What Is Devops? Simple Explanation

Devops is formed using the combination of development (dev) and operations (ops). It aims to deliver a faster and more continuous delivery of secure software to customers. It is a practice where people work together to build and deliver software more quickly.

Many tech giants and organisations are adopting the devops approach for software development, such as Amazon, Netflix, Walmart, Adobe, Facebook, etc. Let us learn why we even need devops and its life cycle in this article.

What is Devops?

In simpler terms, devops is the practice of making software development efficient and smooth. Devops is made of two terms ‘dev’ and ‘ops’. Here, Dev represents the development team and ops represents the operational team. The two teams work in collaboration with each other.

Devops

It is where two teams work together to build and deliver software more quickly. It adapts to a continuous process of improving efficiency and constant activity. The sign of devops resembles infinity, which demonstrates the continuous flow of development and feedback taking place uninterrupted.

Devops ensures effective communications and manages a streamlined flow between the teams to make software development effective and smooth.

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Need of Devops: Explained

Devops is made up of two major components of the IT sector. Dev stands for Development team and Ops stands for operations team. The development team designs and builds the software models with proper documentation and the Operations team is responsible for testing and debugging the software model for any modifications or rework required.

The operation team then sends the feedback to the developer team in case any modifications or fixtures are needed. In between, the development team sits idle and keeps waiting for feedback from the operations team. The whole process extended timelines and delayed the entire software development process.

Many times, there were cases when the development team moved to the next project and meanwhile, the operations team sent feedback on the previous project which took weeks or even months to close, which created unwanted delays.

Dev Ops

In devops, the two departments come together and work in collaboration with each other. This is called the devops approach, where two teams work together to build and deliver software more quickly. It adapts to a continuous process of improving efficiency and constant activity.

With the help of devops, companies adapt faster updates and development changes if required. With the help of devops, teams can not deliver software at top speed and deployment is more consistent and smooth.

Four Major Principles of DevOps

DevOps aims to make the software development process quick and provide continuous delivery of quality software. It implements collaboration, automation, integration and quick feedback to make the development cycle more effective and smooth. The four major principles of devOps are mentioned below.

It automates repetitive tasks such as testing, building and deployment, which can slow the process if carried out manually. It also reduces errors and increases reliability.
Collaboration and communication become effective after devops implementation. Both the development and operation teams collaborate together to make the development cycle more effective.
In devops, constant monitoring and quick improvement can be implemented, which saves a lot of time and minimises waste.
Quick feedback can help improve software applications based on user requirements and needs. DevOps teams can focus on making quick upgrades using effective techniques in next version upgrades.

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DevOps Life Cycle and Phases

The devops culture consists of several phases with the help of various tools.

1. Planning Phase

In this phase, the development team works on the plans based on the objectives of application and targeted users. Various references and resources are analysed to make a blueprint for the idea. Some major tools used in this phase are confluence, trello, jira software, etc.

2. Building Phase

In this phase, the development team codes and builds the project based on the planning and strategies decided in the first phase. Coding team works on building different components of software and also works on the same code and different versions of the software.

These codes can easily be stored in various open source repositories, such as github, merged, etc. Git is an open source version control system that offers various features such as merging, branching and optimising history, which makes development flexible and efficient.

3. Testing Phase

In this phase, various test cases are prepared to test the code for any errors. They ensure that the codes implement the functionalities and perform well in unpredictable situations.

The most frequent tool for testing is selenium. If the code passes all the automated tests, then it is ready for deployment; otherwise, feedback is sent to the development team for quick fixes.

4. Deployment Phase

In this phase, the operation team deploys the code in the working environment. Some frequently used automated tools used in this phase are docker, kubernetes, bitbucket, ansible, etc.

5. Monitoring Phase

This phase is also referred to as the keeping watch phase, where the deployed product is continuously monitored for any improvements required. The feedback is then sent to the development team. Nagios is the most frequently used tool in this phase. With the help of this feedback, the team can make improvements for a more user friendly application.

Devops Tool and Uses

Devops tools are used in various phases during the software development cycle to improve efficiency and save time. These tools help introduce automation and save a lot of time by reducing repetitive work with advanced tools. Check out some of the tools used in different phases of the devops approach.

Project management tools such as Trello, jira, Microsoft Project, Asana, etc are used to manage reporting, track performance, monitor, collect insights, etc.
Version control systems such as Git, Mercurial, SVN, etc.
Configuration management tools such as Terraform, Puppet, Chef, Ansible, etc.
Analytics tools such as Splunk, ELK Stack, etc.
Monitoring tools such as Datadog, New Relic, Grafana, etc.
Operation tools such as docker, kubernetes, ansible, etc.
Planning tools such as confluence, trello, jira, etc.

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Benefits of Integrating DevOps

There are many benefits to integrating devops into software development projects. Many tech giants and organisations are adopting the devops approach for software development, such as Amazon, Netflix, Walmart, Adobe, Facebook, etc.

1. Improved collaboration

The two major teams, development and operation teams, come together to provide faster software development and share responsibilities. This approach saves time and makes development more efficient.

2. Speed

With the help of devops, software development becomes faster and more efficient. It ensures faster delivery of software with faster build, and testing using automated tools.

3. Rapid Deployment

By bridging the gap between development and operating teams, deployment becomes quick and effective. With the help of devOps, quick deployment and improvement can be implemented whenever required.

4. Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)

Devops integrates the development and testing processes to ensure faster deliveries of software and quick redress of any bugs or vulnerabilities simultaneously.

5. Reliability

With the help of continuous integration, collaboration and tools, the quality of software product developed is ensured. It also helps the team monitor the performance of applications in real time. With the help of devOps, quick fixes can ensure reliability.

6. Security

DevOps also ensures security in its agile development and workflows for software development processes. During each stage of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), various security parameters are validated using active security testing, code reviews, compliance checks and audits to find vulnerabilities and reduce the risk of potential breaches.

7. Scalability

DevOps allows organisations to handle the vast workload according to changing needs. Automated tools and deployment make it easy to scale resources as needed.

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Devops FAQs

What exactly does devops mean?

Devops is made of two terms ‘dev’ and ‘ops’. Here, Dev represents the development team and ops represents the operational team. The two teams work in collaboration with each other to ensure faster delivery and deployment.

Is DevOps full of coding?

DevOps is not all about coding although it consists of codes but it is about making sustainable use of resources to implement faster development and deployment of software.

Are devops good for freshers?

Devops can be a rewarding career for freshers who are interested in gaining practical knowledge of the software development cycle. It also provides various career growth opportunities and learning experiences for recent graduates.

Is devops a non-IT job?

Devops comprises a development and operational team where candidates with expertise in product management, software development, and businesses are often present.