What is DevOps? Explained

DevOps can be stated as a merger of software (development) and IT (operations) units of an organization into one cohesive unit. The DevOps approach is a move away from the traditional setting where each of these departments used to work in isolation, often unaware of each other’s challenges.

This article provides information about the four phases of DevOps development, benefits of DevOps, best practices to be followed and tools used.

As the demand for more efficient and time-centric software delivery increases, DevOps offers an extremely promising and rewarding career path for professionals to pursue.

They can enhance their skills by enrolling in this site reliability and devops engineering masterclass. This masterclass is designed and taught by FAANG+ engineers and trains them with the most in-demand DevOps skills.‍

Also read: Top DevOps Interview Questions‍

Phases of DevOps LifeCycle

A DevOps lifecycle typically has five phases–planning, continuous development, continuous integration, continuous deployment, continuous operations and continuous monitoring.‍

Planning Phase – Define the Project’s Objectives and Roadmap

In this phase, the stakeholders discuss the requirements for the software project. They ascertain its feasibility and business impact, prioritize tasks and create a roadmap for its development. Planning ensures that everyone is aligned with what needs to be developed and his or her expected role in that project.

Continuous Development Phase–Write, Debug and Refine the Code

In this phase, writing a code in a guided and efficient manner. Peer reviews and regular feedback ensure early identification of errors. Continuous tests are run to improve overall code quality.

Code is written in any language decided in the planning phase but is maintained using version control tools. ‍

Tools used: A few most popular development DevOps version control tools are GetSVN, Mercurial, CVS and Jira.‍

Continuous Integration Phase–New Code Gets Integrated With Existing One

Since there is continuous development of the new code, the code needs to be continuously integrated with the new systems to ensure that changes are made available discreetly to the end users.
The integration phase should also ensure that there are no errors during runtime.‍

Tools used: Jenkins is the most popular open source integration tool used in the integration phase that facilitates continuous deployment and testing.‍

Continuous Testing Phase–Software Gets Tested Autonomously

This is the phase where the developed software is continuously tested for errors. The software testing tools allow the QA team to test the codes thoroughly to ensure that there are no errors in the functionality. Tests can be executed and reports are generated at predefined times.

Tools used: For continuous testing software like Selenium, TestNG and JUnit are used. Selenium does continuous testing and Test NG generates the reports. Docker containers are used to simulate the test environment. Jenkins provides the necessary trigger for automation testing to work continuously. ‍

Continuous Deployment Phase–Deploy the Code to Production Environment

Here it is ensured that the code is correctly deployed on all the servers. During continuous deployment, configuration management and containerization tools are used.

Configuration management ensures consistency in the application’s functionality and performance.

It includes autonomous and consistent deployment of code on all the servers, scheduling updates on all the servers and ensuring that the version remains consistent on all the servers.‍

Tools used: Some popular tools used in the configuration management phase are Puppet, Chef, Saltstack. Ansible. Docker and Vagrant are the tools used in containerization of applications.

Also read: Top Docker Interview Questions and Answers for Your Interview Prep

Continuous Monitoring Phase–Monitor the Software Performance

The operations team monitors the application for any unusual activity, errors as well as performance issues. However, some tools can help to automate this process.

These tools help to monitor the overall performance of the application closely and proactively.

Any errors or bugs found during the continuous monitoring phase can be reported to the development team for continuous fixes. ‍

Tools used: Splunk, Nagios and ELK Stack

What is DevOps: Best Practices

Different companies may follow different best practices for DevOps. However, as long as these practices help to deliver a robust end product, quickly and reliably, the goal of DevOps is served.

We present here the DevOps best practices most commonly used across organizations:

Automate Everything:

Every change that can be automated should be automated. This includes testing, building and deployment of codes as manual processes are prone to errors and are not scalable.

Version Control Everything:

Continuously track changes to the code using version control software. Also version control software and hardware configuration files, settings, and everything related to runtime systems.

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD):

Every stage, from development to production should go through CI/CD pipeline. This also ensures faster and more reliable patch releases.

Continuous Collaboration is the Key:

Development and operations teams should continuously collaborate with each other to ensure the success of any DevOps release. This measure will help the development team understand how their codes affect the runtime environment of the operations team.
Likewise the operations team can prepare in advance for any effect due to the development team’s code changes.

Use Infrastructure as Code (IAC):

Infrastructure should be versioned and managed like a code. Changes should be versioned, applied and tested on every step.

Implement the Best Security Practices:

Integrate security measures in the development and operations environment to secure the entire infrastructure. Integrate security practices at the earliest DevOps cycle phase. Also ensure that the teams follow these security practices.‍

Also read: Must-Know DevOps Principles to Answer Interview Questions‍

What is DevOps: Benefits of Implementation of DevOps‍

Implementation of DevOps can bring many benefits to any business enterprise.

DevOps is concatenated in nature and aims at reducing manpower so a company owner may consider implementing it promptly.

A project manager may consider implementing DevOps as it will enable faster and more efficient project delivery as compared to traditional software development settings.

Here are a few benefits of implementing DevOps:‍

Reduced Impact Due to Failure Caused by Changes:

As changes are small and discrete, any failure they may accidentally cause is minimalized and the recovery time from these failures also decreases.‍

Improved Quality of Products:

As compared to traditional settings, products are deployed frequently with lesser errors. They can also be improved upon in shorter turnaround times.‍

Lower Cost of Fixes

As bugs are few and fixes are automated, the costs for implementing these fixes are much less than in traditional software development life cycles.‍

Unplanned Fixes are Reduced:

As bugs are reduced, team members spend more time on their core work and less time to fix unplanned issues.‍

Satisfied Clients:

Reduced issues means faster implementation of changes requested by customers. This would mean higher levels of customer satisfaction.‍

Happy Employees:

With fewer bugs, employees spend more time on new work. This means higher levels of employee satisfaction.‍

Stable Infrastructure:

Fewer bugs, faster fixes and version control at every step, means the overall tech infrastructure of the organization is stable and in good health.‍

Reduced Costs:

Reduced bugs mean lower utilization of resources to fix them and reduced costs to allocate these resources.‍

To Sum it Up:

DevOps brings a transformative change into how applications are built, tested and deployed in the present world.

With features like inter-team collaboration, automation of procedures and continuous improvement, projects are delivered at a faster pace, more reliably and with higher quality.

Teams can adapt to ever-changing market demands more efficiently and seamlessly drive innovation.

FAQs: What Is DevOps?

What is the salary of a DevOps engineer?
DevOps engineers earn an average salary of $130,000 per annum. Entry-level engineers earn a salary of $110,000 per annum with experienced employees getting a salary as high as $165,000 per annum.

‍Are DevOps engineers in high demand?
Owing to their unique skill sets in development and operations that can lead to faster and reliable project deliveries, the DevOps engineers have a high demand in the job market.

‍Is DevOps front end or back end?
DevOps works to enhance the stability of the infrastructure with faster fixes and reduced load on resources such as servers, databases and networks. So, its role is mainly in back end development.

‍Who is the father of DevOps?
Patrick Dubois is regarded as the father of DevOps. He also founded the DevOpsDays volunteer-led event series, which now has a presence in 30 US cities.

Related Articles:

• ‍‍DevOps vs. Software Engineer‍
• What Does a DevOps Engineer Do
• ‍How to Become a DevOps Engineer
• ‍What are the Roles and Responsibilities of a Site Reliability Engineer?‍
• ‍Site Reliability Engineer’s Salary in the US