What is DevOps? Why should Start-Ups implement DevOps? Perhaps, there are primary drivers for that. DevOps Startups can standardize and automate the development and implementation processes of projects.
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What is DevOps and Why Startups Need It?
DevOps (Development Operation) is a set of practices to enhance the efficiency of development processes and operation of software due to their continuous integration and active engagement of specialized experts with the help of automation tools. DevOps is positioned as an Agile approach for eliminating organizational and time barriers between development teams and other participants in the software life cycle (testers, administrators, technical support) to quickly and more reliably collect, test, and release software releases.
The DevOps concept proposes to solve this problem by applying Agile principles not only to development and testing but also to software operation processes, for instance, to deployment and support. Thus, the popularity of DevOps has arisen due to the spread of Agile practitioners focused on speeding up the delivery processes of the finished product and increasing the number of released versions.
DevOps Processes and Objects
DevOps, like other Agile practices, is focused on teamwork, where all aspects of the software life cycle are considered, from program code to product operation by the end-user:
- Code – Development and analysis, version control and code merging
- Build – Continuous integration of various assemblies
- Test – Continuous testing that provides feedback on business risks
- Operate (Work with packages) – Repository of records and pre-installation of the application
- Release – Change management, formal release approval, and release automation
- Deploy – Infrastructure management as code
- Monitor – Monitor application performance and end-user experience
DevOps Goals and Objectives
Since DevOps processes cover the entire software delivery cycle, there are several main goals of this approach:
- Reduced time to market
- A decrease in the failure rate of new releases
- Reducing the time it takes to complete fixes
- Reducing the amount of time to recover when a new version fails or other cases of the shutdown of the current system
These goals are achieved through the solution of the following tasks:
- Coordination of software development and delivery processes with the operation
- Automation of development, testing, and deployment processes
- Continuous testing of application quality
- IT infrastructure management as code
- Change management
- Continuous monitoring of application performance and infrastructure health
Thus, DevOps is focused on predictability, efficiency, security, and maintainability of operational processes and regular delivery of a reliable product, its updates, and maintenance.
Core DevOps Principles
Considering DevOps as scaling of an Agile approach to the entire process of development, implementation, and maintenance of software, there are five basic principles (CALMS) of its implementation to increase the frequency of releases and increase the team’s responsibility for the product:
- Culture – Cross-functional cooperation of diverse specialists and teams through a single information space of project content, open communication channels, and constant communication of all participants
- Automation – Use of continuous delivery tools run of each code changes through a series of automated tests which often use cloud infrastructure and the subsequent successful packaging assemblies with further movement of the working server using automated deployment and management infrastructure as the configuration code via media
- Lean – Elimination of activities with low efficiency and acceleration of processes, continuous improvement through regular retrospective analysis, split testing of different instruments, the adoption of defeats, the possibility of rapid detection of problems, and their immediate solution.
- Measurements – Performance, for example, the duration of the user experience with the product, and frequency of occurrence in the log critical error messages need clear and precise criteria for evaluating the work performance indicators processes.
- Sharing – A joint responsibility and sharing successes, production, and maintenance of the application carried out by the same people who carried out its assembly: Developers and Operators interact at every stage of the application life cycle.
What Are the Main Reasons for Startups to Implement DevOps?
Companies using DevOps work more quickly and efficiently. One of the most critical IT cultural changes in history is growing significantly within all companies and across multiple segments. This change is called DevOps. It breaks down barriers between development and operation teams to generate better communication, integration, and workflow, resulting in an overall improvement in business performance in several companies.
Today, most start-ups are born with this new culture, and they are growing extremely fast. This growth results from DevOps, which allows start-ups to launch new functions and new versions of applications every few hours – sometimes even in minutes. This can help companies evolve considerably in their applications to win new customers and partners. This also allows them to be more innovative; companies that adopt DevOps are confident that the team will enable a quick rise to the market without significant problems. Furthermore, when you integrate real-time feedback and bug reporting by consumers, partners, and external employees within the CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Development) pipeline for faster improvements and repairs.
Suppose today you are unable to deliver the same DevOps agility as other start-ups, in the future. In that case, your company will have a high risk of losing consumers or even going bankrupt, depending on the competition in your company’s market. The way you deliver new functions and new business models to your customers is directly related to your company’s success. However, start-ups are not the only ones using DevOps to create a competitive advantage. One example is Goldman Sachs, which has evolved from two updates a day to more than 1,000 updates. This is a significant shift in the financial services industry, in which everything needs to be processed quickly due to the number of substantial transactions.
How is the Implementation of DevOps can Benefit Startups?
Start-Ups that embrace the DevOps culture derive many benefits, and here are the four most significant advantages:
- Faster delivery of functions
- Better communication and collaboration between developers and operation
- More time for innovation, instead of fixing and maintaining current applications
- More stable and reliable operating environments
- Improving customer satisfaction
- Improving the quality and reliability of products
- Increased productivity and efficiency
- Quick response and high speed of experiments
- Expanding the competencies and responsibilities of developers – programmers Participating in setting up servers and finding errors and writing automated tests Smoothing out possible infrastructure vulnerabilities in the code; this reduces the number of mistakes during application deployment by about five times.
Teams of developers, operations, and security have been working segregated for many years to build and maintain new applications and protect the environment. Fixing this lack of integration is the most crucial factor in DevOps to create an agile and smooth pipeline. Doing so will make more agility in the teams and allow the company to better position itself against its competitors.
Agile DevOps for Start-Ups
Alpacked DevOps Benefits for Start-Ups
DevOps engineers at Alpacked are responsible for the implementation of DevOps processes. Alpacked offers several advantages for Start-Ups as far as DevOps is concerned. It provides the following benefits in software release management:
- Events, documented management processes, and detailed reports are easy to track
- Developers have more control over the environment, giving the infrastructure a more applied understanding of the product and its operation
- Significant reduction in time to market due to a “seamless” development and implementation cycle
The company helps small businesses and start-ups, whose goal is to quickly launch a minimum viable product to the market and test a new idea while having the right tools. More information about how DevOps can help start-ups you can find in the alpacked blog.
Final Verdict
DevOps can be useful for almost any organization involved in developing applications or managing large numbers of servers. However, it is not a secret that startups can fail or struggle sometimes. Failure of DevOps startups can happen when they are not motivated, not focused, and the result is low products. successful DevOps startups are possible because of the willingness to adjust, commitment, and lean operations. Therefore, with DevOps, your business organization will always stay happy, focused, and meet all its objectives.