There’s been a lot of buzz around the term ‘DevOps’ lately. What is DevOps all about? And why does a business need DevOps? There’s no one definition for DevOps, because DevOps is not just one thing. For someone who’s not very technically inclined, DevOps is simply a blend of the two words, Development and Operations. But if you dig in deeper, DevOps is a wider term and unfolds several aspects.

DevOps is not a tool or software. It is a set of best practices that builds a bridge between the software development and the operations professionals in an organization. The entire idea behind bringing DevOps into the picture is to improve the relationship between the two business units by better communication, and collaboration; and eventually improve business performance.

Adaptation of new methods and practices is a challenge for any organization. But, an understanding of the fact that software development, testing, QA and operations teams are mutually dependent is very important. Whether you believe in it or not, DevOps is not just a buzzword; it is a culture; a change in the mindset of individuals.

Why Do You Need DevOps?
Conflicts between development and operations are not new to the IT industry.  Developers write codes and build applications. Testers test the applications, which work perfectly in the test environment, except a few bugs that are duly treated. But when the application is deployed in the production environment, things start falling apart, and the blame game begins.

In a typical IT enterprise, this is a continuous game, and no one really benefits. In spite of similar objectives, the conflicts between development and operations eventually get in way of organizational success. This is where DevOps comes to rescue; to ensure functional efficiency and create a win-win situation for everyone.

Benefits of DevOps for Your Business
Ensures Quality – Initially, a newly developed application has several flaws. It is only when it is tested several times that a few bugs are fixed. Once approved by testers, the application is put to production, where obviously more bugs are noticed.
With the presence DevOps through the deployment process, more bug fixing can be done at any stage, with constant monitoring, and better communication; and the finished product (application) turns out to be of high quality.

Reduces Conflicts – The primary objective of DevOps is to fill the gap between operations and development professionals. By introducing better monitoring techniques, by improving the communication between the two ends, changing mindsets, and building team spirit in the organization, DevOps reduces communication gap and debating situations between ops and development teams.

The Agile Development – DevOps is backed with the advantages of Agile Development. In an Agile scenario, with tools like Scrum, the entire build-test-deploy cycle is condensed from weeks and months down to a couple of hours. DevOps and Agile go hand in hand to ensure a quick deployment procedure, ensuring higher productivity and efficiency.

Continuous Delivery – DevOps addresses all the major bottlenecks in the deployment procedure; people, processes and tools. It ensures that the development and operations work together right from the coding stage, where the operations can suggest necessary inputs, and that bugs are fixed immediately. This continuous interaction between teams, and improved coordination makes the procedure less complex, and easy to implement, leading to continuous delivery of quality applications.

When you decide to adopt DevOps in your business, you’re about to bring in a huge, constructive change in your organization. It’s a change in the mindset of people, a change in the way the IT industry traditionally operates, and like all changes, there’s resistance to the concept of DevOps. But, at the end of the day, it is all aimed at reducing conflicts, building stronger teams, improving the delivery process, and ensuring that organizational goals are met successfully.