DevOps, a combination of the words 'development' and 'operations', is a set of practices that combines software development and IT operations. It aims to shorten the system development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. DevOps is complementary with Agile software development; several DevOps aspects came from Agile methodology.
The term 'DevOps' was popularized through a series of 'DevOps Days' starting in 2009 in Belgium. Since then, there have been DevOps Days conferences held in many countries worldwide. The term is used in several ways. In its most broad meaning, DevOps is a philosophy or cultural approach that promotes better communication between the two teams as more elements of operations become programmable. In its most narrow interpretation, DevOps describes the part of an organization's information technology (IT) team that creates and maintains infrastructure.
Definition of DevOps
DevOps is a culture, movement or practice that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information-technology (IT) professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes. It aims at establishing a culture and environment where building, testing, and releasing software can happen rapidly, frequently, and more reliably.
DevOps is a term for a group of concepts that, while not all new, have catalyzed into a movement and are rapidly spreading throughout the technical community. Like any new and popular term, people have somewhat confused and sometimes contradictory impressions of what it is. Here's my take on how DevOps can be usefully defined.
DevOps as a Culture
DevOps is more about a change in IT culture, focusing on rapid IT service delivery through the adoption of agile, lean practices in the context of a system-oriented approach. DevOps emphasizes people (and culture), and seeks to improve collaboration between operations and development teams. DevOps implementations utilize technology—especially automation tools that can leverage an increasingly programmable and dynamic infrastructure from a life cycle perspective.
DevOps is a culture that promotes collaboration between Development and Operations Team to deploy code to production faster in an automated & repeatable way. The word 'DevOps' is a combination of two words 'development' and 'operations.' DevOps helps to increases an organization's speed to deliver applications and services. It allows organizations to serve their customers better and compete more strongly in the market.
DevOps as a Practice
As a practice, DevOps is about the developers and operations staff working together throughout the entire service lifecycle, from design through the development process to production support. DevOps can also be described as the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at high velocity.
DevOps practices include continuous integration, continuous delivery, test automation, infrastructure as code, monitoring, logging, and incident response. The goal of these practices is to create a fast, safe, and reliable system through which code can be developed, tested, and deployed.
History of DevOps
The concept of DevOps originated from a need for teams to work together more effectively. Historically, developers and operations had very different objectives. Developers were focused on creating new features and pushing them out quickly, while operations were focused on maintaining stability in the system. This often led to conflicts, as changes could potentially disrupt stability.
DevOps emerged from a movement of professionals with backgrounds in both development and operations who were frustrated with the traditional segmented approach to software development and delivery. They began to speak about breaking down these barriers and working together more collaboratively to deliver better software more quickly and reliably. This movement eventually coalesced into what we now know as DevOps.
DevOps Days
The term 'DevOps' was popularized by the first DevOps Days held in Ghent, Belgium in 2009. The conference brought together professionals from both development and operations backgrounds to share their experiences and ideas about how to work together more effectively. The success of this event led to other DevOps Days conferences being held around the world, and the growth of the DevOps movement as a whole.
DevOps Days are now held in many cities around the world, and they continue to be a major force in the spread of DevOps ideas and practices. They provide a forum for professionals from all areas of software development and delivery to come together and learn from each other.
DevOps and Agile
DevOps is often associated with Agile software development. Agile is a set of values and principles for software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing cross-functional teams. It advocates adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, and continuous improvement, and it encourages rapid and flexible response to change.
While DevOps and Agile have different focuses, they are complementary and share common themes of collaboration, flexibility, and responsiveness. Many organizations adopt both Agile and DevOps practices together to take advantage of the benefits of both.
Use Cases of DevOps
DevOps is used in many different types of organizations, from small startups to large enterprises, and in many different industries. It is particularly popular in organizations that need to deliver software quickly and reliably, such as technology companies, financial services firms, and online retailers.
Some common use cases for DevOps include improving deployment frequency, achieving faster time to market, lowering failure rate of new releases, shortening lead time between fixes, and improving mean time to recovery. By adopting DevOps practices, organizations can deliver software more quickly, with fewer errors, and respond more rapidly to customer needs.
DevOps in Technology Companies
Many technology companies use DevOps practices to improve their software development and delivery processes. For example, Amazon has famously implemented DevOps practices to enable daily deployments, and Netflix uses DevOps to manage its highly decentralized architecture and to recover quickly from failures.
These companies often have complex, rapidly changing systems that require a high level of coordination between development and operations. By adopting DevOps practices, they are able to deliver new features more quickly, respond more rapidly to customer needs, and recover more quickly from failures.
DevOps in Financial Services
Financial services firms are increasingly adopting DevOps practices to improve their software delivery processes. These firms often have complex, legacy systems that require careful coordination between development and operations. By adopting DevOps practices, they can deliver new features more quickly, reduce the risk of failures, and respond more rapidly to changing market conditions.
For example, Capital One has implemented DevOps practices to improve its software delivery process and to enable continuous delivery. This has allowed the company to deliver new features to its customers more quickly and with fewer errors.
Examples of DevOps
There are many examples of organizations that have successfully implemented DevOps practices. These examples provide valuable lessons for other organizations that are considering adopting DevOps.
One of the most famous examples is Amazon. The company has implemented a DevOps model that allows it to deploy code every 11.6 seconds on average. This has enabled Amazon to rapidly deliver new features to its customers and to quickly recover from failures.
Amazon
Amazon is often cited as a leading example of a company that has successfully implemented DevOps practices. The company's ability to deploy code every 11.6 seconds on average is a testament to the power of DevOps. This rapid deployment capability allows Amazon to deliver new features to its customers quickly and to recover rapidly from any failures.
Amazon's DevOps practices include a strong emphasis on automation, with automated testing, deployment, and monitoring. The company also uses a microservices architecture, which allows it to deploy and update individual services independently. This reduces the risk of failures and allows for faster recovery when failures do occur.
Netflix
Netflix is another company that has successfully implemented DevOps practices. The company's use of DevOps has enabled it to manage its highly decentralized architecture and to recover quickly from failures. Netflix's DevOps practices include a strong emphasis on automation and a culture of "freedom and responsibility," where developers are given the freedom to make decisions and the responsibility to ensure the reliability of their services.
Netflix has also developed a number of open-source tools to support its DevOps practices. These include Chaos Monkey, a tool that randomly terminates instances in production to ensure that engineers implement their services to be resilient to instance failures.
Conclusion
DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development and IT operations. It aims to shorten the system development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. DevOps is complementary with Agile software development; several DevOps aspects came from Agile methodology.
DevOps is more than just a set of practices, however. It is a culture that promotes collaboration between development and operations, and it requires a shift in mindset from working in silos to working together as a team. By adopting DevOps practices, organizations can deliver software more quickly, with fewer errors, and respond more rapidly to customer needs.