In the bustling corridors of the tech world, a revolution known as DevOps reshaped the way software is built and delivered. It’s not just about bridging the gap between development and operations; it’s about fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.
Today, DevOps is recognized as a culture of beliefs, practices and principles. As DevOps increases in popularity as the preferred methodology of software development, it’s important to understand how it evolved and what it requires of today’s DevOps engineers.
Before DevOps became common practice, development and operations existed as two separate components of the application release process. The development team would write code and pass it to the operations team, who would then deploy it to the production environment.
Part of the problem with this process is the tension between what the developers are trying to achieve versus the goals of the operations team.
To further complicate matters, there was often no clearly defined or automated process for handing over applications. This would result in miscommunications and misalignments, such as:
These situations would cause release delays as operations would struggle with unclear directions or try to resolve unforeseen interactions between the new code and the servers. Server errors could also result in blame games between developers and operations, which would negatively impact company morale. And as this was a continuous process, the development of updates and fixes would continue well beyond the initial launch of an application.
That process began to change in 2007 when consultant Patrick Debois, facing frustrations over the barriers between development and operations teams, looked for a different approach. A meeting in 2008 with software developer Andrew Shafer over “Agile Infrastructure” led to the formation of the Agile Systems Administration Group.
Then, in 2009 Debois watched a livestream of the “10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr” presentation from the O’Reilly Velocity Conference. Inspired to host his own event, he launched the first DevOps Days conference in Belgium, which inspired similar conferences around the world.
DevOps quickly gained popularity as companies realized how it could increase efficiencies by:
The DevOps mindset changed the culture of software development organizations and evolved into a comprehensive set of practices and principles. DevOps aims to bring both development and operations together by:
Today, DevOps engineers have their own role, which often requires a range of technical skills and the ability to work effectively with other teams and departments. Many different methods of rapid deployment and various DevOps toolchains are used across an organization’s development team. These approaches often have different points of emphasis, such as the differing emphases of speed of release, security considerations and user experience between DevOps, DevSecOps and site reliability engineering. For instance, the adoption of microservices architecture. By decomposing applications into smaller, independently deployable services, organizations can enhance deployment efficiency. This allows for quicker iterations and updates and minimizes downtime during deployments, ensuring a seamless user experience. Furthermore, the collaborative culture inherent in DevOps paves the way for faster problem resolution and innovation, fostering an environment where continuous improvement it’s a daily reality. These benefits translate into a competitive edge in the market and drive business growth through technological excellence.
No matter the approach, currently, there are a few consistent sets of best practices for all modern DevOps teams:
There are many professional skills needed to work in DevOps, including expertise in environmental testing, application monitoring and version control. However, true success within DevOps is less about programming skills or managing computing resources but instead comes from the ability to manage extremely complex systems.
In the dynamic landscape of technology, DevOps stands as a beacon of efficiency, collaboration and continuous improvement. DevOps has proven to be a transformative methodology that propels organizations toward a future where innovation, resilience and customer satisfaction are paramount.
Filed Under: Blogs, Business of DevOps, DevOps 101, DevOps Culture, DevOps Onramp, DevOps Practice, Social – Facebook, Social – X Tagged With: CI/CD, collaboration, devops, engineers, Evolution, microservices
Secure Coding Practices
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Does your organization currently implement secure guardrails in the software development process?(Required)
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How effective do you find secure guardrails in preventing security vulnerabilities in your projects? Rate on a scale from 1 (Not effective) to 5 (Highly effective)(Required)
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To what extent are your secure guardrails automated?(Required)
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What features do you prioritize in a secure guardrail solution? (Rank in order of importance)Ease of integration into existing workflowsComprehensive coverage of security vulnerabilitiesCustomizability for specific project needsMinimal impact on development speedActionable insights and recommendationsSupport for a wide range of programming languages and frameworks
What are your organization’s plans regarding the adoption or enhancement of secure guardrails within the next 12 months?(Required)
Expand the use of secure guardrails to more projects
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