What is DevOps?
Tags: devops, programming, git, beginners
Published: 2024-02-07 13:23:41

## Overview
Like many others, you may have encountered the term "DevOps" and wondered what it means. By the end of this article, you'll know what DevOps means and more.

DevOps stands for "Development and Operations". It bridges the gap between the software development and IT operations teams. The development team is responsible for conceiving, designing, and building an application. 

The IT operations team, on the other hand, tests the application. They then deploy if it meets the organization's requirements or standards. Also, operations give feedback to the development team and receive the same from users. 

Before now, many companies encountered friction between their development and operations teams. There was no smooth flow of communication and collaboration between both parties. 

For instance, the development team could unintentionally send a buggy software or program to the operations team for testing and deployment. If the operations team finds a bug or any other issue, they must return it to the development team to fix it. 

This back and forth between both teams could lead to some tension and eventually slow the overall software development process.
So, DevOps employs tools and practices to ensure a smooth workflow between the teams. These tools and practices are essential in the software development cycle because they help organizations deploy secure applications efficiently and quickly.

## Key Concepts of DevOps
As a beginner, your understanding of DevOps and its role in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) will depend mainly on how well you are familiar with certain key concepts. Below are some of the ideas you should acquaint yourself with:

### 1. Collaboration Between Teams
Collaboration and effective communication are vital in many areas of life, and the software development industry is no exception. Effective collaboration is essential in large companies where different teams work on small portions of a large project. 

DevOps creates a culture/system that makes collaboration easy. This system eliminates any room for tension between any team involved in the software development cycle, as there is good communication between them. Also, users are satisfied as their feedback helps to improve the application.

### 2. Automation of Software Development and Delivery
As we mentioned earlier, DevOps involves speeding up the software development process and delivery while maintaining the security and efficiency of the application. This speed is made possible via automation tools such as Jenkins, Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes, Git, and more!

DevOps engineers use automation tools to reduce the chances of making human errors. They automate repetitive processes such as testing, builds, deployment, provisioning of development environments, and others. Hence, companies can deliver better products and maintain a running system.

### 3. Continuous Improvement and Feedback
One of the ways DevOps improves the SDLC compared to traditional processes is that it creates room for continuous improvements and feedback. It is no wonder an infinity loop represents the DevOps process. This loop tells us the constant and iterative nature of DevOps.

When the operations team deploys an application, they monitor its performance and gather feedback. This feedback goes into the planning stage, where it improves the product.

## Basic Practices in DevOps


![DevOps tools](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/lbxp417arg3vv9tek1e5.jpeg)

The DevOps approach to developing applications has been implemented by many organizations today. This section will briefly introduce some standard practices found anywhere DevOps is adopted.

### 1. Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
CI/CD is an essential part of modern DevOps practices. Continuous Integration (CI) describes where team members frequently push code to a shared repository. On the other hand, Continuous Deployment (CD) extends CI by automatically deploying changes made in the shared repository into the testing or production environment.

These practices help the development and operations team detect any problem in the application before it finds its way to users. Also, it ensures better software quality and improves the feedback loop.

In addition, automation plays an essential role in the CI/CD processes. Automated tests are performed as part of continuous integration to ensure the code pushed to the shared repository doesn't break the existing code base or alter the quality of the application. Also, automation in the continuous deployment process makes sure organizations deploy new changes without a hitch. 

Some tools and technologies that facilitate CI/CD include:
 
- [Jenkins](https://www.jenkins.io/)
- [CircleCI](https://circleci.com/)
- [TravisCI](https://www.travis-ci.com/)
- [GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/)

### 2. Monitoring and Testing in Real-Time
After an organization deploys an application or software and makes it available to users, it's crucial to monitor it continuously. Real-time monitoring involves ensuring the product's performance, security, and availability are intact. This DevOps practice tracks system health, errors, and user behavior in real-time.

Monitoring and testing an application in real-time allows teams to be proactive and not reactive. The teams identify and fix issues or errors before they affect the user experience. Also, the data gathered from monitoring and testing the application offer insights for making informed decisions about feature updates and bug fixes.

There's no doubt that these practices lead to faster time to market, higher product quality, and offer users more satisfaction. 

Below are some tools/technologies used for monitoring:

- [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io/)
- [Splunk](https://www.splunk.com/)
- [Grafana](https://grafana.com/)

A standard methodology for testing is the [A/B Testing](https://aws.amazon.com/developer/application-security-performance/articles/a-b-testing/). 

### 3. Version Control
Teams need to track and manage changes made to their code base. Here is where version control becomes relevant. It is an essential practice in DevOps as it facilitates collaboration between team members. 

Version control systems allow members of a team to work on the same or different areas of a code base without any conflict. A team can manage changes to code, configurations, documentation, and other essential assets with ease. They can revert to an older state and understand who made changes and why. This knowledge is necessary when analyzing the history of a project for auditing purposes.

In addition, version control merges with other DevOps practices, such as CI/CD, to provide a platform where a team can build and deploy an application. 

Here are some version control systems:

- [Git](https://git-scm.com/) (with platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket)
- [Subversion](https://subversion.apache.org/) (SVN)
- [Mercurial](https://www.mercurial-scm.org/)

### 4. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
IaC refers to the provisioning and management of computing infrastructure using machine-readable definition files (such as YAML, JSON, XML, and others) rather than interactive configuration tools or physical hardware configuration. It allows teams to provision, monitor, and manage resources, eventually improving consistency and reliability and reducing manual processes.

This DevOps practice ensures that infrastructure deployment is error-free, repeatable, and scalable. It is in line with automation and continuous improvement, which are core DevOps philosophies. 

Some of the most popular IaC tools and technologies include:

- [Terraform](https://www.terraform.io/)
- [Ansible](https://www.ansible.com/)
- [Chef](https://www.chef.io/)
- [Puppet](https://www.puppet.com/)

### 5. Security Integration (DevSecOps)
DevSecOps is the aspect that incorporates security into the overall DevOps process. It expresses the philosophy of “Security as Code” and makes every member of the team aware that security is a shared responsibility. Therefore, every step of the software development process is done with security in mind rather than something they implement after the application is ready.

When a team implements security early and every step of the way, they can identify and resolve vulnerabilities more efficiently. This practice reduces the risk of security breaches and ensures compliance with security regulations without reducing speed and efficiency.

## Benefits of DevOps
By now, it's evident that DevOps has much to offer in the software development industry, and it is little wonder that many organizations are adopting the approach. Below are some of the benefits of DevOps:

### 1. Faster Software Releases
One of DevOps's top perks is its speed in the development lifecycle. It integrates automation tools that speed up application development, testing, and deployment. Also, the DevOps practice of continuous delivery allows applications to be ready for release, even when adding extra features. 

Hence, organizations can change their applications to meet users' demands without interrupting the application's usage.

### 2. Improved Quality and Reliability
DevOps allows continuous testing to identify and resolve bugs and issues early. The end product of this continuous integration and testing is applications with good quality and reliability. 

Furthermore, when the organization tests, deploys, and releases the application, the IT operations and end users offer regular feedback. It helps align the application with the users' needs and market trends.

### 3. Better Team Collaboration
DevOps helps foster a culture that breeds better communication and collaboration between teams, compared to traditional methodologies where teams work in isolation. With the tools and methods available, the streamlined workflow between the development and operations teams leads to better efficiency and understanding.

## Conclusion
You now understand that DevOps is a culture and set of practices that foster communication and collaboration between the teams developing software or applications. However, an important point is that DevOps ensures continuity in the software development cycle. 

The iterative nature of DevOps continually implements changes on an application to enhance reliability, efficiency, and security. These are all achieved with speed using automation tools.

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