Although DevOps is one of the most popular software technologies today, a lot of people are still unclear about what it is and how you can use it.
This blog will debunk the various DevOps myths that people often believe. But first, let’s try to understand what DevOps means.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is a combination of two words – development and operations. It is a business software development method used to combine the development team (Dev) of the organization with the operation team (Ops).
It helps integrate, automate the testing process, and deploy the repositories. Besides, it also offers transparency. Further, it gives agility in development and operations.
Before we get further into this, let’s have a look at some of the fantastic facts about DevOps.
History of DevOps
The relationship between the development and operations teams became the foundation of DevOps. The DevOps movement started between 2007 and 2008 when software development communities and IT operations teams raised concerns about what they felt was dysfunction in the industry.
According to them, the traditional software development model, which called for those who write code to be functionally and organizationally apart from those who generate and support that code.
Benefits of DevOps
DevOps engineers or practitioners write higher-quality code faster than traditional and siloed teams. And they have experienced higher trust and collaboration experience. Here are some of the amazing benefits of DevOps.
- Faster delivery time
- High collaboration between teams (Business/Dev/Ops)
- Greater customer experiences
- Early defect detection
- Continuous Release and Deployment
- Innovative mindset
DevOps Culture
DevOps goes beyond other simple and development tools. It is about the processes, practices, and team collaboration to reduce complexity and deliver value to customers.
DevOps Engineer
DevOps Engineer is a person who understands software development and has an understanding of various automation tools for developing digital tools and pipelines (CI/ CD pipelines).
Organizations and companies are always willing to add “DevOps engineers” to their software teams. However, what does this job entail? It turns out that there’s no single “DevOps engineer” in the market, but rather a group of “DevOps engineers” with a collection of skills and expertise.
Let’s now read about the major purposes of this software in the business enterprise.
Purpose of DevOps
Organizations use DevOps for various reasons. However, some of the main reasons why they use this software include:
- Faster time to market (TTM)
- Reduction lead time between various fixes
- Improvement in the frequency of deployment
- Faster recovery time
- Lower rate of failure of new releases
You will now learn about the various DevOps-associated myths believed by most people.
DevOps Myths Debunked
Leaders across many business sectors know that increasing marketing speed is a survival skill rather than an aim. Executives, especially in the IT industry, feel the pressure to execute processes at a faster speed and more effectively along with making better business decisions.
Although most organizations have deployed DevOps successfully to accomplish the necessary goals and purpose, there are still a few misconceptions about this software.
However, if you are new to DevOps and not working with a company, you can try some free tutorials on Youtube, or take a DevOps course from Udemy, Lynda, or any other platform.
DevOps Myth #1: DevOps is a Set of Automation Tools
DevOps is not a set of automated tools that you can purchase. It is a different thinking method with respect to how you can deploy and monitor your applications. Collaboration along with continuous delivery, continuous testing, and continuous integration are not implementation tools.
Instead, they are practices that you need to adopt in your projects. Although it is true that there are various tools like JIRA, GitHub, and Docker, which generally assist in the implementation of DevOps practices, they are only effective if you along with your team members know how to optimize and involve them in your approach.
DevOps Myth #2: Procedures Change with Every Project
The concept of reinventing the program for every new project defies the idea of implementing DevOps.
Having a single process set that can easily be modified as per the needs and applied to various projects makes room for predictability. In this method, every person is familiar with their job role and how they need to operate the process.
DevOps practices need to be adaptive and flexible in nature in order to implement them into server configurations, testing anomalies, deployment cycles, and the development teams’ strengths. This is only possible when you and your team understand the entire process thoroughly which can be achieved from repetition.
DevOps Myth #3: Only for Small Developing Software Companies and Startups
Leading organizations including Netflix, NASA, Amazon, Google, Starbucks, LinkedIn, GE, Target, Airbnb, HubSpot, Nike, etc. practice DevOps. It is developed for and used by everyone irrespective of the industry and size of the company.
Every business enterprise wants to make required improvements in its cycle time or time to market. DevOps helps organizations to improve the time to market on a regular basis and by a huge margin. This is why most companies implement this software.
DevOps Myth #4: Replacement of Agile
Unlike most beliefs, DevOps is not replacing Agile. You can consider it as a continuation of Agile or an Agility enabler. With the help of DevOps, you can achieve Continuous Deployment (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), and Continuous Delivery for Continuous Delivery Pipeline.
Besides, it allows you to calculate the potentially shippable code towards the end of every iteration. So, DevOps and Agile work with each other in order to provide the best result and experience.
DevOps Myth #5: Elimination of IT Operations
As per the no operations (NoOps) concept, the IT sector will become so automated that it will not require any in-house team to manage the software.
Also, people believe that microservices can make DevOps operations obsolete. However, no matter how automated the services may become, there will always be a need for operations.
Although there may be a few changes in the working of these operations, they will still hold significance in DevOps.
DevOps Myth #6: Only Developed for Open-source Software
Generally, DevOps is implemented in organizations that use the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) stack along with various open-source tools such as Jenkins, Docker, Ansible, Git, Chef, ELK, Nexus, Sonar, Pupper, Nagios, and Gerrit.
However, obtaining a successful DevOps result is not dependent on the technology you use. A lot of organizations use COBOL, Microsoft .NET, mainframe assembly code, SAP, and also embedded systems.
DevOps Myth #7: Incompatible with ITIL
ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. It consists of detailed practices for IT Service Management (ITSM) that aims to align various IT services with the respective business requirements.
DevOps is compatible with ITIL but various ITIL processes are completely automated to support high deployment frequencies and short lead times associated with DevOps. This solves many issues related to the process of configuration and release management.
DevOps Myth #8: Same as Continuous Delivery
Although continuous delivery of software is an indication that the business enterprise has implemented the significant components of DevOps, it is not a binary relationship. These two services are not tied to one another and they are definitely not the same.
The main focus of DevOps should be to improve the work culture and maintain the infrastructure and software. Moreover, it must also support the sales and marketing department.
DevOps Myth #9: Does Not Operate Without Cloud
Most people refer to DevOps as the cloud. The cloud offers dynamic infrastructure resources for both testers and developers to get testing environments rapidly rather than waiting to fulfill a manual request.
Yet, it does not mean that you need the cloud for DevOps. If your company has efficient processes to get resources that can deploy and test changes in an application then, you can adopt this software.
Conclusion
I hope this article helped you bust a few most popular DevOps myths going around. Don’t let such misunderstandings and myths hinder the progress of your team.
Implementing DevOps processes can help your company be more productive and create better products. So don’t miss out on this high-performing opportunity, DevOps, and its amazing benefits.
Usman Raza is a CEO and the co-founder of a Faith Based Marketing Company and a content marketing specialist working with PSD to WordPress Service, a Flavored Scented Candles Company, and a Criminal Defense Lawyer Minneapolis. He is devoted to helping small businesses bridge success gaps by providing in-depth, actionable advice on digital marketing, SEO, and small business growth. Follow him on Twitter @usmanintrotech.
