Rather than defining what is DevOps, let us being with what it is not. DevOps is not a job title. DevOps is neither a new technology nor a programming language. DevOps is not even a new software. The most apt answer would be that it is a phrase emphasizing on state of the art integration and collaboration between the software developers and other related IT professionals to ensure a smooth and highly efficient software delivery along with all the required infrastructure alterations.
A fast evolving culture in the IT world, it is a set of practices aimed at making the entire IT developing and testing environment much more reliable, fast and efficient. It involves application of a number of lean approaches to increase the efficiency of the entire service lifecycle, beginning from designing stage to the production support.
Why to incorporate DevOps?
Underperformance, delayed delivery and inefficient use of resources are some of the problems plaguing the IT industry for a long time now. Most IT enterprises suffer due to the presence of silos within the organization. Different sections work as individual entities, keeping a safe distance from each other and unnecessarily guarding processes and information from each other.
DevOps helps break this culture of isolation and ensures that the operations staff and developers communicate with each other effectively, ensuring best outcome of the product cycle and no hiccups. ‘Sharing’ and ‘together’ are the two keywords which are stressed heavily in the DevOps culture. One of the most significant features of DevOps is the detection and correction of product related issues, without passing on its impact to any of the related services.
It is easy to see a number of parallels between DevOps and Lean principles. In fact, it can be seen as outstretching of the Lean principles where lean methodologies are stretched to the entire product cycle. What sets DevOps apart from other emerging techniques is that it is not rigid on following textbook processes and set methodologies. Much of the thrust in DevOps is given to sharing, automation and measurement.
DevOps is far from being a completely developed culture. But there is a sense of excitement surrounding it, raising expectations of people from IT around the world. Developers and operation professionals working together, as DevOps envisages can be just the paradigm shift the world of IT is looking for.
