DevOps is a term regularly used in the world of software development. Because ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) can make a significant contribution to the productivity of your organization. Today, almost everything about technology is developing faster. Therefore, current applications must continue to respond to needs by updating and constant adaptations must be made. When these adaptations are not made, a bottleneck often arises between the developers and the operations team. The DevOps approach can fix this. So what does DevOps actually mean? Why is it such an important concept in today's ICT world? Here are all the details to know about DevOps.

What is DevOps?

DevOps brings people, processes and technologies together to deliver continuous value to customers. DevOps, a combination of the words dev (development) and ops (operations), is a software development method in which development and management activities are linked. This method requires coordination and collaboration between different disciplines that have already been isolated. Quality control and security teams, for example, are also part of the larger team in the DevOps model.

The method consists of a series of procedures that automate processes between a Devops developer, software tester, and other team members. The goal is to make software creation, testing and release faster and more reliable. The concept is based on developing a collaborative culture between teams that historically operate in separate silos.

DevOps engineers use techniques such as FreeBSD, Puppet, Linux, AWS, Kubernetes, and Docker. So what is the widely used Amazon Web Services, AWS DevOps? AWS DevOps is the most comprehensive cloud service ever built, covering IaaS, PaaS services. It offers different and adaptable services to all companies to deliver products created using DevOps (including product creation).

How did the DevOps approach come about?

DevOps, more than just a software development methodology, is a culture that is essential to meet today's business needs in developing websites, applications. From a historical point of view, the traditional waterfall model developed for products and their promotion on the web, the Agile Development model, which was then developed to integrate emerging technologies, was quite effective in solving adaptations and problems, but it was still insufficient, resulting in the development of DevOps. The DevOps approach is associated by developers with closer collaboration between the creators of a product and ops, the operations team that publishes, deploys, runs, and monitors the software. But DevOps is so much more. It is an approach that goes beyond the purely technical, concerns all parts of the company, including finance and marketing, and in which communication is vital, and this new approach solves the problems that have arisen after the transition to the third generation of the computer age, also called the “cloud age”. For this reason, there are also Cloud DevOps solutions. Most DevOps services are cloud-based, which brings the benefits of the cloud.

What are the eight parts of the DevOps process?

DevOps consists of a continuous process in which eight parts can be distinguished: Plan, Code, Create, Test, Publish, Deploy, Run and Monitor. DevOps tools and technologies, as well as these components, help automate the lifecycle of your application. Time-consuming operations that previously had to be done manually by your teams can be performed quickly and seamlessly when you use DevOps tools and procedures. For example, it can update code, install a new environment, or constantly auto-test the application. In addition, it is easier to meet safety and reliability standards because they are integrated into the process.

How DevOps Works

The DevOps way of working is based on infinity, or rather continuous activity. Because development, testing, integration, implementation and monitoring are carried out continuously. In the DevOps lifecycle, it goes from the planning phase to the monitoring phase and the process is always completed with feedback. The 6 principles identified in the DevOps strategy are as follows:

• Customer-oriented work with short feedback times given by real customers and end users.
• It is not a waterfall model where each department works separately without an overview, but a company where everyone shares an engineering perspective to make a working product.
• Vertically organized teams that are in charge from start to finish.
• Versatile profiles that work in autonomous teams where they can improve personally.
• Continuous optimization in terms of speed, cost and the product/service itself.
• For example, the automation of everything that can be automated, including infrastructure, through next-generation container-based cloud platforms (infrastructure as code).

Who Can Benefit from DevOps Approach?

By implementing the DevOps concept, every organization can become better. Small enterprises, large multinationals, non-profit organizations, everyone can benefit, regardless of the government. Because all these organizations benefit from the rapid acquisition of high-quality products and services, and therefore satisfied customers are needed. In all these organizations, it is important that everyone involved in the total lifecycle of the product and service offering is aware of DevOps. Ultimately, DevOps, together with management innovation according to the concept of Transformative Leadership and product innovation according to Lean Startup, allows organizations to remain in our dynamic world, where competition increasingly comes from unexpected angles, or become 'non-fragile' and thus continue to exist. Therefore, everyone who is operationally involved, up to management and to the board of directors, can benefit from the DevOps approach.

DevOps Advantages

DevOps refers to an enterprise culture where teams are held accountable from A to Z about defining, building, testing, and managing a solution. This is how processes within both development and software are combined. If it is used within an agile organization, then as many steps as possible are already assigned to an operational team. There is a team that defines, compiles and tests the application. This, in turn, allows any work to be completed both at high speed and much more efficiently. Other advantages of DevOps can be listed as follows:

• Agility: DevOps enables companies to innovate faster for customers, better adapt to changing markets, and grow more efficiently.
• Speed: DevOps increases the frequency and speed of releases, so companies innovate faster and continue to improve their products.
• Reliability: DevOps can also affect other areas in companies, such as “security” or “compliance,” because DevOps oversees the entire development and delivery process. It also improves the quality of app updates and infrastructure changes, so you can deliver reliably and quickly while maintaining a positive end-user experience.
• Scalability: Development processes can be easily managed with DevOps. Constantly changing systems, automation and consistency can be adapted more easily.
• Enhanced cooperation between departments: All teams collaborate and manage the process better by combining both workflows and capabilities. This, in turn, reduces inefficiencies and helps to make better use of time.
• Extensive development cycle: Product delivery, continuous monitoring, quality testing, development of new functions and maintenance of versions are collected under the same roof. In addition, DevOps emphasizes good collaboration and communication between software engineers and other IT professionals. This, in turn, removes barriers between Development and Operations and allows collaboration on more reliable software.

The DevOps approach or solution is ideally suited to meet the needs of the new age and is also just one of the ever-evolving technologies. In this way, automating all business processes and ensuring high efficiency with fewer human errors occurs thanks to technologies such as DevOps. Most importantly, it is very useful in business processes where it is time-consuming and has a high margin of error. If you also care about digitalization and want to make processes in your organization more practical, you can take advantage of DevOps technologies and get in touch immediately for data and AI-powered services offered by Komtaş.

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