What Is DevOps?

The term ‘DevOps’ is a portmanteau of “development” and “operations” which gives a clue to understand a bit about it. It is a practice of enabling a single team to handle the development life cycle of an application holistically which comprises development, deployment, testing, and operations. Moreover, its ultimate objective is to lessen the system’s development life cycle even while serving the best features, fixes, and updates constantly. In general, DevOps is a software development approach by which dynamic software can be developed effectively and efficiently. 

Life Cycle of DevOps

DevOps is a combination of the development and operation of software and the steps involved to perform both simultaneously is known as the lifecycle of DevOps.

• Development
• Integration
• Testing
• Deployment 
• Monitoring 
• Feedback 
• Operations 

These are the steps involved in the lifecycle of DevOps. Let’s understand all in more detail one by one. 

1. Continuous Development

This step involves the planning and coding of the software and the goal of the project is determined during the planning phase and developers start developing code for the software. No DevOps tools are available for planning which are required but numerous tools are available to maintain the code. One who is adept can write code in any language but maintain the code referred to as Source Code Management. There are numerous prominent tools for packaging the code into executable files which can be transmitted into further steps. 

2. Continuous Integration

This phase of the lifecycle is crucial and more important for making the project successful. In this, developers are for commit changes in the source code on a daily basis or weekly basis. Every single commit is built which allows early detection of problems if any. Building code includes code review, unit testing, integration testing, and packaging. 

Codes bearing new functionality are for with the existing ones. As the development of software is continuous, the updated codes need for amalgamated continuously as well as seamlessly with the system in order to reflect changes to the end-users.

3. Continuous Testing

As the term suggests, in this phase, continuous testing of the developed software for bugs. There are several tools available for automation testing such as Selenium, TestNG, JUnit, and much more. The main function of these tools is that they allow QAs to test multiple code bases rigorously in parallel to make sure that there are no flaws in the functionality. One can also use Docker containers for simulating the test environment.

4. Continuous Deployment 

In this phase of the life cycle, code for the production servers and most importantly for making sure that the code is deployed in a correct manner on all the servers. Some factors are there which are crucial in this stage like configuration management and containerisation tools. 

5. Continuous Monitoring

This phase of the DevOps lifecycle plays a crucial role in software development in which one has to monitor or track the performance of the application. Every single vital information about the use of the software. Further, information for identifying the proper functionality of the application. In this phase, several system errors such as low memory, server not being reachable, and much more. 

6. Continuous Feedback

The development of applications consistently by analysing the results from the operations of the software. By placing the critical phase of constant feedback in between the operations and the development of further versions of the current software. Consistency in the development of software applications is a vital factor as it defies irrelevant steps. 

7. Continuous Operations

Every DevOps operation relies on continuity with complete automation of the release process and enables the enterprises to enhance the overall time to market continuingly. It is clear why continuity is a critical factor in DevOps. Various steps which are ultimately affecting the overall process of the development. It takes a long time to detect an issue and develop a better version of the product. With the help of DevOps, we can develop software more efficiently and functionally. 

What are the Benefits of DevOps?

DevOps is booming the market in the IT industry and has proven to be the most functional method to develop and operate the software. Let’s understand some of its benefits.

1. Speed

It offers high velocity that helps in innovating faster for customers and adapting to the rapidly changing market and growing at a good pace more efficiently. The model of DevOps allows developers and operations teams to accomplish results. 

2. Fast Delivery

A key benefit of DevOps is that it enhances the frequency and speed of releases which allows you to innovate and make your product much better. The rate of releasing new features and fixing bugs is directly proportional to the response to your customer’s needs and building competitive advantage. Automating the software releasing process from build to deployment are in two phases which is a continuous integration and continuous delivery.

3. Scalability 

Operation and management of infrastructure and development are with the vision of scale. In DevOps, there are factors like automation and consistency that aid in managing complex and changing systems more efficiently with lessening risk. Development, testing, and production environments are more efficiently and repeatedly with the help of infrastructure as a code. 

4. Reliability

Reliability is a key to any software; it defines the quality of application updates and infrastructure changes which enhances the delivery pace while maintaining a positive experience for end users. The testing of every change whether it is functional and secure by continuous integration and continuous delivery. One can also track the performance in real time with the help of monitoring and logging practice.

5. Improves Collaboration 

Collaboration of the team facilitates working much more efficiently and emphasises values like ownership and accountability. Teams of developers and operations perform collaboration closely, share responsibilities, and combine their workflows. This helps in reducing inefficiencies and securing more time like reducing the handover durations between developers and operations, and writing codes that take into account the environment in which it run.

6. Security

With DevOps, one can sacrifice security by bringing automation compliance policies, fine-grained controls, and configuration management techniques into action. With the help of infrastructure as a code and policy as code, we can define and then even track compliance at scale.

Conclusion 

In today’s era, DevOps is an ideal choice for a dynamic, scalable, and functional application with rapid performance including development, testing, deployment, etc. It has a great future ahead and also has a great scope in this for one who is looking for a career in the same. It is on the list of the most rapidly growing fields in the IT sector with the scope for growth. Companies nowadays actively hire DevOps engineers for making their products more efficient and scalable which can help them to compete in this market. One with certified training can secure a dream job in MNCs. For professional and career-oriented DevOps training one can visit APTRON which offers the best DevOps course in Noida.