DevOps Implementation Strategies
DevOps has risen in popularity in recent years
among IT organizations. The promise of rapid delivery of new software with no
compromise on quality sounds almost too good to be true. But the tangible
results shown by many companies who implemented this strategy provides plenty
of evidence for the success of this methodology.
Should
your organization adopt DevOps?
Though the benefits are almost certain,
adoption of DevOps does come with its own challenges. Depending on the
prevailing work culture in an organization, it may require a complete overhaul
of both its infrastructure and human resources. Sufficient time and effort has
to be invested into perfecting DevOps for your organization and the benefits
may not be apparent in the short term. Vulnerability to short term market
fluctuations should be less and a general level of stability is preferred in
order to persist in the path of implementation.
Choose
your strategy
Many tried and tested methodologies in
adopting DevOps already exist and can mainly be categorized into 02 approaches.
1.
Brownfield deployment
The shift into
DevOps is carried out parallely to the existing workflow and is ported
gradually. This is a more sophisticated approach and would require highly
skilled managers to ensure a smooth shift.
2.
Greenfield deployment
This is much less challenging as the
organization will start the DevOps journey from scratch with the proper
training and tools. However, organizations will have to bear a certain downtime
to get the process running.
Start with a plan
The success of DevOps in your organization
will depend heavily on the emphasis given to the planning stage. This stage
includes unbridled sharing of ideas which will enable the entire workforce of
the organization to clearly understand each stage of the pipeline. Every team
must gain sufficient understanding of the duties and responsibilities of the
other teams and should consider steps to be taken in order to minimize
redundancies and to efficiently connect with other teams. These steps could be
as simple as using the same code editor or same OS across all teams so as to
get rid of compatibility issues. It is the duty of the managerial level staff
to clearly emphasize the common goal of the process, which is to ensure faster
development with increased quality standards. Since the DevOps architecture is
heavily employee driven, their enthusiastic support is vital for success.
Another key focus in this step is to identify
the upgrades required. Be it in the form of purchasing software tools or hiring
more skilled personnel, and all steps have to be taken to minimize potential
blockers.
Containerize the applications
When the developed software is handled by
multiple parties, it is important to ensure that all the libraries and
configuration files are readily available for them. This saves significant time
and effort. Containerization enables this through the use of tools such as
‘Docker,’ and it also facilitates multiple parties to work on different aspects
of an application simultaneously as containerization segregates these aspects
in a smooth manner.
Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)
Perhaps the most challenging step in the
implementation, CI/CD, requires the use of software tools such as ‘Kubernetes
to manage software updates and deploy new builds efficiently. However, the mere
use of the software will not be fruitful unless a solid process is designed.
The process has to be designed such that whenever a change in the base
application is committed, it should trigger a workflow that runs automated
tests and seamlessly integrates them into the build.
Testing automation
Since the development and the testing are not
subsequent steps in a DevOps architecture, testing must be carried out
periodically, even when the application is in the initial stages of
development. Automation of these formal testing could save both time and
resources. However, some testing still has to be carried out manually. For
example, security tests and usability tests are better carried out manually as
they require more human evaluation.
Continuous Monitoring
Rather than monitoring an application after
deployment to testing, DevOps emphasizes the need to carry out performance
monitoring throughout the development process as well. Specialized software
tools can be used to detect issues such as slow response time and runtime
errors and can be patched upon detection. This ensures a minimum error
percentage in the final deliverable and eases the burden on the testing stage.
Process
over Tools
Some inefficient implementation strategies for
DevOps can be commonly seen where the software tools to be used are given
extreme focus while the basic concept of collaboration is diminished. This
should be avoided at all costs as it will not only be an unsuccessful
implementation but will also carry significant financial implications.
The key to a successful implementation lies in
proper planning and the drive of the employees and managers alike. In an
environment where collaboration is a culture, and mutual understanding is
developed, it would be comprehensively easier to adopt DevOps to maximize the
organization’s output.
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