What does DevOps mean?
The concept of DevOps is a contraction of the Development and Operation team. You come across this contraction more and more often. This blog tells you in detail what DevOps is, what its benefits are, and how these teams work (together). Fictional names are used in the blog to give concrete examples about the content of DevOps works.
Devops roles: role of developer
Milan is a developer and writes code for new products, functions, updates, bug fixes etc. The company for which he works is highly dependent on the success of new online products that are brought onto the (competitive) market. Unfortunately, Milan sometimes has to wait weeks before his work is taken into production. These delays are very expensive for the company and it increases the pressure of competition.
DevOps team developer Milan
Milan has an enormous challenge to manage the code of existing products as well as to develop the code of new products and functions. When the Milan code is finally implemented in the production environment, unforeseen errors or problems sometimes occur.
Devops roles: role of functional manager
Emma is the system administrator of the operation team. It is her responsibility to maintain and guarantee the uptime of the product environment. The number of servers that Emma manages is constantly growing as the company continues to launch new products and customers continue to purchase more services.
Emma the system administrator
An increase in the number of servers used has various consequences. The tools she uses to manage single servers are no longer as effective as they are used to manage a much larger volume of servers. This therefore has consequences for the way in which new code is implemented in the production environment.
When a new product and therefore a new code is released, it is often fitting and measuring to put the new software in the environment. That is why Emma only allows new implementations to be made once a month, and those implementations must be planned well in advance. Emma sometimes experiences it as if developers throw their work over the wall without any consultation.
Meeting of DevOps teams
Milan and Emma both experience an obstacle in the work process that is at the expense of their effectiveness. What can be done to make the work of Milan and Emma better and easier? Ultimately, they have the same goal, more satisfied customers. What if they could work together as a team, share the same ideas, and experience some responsibilities? Here Dev and Ops teams come together.
The working process of DevOps
What is DevOps?
DevOps combines development and operations in one team. It is a method where the emphasis is on cooperation and communication between both parties. The main purpose of this merger is to improve productivity by automating the infrastructure, automating workflows and continuously measuring performance.
In the DevOps team, software is written in small pieces that are integrated, tested, checked and implemented piece by piece. By writing small pieces of software, the frequency of the implementations can be increased and there is more time to improve the implementation of the new code. Thanks to the improved collaboration, the team can also respond more quickly to market needs or other issues that may affect the software.
The collaboration with Emma gives Milan a better insight into the influence of his changes on the performance of the software. The ultimate goal is to create a production environment that offers their customers the best possible experience.
Benefits of working with DevOps?
Working in a DevOps team enables the team to increase the pace of software delivery. In addition, a competitive advantage is achieved through the shorter time-to-market. By automating different processes, the team can focus on issues such as business operations and generally deliver more value. When a company can develop and offer better or innovative products, this means (possibly) more satisfied customers.
The successful integration of DevOps works
Integrate DevOps successfully
To successfully integrate DevOps work, a culture change or at least a change in the mindset is needed. Working DevOps requires a completely different way of thinking, looking and acting. The right tools are another part of the formula for success in a DevOps team. The team needs a tool with which they can build and test their code and software. An example of this is Jenkins. In addition, a tool is required for resource management such as Nexus.
You can also use tools such as Chef and Puppet for configuration management. With the help of these tools, applications can be implemented automatically, on hundreds or thousands of servers in different locations. The environment must be monitored to measure performance and identify bottlenecks. Splunk can offer a solution for monitoring the environment.
Conclusion definition DevOps works
Applying this DevOps philosophy requires a different way of thinking, new tools and new skills. The new working method can, for example, help software companies to innovate faster and respond better to market needs. It promotes collaboration between developers and administrators, ensuring quality and a higher frequency of implementations.
Devops versus Agile
Like Agile, DevOps is a working method. DevOps has taken over and adapted Agile characteristics to better suit the operational team. Would you like to know more about starting successfully with Agile? Are you ready to get started in the role of DevOps engineer, view our vacancies.