(No, not that.)

DevOps is a set of software development practices combining software development (Dev) and information technology operations (Ops) to shorten the systems development life cycle while delivering features, fixes, and updates frequently in close alignment with business objectives.

Ok, that was a bit dry. Let me try again.

It’s a culture where the emphasis is put on getting features to the users as smoothly as possible instead of playing a constant blame game and finding a problem for every solution.

Not there yet?

It’s a culture of getting things done.

Let me explain.

In a traditional waterfall model shown above, there were certain well-defined stages in creating a software product. Unfortunately, every stage was treated as independent when in reality, they all bled into each other. For example, new features have to be tested before an app can be updated. This is done in order to ensure system stability, a task that was usually left to the maintenance team. So, if something went wrong, a blame game of biblical proportions would ensue.

In this new paradigm above, the development and operations team work in synergy to help every single step of the final product be the best it can be. And with it being so highly beneficial, 2019 can only see it going from strength to strength. Here are a couple of trends to look out for.

Big Data

DevOps generates a large amount of data automatically. With a layer of machine learning installed mixed with a bit of knowledge about big data, the data generated will generate insights from which refinements can be made, which in turn leads to more data and so on. Due to the relationship between the two, both industries are growing at a ridiculous rate and that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon.

Automation

There is no DevOps without automation. Not only does it minimize manual handoffs, testing, and human error, but it also ensures that quality assurance standards are kept high across the board thus saving a ton of resources in the process, among many other benefits.

Self-healing infrastructure

This is automation premium. This is because, in addition to normal automation, it includes self-healing processes that automatically find and solve occurring issues. This offers benefits such as cutting manual processes out, reducing error generation, streamlining operations and ensuring downtime is virtually abolished.

Shift Left

Shift Left is all about adding more Ops, Quality Assurance and ideally Security to the early stages of the software development lifecycle. This is done by adopting a business-driven software delivery approach and allowing the engineers to learn how the application behaves in real-world scenarios before deployment. This brings a proactive rather than reactive approach to problems by minimizing issues later in development and consequently reducing the chances of failure as well as maximizing scope for early recovery.

Serverless computing

It enables organizations to run and scale workloads in the cloud. This saves on cost since you only pay for what you use and can scale up or down whenever needed. It provides fertile ground to launch Function as a Service (FaaS), where you can deploy a function of an application.

Demand for continuous delivery

Due to the adoption of multi-cloud architectures by companies, container-related technologies are going to be on the rise in order to ensure continuous delivery. This has led to container orchestration being looked at as an effective means to deal with any complexities that may arise due to the infrastructure, probably replacing configuration management tools.

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