Many organizations feel that if they have to increase their competitiveness in this swiftly changing business environment, they can’t neglect transforming their digital assets. Cloud computing and DevOps are two things that are considered as important elements for achieving business transformation. However, the relationship between DevOps and the Cloud is a bit confusing. First, DevOps refers to process improvement by bringing together development and operations while the Cloud is about technology infrastructure and services. However, both DevOps and the Cloud can work together to allow businesses become competitive in product and services delivery. A web development agency that takes advantage of the Cloud and DevOps enhances its website development and deployment process. It shortens the time it takes to deliver the finished product to the customer.
What is DevOps?
DevOps involves a set of software dev practices that put together software development and IT operations in order to reduce the development and delivery life cycle while delivering fixes, updates, changes, and features in a software development process. DevOps focuses on communication, integration, and collaboration.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the practice of utilizing a network of servers located in remote locations that are used to store, manage, as well as process data instead of using personal computers or local servers. It is an on-demand delivery of database, compute power, storage, applications, as well as other IT resources through the internet. Web development solutions utilize the power of cloud computing in various DevOps processes.
DevOps and the Cloud
DevOps can be defined as developer-friendly operations or a single consolidated team while the Cloud is defined as systems that allow for provisioning of infrastructure to enable creation of repeated processes that cannot be executed without having cloud technologies. Cloud technologies and services can complement DevOps processes.
Companies that emphasize on operations for product or software development tend to use cloud computing to allow speed and efficient production by the developer. Cloud computing allows product or software developers to have more control over the components they use thus reducing wait times. The application-specific infrastructure provided by DevOps and the Cloud makes it easier for software developers to gain ownership of more components.
Using cloud tools as well as services helps automate the development or automate the build, management, and provision through code . This way, a web development company in India can speed up the software development process while eliminating human error and establishing repeatability.
Again, cloud computing allows developers to have the ability to create self-service methods in provision infrastructure. The developers don’t need to wait for IT operations in order to provision resources for them. The developers can quickly try new things or even fail fast, or succeed in having new software products delivered to the market faster. Therefore, cloud computing eliminates long queues and allows developers to speedily create development environments.
Developers and IT operations teams are both comfortable with the cloud since developers can teach the operations teams about coding and the operations teams can tech developers about the aspect of infrastructure as well as security. This creates a meeting point for the two experts that results in a strong team dynamics. Cloud computing can be used to propel IT transformation. With advanced cloud tools and automation, companies can streamline and set in DevOps processes to allow greater efficiencies for a better transformation.
Besides, DevOps, being a process improvement, it needs a change in the culture of a team. Cloud computing can help with this change of culture by helping codify and automate any new processes. Take for example, a developer could have a different new way of assembling components of a software or web development project. The developer could also have a different way of assembling components they require to deliver services for example, configuration, coding, pipeline definitions, and libraries. In such situations, advanced automation tools provided by the Cloud can help in streaming those processes while also making them clearly repeatable.
Why Have DevOps in the Cloud?
When you look back some 15 or 20 years ago, software developers used to build and ship their finished product. The developers developed the features and that was it. The product owner could now focus on just those features. To get work done using the software product developed, the product had to go through operations. So the IT operations monitored the apps and that was reactive monitoring as well as application operation. The two, developer and IT operations, were isolated.
However, these days, the Dev and Ops processes are done in a different way. Today, Ops enable Dev to have work done. An Ops team provides a Dev team with the tools needed to operate apps. This way, there is proactive monitoring within the operations.
The previous model of Dev and Ops was regarded as waterfall mechanism. What this meant is that from the design of an app to the operations, there was a chronological process. The project or the work involved the design, then it moved to development or build, and then to testing before deployment was done. That process was done sequentially. By sequential process, it means that the next process wouldn’t start until the present process was done.
Today, the software or app development and deployment or delivery process is considered iterative. This means that everything is being done at the same time – whether it is the design, or the development and testing, or deployment and operation.
At any instance today, the Dev and Ops teams developing the apps, testing the apps, deploying the apps, and operating the apps work at the same time. The teams don’t have to wait for the previous step to be completed. There are release cycles taking place from the design stage to the operations of the apps. This provides the teams with agility, the teams can iterate as much as they need to have the app working right. The application is continuously improved , designed, deployed, and operated, thanks to the power of the Cloud. So, the Cloud provides an easy way of enabling DevOps. It’s a great value preposition for enterprises. The teams can collaborate through Cloud.
The Wrap Up
Although the DevOps process can be executed without the Cloud, the use of cloud computing has made things easier for the development teams and the IT operations teams. Through the shared resources and infrastructure, software development projects can be done and delivered as well as improved in a continuous way. Any changes to a software product can be done easily and continuously. When seeking custom web development services, try to check how they utilize the DevOps process. Do they allow your team to operate the website as it is being developed? Do the web developers want you to experiment that site when it’s in development so that you test its initial code design? The operations team on the side of the website owner needs to collaborate with the development team on the site of the web development company.