What is DevOps: Free ebook
In 2018, DevOps is the hottest thing in IT. Demand for DevOps Engineers is soaring. DevOps training is now helping staff gain the necessary knowledge to work effectively in a DevOps environment.
Read this article to understand what is DevOps, and if you’re an IT professional, why you must gain DevOps certification in 2019.
"DevOps is a software engineering culture and practice that aims at unifying software development and software operation."
Existing IT operations
Work in any medium or large organisation, and you’ll be familiar with IT Operations or IT Support. They’re the people who come to fix your computer when it doesn’t work. Or, the people you call when you’re trying to install a program, only to find out you’re not allowed to.
IT operations departments grew hugely in the last few decades as almost all white-collar workers began to use computers in their jobs. As IT departments grew, so did the number of processes and procedures, which were written to govern the way IT did their work. Coupled with rapid advances in technologies, IT has increasingly faced pressures to do more, often with less, as corporate budgets were squeezed.
Too many staff often have a negative view of their IT operations department. Taking too long to fix an issue, software upgrades going wrong, slow or badly-performing networks. IT is often seen as a drain on productivity, even though IT itself was bought precisely to raise productivity.
Dysfunctional culture
Actually, IT is usually divided into 2 parts. The ‘operations’ part which aims to maintain stable, working IT infrastructure to support the business. The ‘development’ part which aims to develop new solutions quickly which respond to the needs of a changing business environment. Although these 2 parts are part of IT, at best they have often worked in isolation, and at worst have viewed one another with suspicion and hostility.
One part – ‘Ops’ – is inherently risk-averse. Procedures typically prohibit actions which would increase risk. The other part – ‘Dev’ – typically embraces risk. After all, ‘Dev’s’ job is to develop new services for a rapidly changing business. ‘Ops’ loves stability, whereas ‘Dev’ loves change. ‘Ops’ can slow down the pace of change to maintain stability, which infuriates ‘Dev’ and their business sponsors. This leads to a dysfunctional culture and missed business goals.
DevOps is a recognition that cultural improvements are required which entail a sharing of goals aligned with business goals.
