The Ultimate Guide to DevOps: From Evolution to Implementation
Kalpita Technologies | Software Development Company
Transforming Ideas to Custom Software Solutions
Introduction
DevOps has transformed software development by bridging the gap between development and deployment, enabling faster and more reliable delivery. In this blog, we’ll explore its evolution from cultural change to powerful systems and explore how teams can use DevOps to streamline processes, create workflows that work, and deliver better products given. Whether you’re new to DevOps or want practical adoption tips, this guide will provide key insights. So, before we begin, let’s understand what DevOps is.
What is DevOps
Gartner defines DevOps as a “representation of change in IT culture that focuses on rapid IT service delivery through the adoption of agile, lean practices in the context of a system-oriented approach. DevOps emphasizes people (and culture) and seeks to improve collaboration between operations and development teams. DevOps implementations utilize technology - especially automation tools that can leverage an increasingly programmable and dynamic infrastructure from a life cycle perspective.” To put it in simple terms, DevOps is a combination of techniques that involves software Development and Operations.
History/Evolution of DevOps
Now that we know about DevOps, let’s get into its history and evolution. In 2009, DevOps took a positive turn when John Allspaw and Paul Hammond shared a lecture at Flickr on 10+ Deploys per Day. Based on this, the First DevOps Conference was held by Patrick Debois at Belgium in 2009, exclusively for the developers and system administrators.
In 2011, Cameron Haight from Gartner predicted that DevOps would become mainstream by 2015. His optimistic prospect inspired enterprises to adopt DevOps and soon it became popular. In 2011, Amazon announced that they deploy 1079 per hour which equals 1 deployment per 11.6 seconds.
"The Phoenix Project," a novel on the principles of DevOps was published by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford in 2013. This novel made it easy to understand the concepts of DevOps and reached a broader audience.
As predicted, in the Mid 2010s, DevOps became a mainstream adoption. In 2014, Docker, an open-source platform, was widely adopted. This platform automated the deployment of applications, revolutionizing the way software was built, shipped, and run, and aligning closely with DevOps principles.
In 2015, the second Annual DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES) took place. This event involves leaders from large enterprises to share their expertise and insights on DevOps practices. In the same year, DevOps Institute was established to provide professional development and certification for DevOps practitioners, further formalizing the field.
In 2016, adoption of DevOps practices raised with Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration platform. Kubernetes became a key technology for managing containerized applications at scale.
In 2018, DevSecOps, the integration of security into the DevOps pipeline started gaining significance by emphasizing the need for security practices in software development lifecycle.
In 2024, DevOps is driven by AI-based automation, GitOps, and DevSecOps for secure, efficient deployments. Multi-cloud environments, serverless architecture, and microservices are key, with observability and edge computing enhancing monitoring.
Key Benefits of DevOps
DevOps impacts business outcomes by increasing the ability to deliver new functionalities faster. Its value can be calibrated as a balance between Cost, Speed to Market, Reduced Delivery Risk, Enhanced Quality, and Speed to Market.
Cost Reduction
Using DevOps helps save the overall cost of IT by reducing operating cost & technology debt. Through automation, manual work is minimized and streamlines the workflows, resulting in saving labor and operational expenses.
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Speed to Market: Accelerate Your Product Launches
DevOps helps in accelerating the software development cycle and streamlining delivery. Re-architecting applications and automating processes enable the delivery of new functionality at a much faster pace.
Reduced Delivery Risk
Reduce risk to business by identifying issues early and testing continuously. Enhance security posture with the capability to push changes frequently, ensuring vulnerabilities are addressed promptly and systems remain robust against threats. This proactive approach minimizes potential disruptions and safeguards the organization from evolving security challenges.
Enhanced Quality
DevOps improves the overall quality of the software by strengthening testing practices. Continuous testing, monitoring, and feedback loops ensure that defects are identified and resolved quickly, leading to more reliable and strong applications.
DevOps CI/CD Process for Custom Applications
DevOps includes Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CD). ALM Tools like Jira or Azure DevOps (ADO) are used for managing business requirements, planning, and defect tracking, including Sprint, Epic, User Stories, Tasks, and Backlog management. Developers check their code in version control system like Git, where it is reviewed by a lead or manager.
After the code review, a quality analysis tool like SonarQube or SonarCloud assesses the code, and the build process is triggered. Once the build is compiled and packaged, the artifacts are uploaded to an artifact repository like Nexus following unit testing, functional testing, performance testing, and security testing.
These built artifacts are then deployed to the CI environment from the artifact repository, where continuous testing—both functional and non-functional—is conducted. Next, the build artifacts are automatically deployed to QA, UAT, and Pre-Prod environments before being promoted to the production environment.
Throughout this entire CI/CD process, the final results and documentation are updated in the ALM tool, and the process is continuously monitored for efficiency and effectiveness.
DevOps Tools for Custom Applications
DevOps tools are used for custom applications right from Planning to Deployment. Here’s the list of tools for every step -Planning, Analysis, Designing, Building, Testing, Deployment, and Environment Management.
Conclusion
DevOps transforms software development and IT operations by adopting collaboration between development and operations teams, accelerating delivery, and enhancing efficiency. The evolution of DevOps has addressed modern software demands through CI/CD processes, which streamline workflows and optimize development. The DevOps tools support these processes by offering custom solutions for automation, collaboration, and monitoring. As businesses continue to seek innovative solutions, adopting DevOps principles will be crucial for achieving agile, efficient, and scalable software solutions.