant challenge. Not only does the DevOps team need to be really crack at Project Management tools and skills but also need to perfectly understand the desired Client stories, as well as, have the ability to design a framework where development, testing and operationalisation is all happening near simultaneously. This to me is the single most critical element and decision that would have the single most defining impact on the outcome of the product and its success.

In conclusion, understanding DevOps is not the big challenge to me, choosing the right DevOps team is the biggest task. Get that right and the probability of success is the highest.