Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog post authored by Nate Vickery, a business technology expert.
As we witness the technological “Big Bang,” the demand for new applications and new software will expand. This is nothing new, because every time humanity has leaped forward with new technologies, so has the demand for new products. DevOps has arrived in the time of need, giving a solution to the demand for new software and offering a way into the future with new ways of collaboration and development of software processes.
However, in 2016, humanity saw DevOps in a typical way humanity views something new — the “Let’s poke it with a stick, and see what happens” kind of way. Every time a new opportunity is seen on the horizon, humanity is skeptical. Nevertheless, DevOps offers a new perspective that is perceived as positive by enterprises, which are already starting to implement some of the ideas DevOps has to offer. 2017 will be an interesting year for DevOps and software development in general.
Alternative or Evolution
People see DevOps as an alternative to agile software development. Experts argue about whether we should abandon a system that has been proven effective and has been around for over a decade and switch to a more innovative method. After all, we are creatures of habit — it’s always a challenge to move from what you got used to, to something different. However, the need for DevOps came to life from agile software development’s popularity and its tendencies to provide more software releases.
Agile methodology signifies a change in the way of thinking and practice that leads to organizational change. DevOps emphasizes the importance of organizational change and improved collaboration between departments for achieving goals. Instead of an alternative, DevOps should be seen as the next step in agile development as it improves the practices of agile methodology and brings something new to the process.
Increased Popularity
Enterprises are already experimenting with DevOps practices. DevOps practices ensure notably shorter time to market, better product quality, reliable releases, and improved customer satisfaction. Also, they allow you to build the right product by fast experimentation and improved productivity and efficiency. But those are not the only things that DevOps brings to the table. The popularity of DevOps will continue to rise as its innovative methods are being used more often.
We can already see microservices being used more and more for developing continuously deployed systems. And the possibilities of software containers are driving enterprises crazy. Serverless systems that have the potential to change how companies develop software and applications that are built into the kernel itself are truly capturing the attention of everyone in the industry. Large enterprises will undeniably adopt DevOps even more in 2017.
More Useful Tools
We have seen various tools similar to DevOps in the past few years, like Docker — for containerization, Vagrant- visualization platform, Puppet — Infrastructure as Code, and Jenkins — for continuous integration. Docker, for example, is an open source project, and many companies like Microsoft and IBM have already announced support or partnership with Docker in the future.
There are plenty more tools available, like:
- Code review and Verizon control tools
- Build status tools
- Test and result tools that determine performance
- Artifact repository and application pre-deployment staging tools
- Release automation tools
- Infrastructure as Code tools
- Application performance monitoring tools
DevOps supply a wide variety of tools — from biometric authentication tools to Code development tools. It seems that enterprises see the potential in the development and usage of these tools, and are willing to offer even more support. Therefore, we can expect that most, if not all, of those tools will become improved and more sophisticated in 2017.
More Collaboration and Consolidation
With DevOps comes a new way of organizing business structure. Managers have been interested in improving cross-department communication in more than one way. DevOps introduces a necessity for collaboration and consolidation between all aspects of an organization and mutual aid between developers, SQA testers, security testers, and every other staff member of the IT sector.
This culture has a positive effect on efficiency and progress of software life-cycle and software delivery. Since there has been positive feedback on this culture, the management team will most likely try to implement this method on a company-wide scale. After all, it is perceived as well-organized and profitable.
Concluding
DevOps is a clipping from “software development” and “information technology operations.” DevOps aims to establish an environment and culture where developing, testing and releasing software can happen frequently, rapidly and more reliably. As mentioned, it emphasizes collaboration between software developers and other IT professionals. So far, it has proved to be an amazing method with a potential to push the technology even further. It is safe to assume that 2017 will be the most exciting year for DevOps progress and development. Let’s wait and see how the events unfold.
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Guest Blogger’s Profile:
Nate Vickery is a business technology expert mostly focused on future trends applicable to SMB and startup marketing and management processes. He has also been blogging in the past few years about before mentioned topics on various leading sites and communities. In the little free time left, Nate edits a business oriented website — Bizzmarkblog.com.
