What Are DevOps Services?

Understanding DevOps

Think of a conventional construction project where different teams work on different building parts. Architects design the structure, builders construct it, and the maintenance team ensures it stays in good condition. In a traditional setup, these teams work in silos with minimal communication, leading to delays and errors.

A DevOps strategy involves having a single team responsible for the entire project, from designing the blueprints to maintaining the building. The team members collaborate closely, leveraging their unique skills and tools to ensure the building is constructed to a high standard. They leverage automation to make the process more efficient and have a shared responsibility for the project's success. This approach reduces errors, mitigates risk, speeds delivery, and ensures the final product meets customer expectations.

DevOps achieves these same benefits in the context of software development. According to a study by McKinsey, shifting to DevOps results in a 25 to 30 per cent increase in capacity creation and a 50 to 75 per cent drop in time to market. Critically, it helps teams achieve a more than 50 per cent reduction in failure rates.

DevOps solutions eliminate silos and increase collaboration between development, operations, and other teams involved in software development. It focuses on delivering value to the customer quickly and efficiently – with 65 per cent of consumers willing to switch brands due to a poor customer experience, this benefit is integral to sustainable company growth.

How is the DevOps methodology distinct from traditional software development? The table below summarises the differences:

DevOps transforms software development into a collaborative, iterative, and continuous process that enables organisations to respond quickly to changing business needs and customer requirements. It's in high demand, with 36 per cent of developers looking to acquire DevOps skills. By adopting DevOps, you, too, can benefit from faster delivery of high-quality software products, reduced costs, and improved customer satisfaction.

What About DevSecOps?

DevSecOps is an approach to agile development that incorporates security into every stage of the DevOps lifecycle. The term "DevSecOps" is a combination of "development," "security," and "operations." In this approach, security is not treated as an afterthought but rather is integrated into the entire process, from design and development to testing and deployment.

DevSecOps aims to address security vulnerabilities early in the software development process by including security experts in cross-functional teams and using automated tools for security testing and DevOps monitoring.

Benefits of DevOps Services

By adopting DevOps tools and services, you can experience numerous advantages that positively impact your software development process and organisation more broadly. DevOps benefits include the following:

• Faster time to market: DevOps enables you to release high-quality software quickly and efficiently, reducing the time it takes to bring new products to market. A DevOps culture can help you stay ahead of your competition by automating processes and increasing collaboration between teams.
• Improved collaboration between development and operations teams: DevOps encourages a culture of collaboration and communication between development, operations, and other teams involved in the software development process. This can result in better teamwork, more innovation, quicker resolutions, optimised resource allocation, and increased efficiency.
• Enhanced application performance: DevOps practices such as continuous testing and monitoring can help you identify and fix issues early in the software development process, leading to better application performance. By continually testing and monitoring your applications, you can ensure they are stable, reliable, and meet your customers' needs – even when those needs change.

Types of DevOps Services

DevOps consulting and services encompass a range of solutions that can improve and optimise your software development processes. Here are three types of DevOps services:

1. Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration (CI) is a practice that involves frequently integrating code changes into a shared repository. This practice allows teams to flag and address problems early, saving time and producing higher-quality software. By automating the process of integrating code changes, CI can reduce the time and effort required to add and test code. For example, a team of developers working on a web application might use a CI tool like Jenkins to automatically build and test their code changes every time they push code to the repository. This helps catch any errors or conflicts immediately, making it easier to fix issues and reducing the risk of bugs in the final product.

2. Continuous Delivery

Continuous Delivery (CD) involves automating the process of deploying code changes to production environments. By automating this process, CD decreases the risk of human error and enables faster release cycles. This can result in faster time to market and increased customer satisfaction. For example, an e-commerce company can use CD to

quickly deploy new product offerings and promotions to their online store, allowing them to stay ahead of trends and respond to customer demand faster.

3. Continuous Deployment

Continuous Deployment (CDp) involves automating the process of releasing code changes to production environments. CDp automatically releases every code change that passes the automated testing and quality assurance processes to production. This practice enables faster release cycles and reduces the risk of errors or delays caused by manual processes. For example, a cloud-based software company might leverage CDp to automatically release code changes to their production environment as soon as they pass testing and quality assurance. This allows them to release new features and updates to their customers fast and with minimal resources.