How DevOps Reduces the Operational IT Skill Gaps
Tags: devops, itskills, cicd, ci
Published: 2020-12-18 07:15:34

One of the biggest challenges faced by enterprises today is the Operational IT Skill Gap. This gap is not only distressing productivity, but is also impacting the quality in this modern application-centric and competitive world. CIOs also confirms that a shortage of tech skills is affecting their ability to respond to digital transformation. How can you close this gap?

##Using DevOps 

Why?

DevOps is an agile and intelligent approach. It has the potential to increase efficiency and boost productivity. Here are some ways DevOps is helping you reduce the operational IT skill gaps:

##A Centralized Monitoring Platform Should be focused

IT operations teams are struggling a lot nowadays. This includes issues like
Proper monitoring of databases, services, and applications;
Ability to retain their subject matter experts who can potentially research root cause analysis and recover from application issues;
Hire and retain all necessary skills to manage applications. 
This is where you need smart and big platforms like Big Panda. It gives embedded artificial intelligence, autonomous operations, and centralized monitoring capabilities under one roof. Whether you want to aggregate events and log data from multiple systems at a central point or need to have alerts into a single, manageable incident from multiple incidents, you can do with great ease. 

Moving forward, AIOps (Autonomous operations) can then direct incidents based on their type into multiple ticketing systems. This way, you can resolve issues quite fast and with minimum manpower. 

##Importance of Automate Testing, Integration, and Deployment

Application management helps you to resolve parts of skills, complexity, and cost. But, to enable less error-prone and more frequent application release cycles, you need [continuous integration and deployment](https://successive.tech/devops-and-cloud-services) platforms (CI/CD) coupled with continuous testing capability. 
When CI/CD platforms (such as Jenkins) and automating testing tools (like Selenium) automates testing, deployments, and integration, the knowledge and subject matter expertise packed into release management practices gets auto codifies. Though you will still need a developer to amend necessary change steps like integration, deployment, and regression test can be automated. Another great factor, automation & platform deliver documentation using which new IT professionals can easily review DevOps tool configurations and scripts. 

##Onboard IT Talent by Changing DevOps Culture

The three best DevOps practices include Centralized Monitoring, Automated Testing, and Continuous Integration, and Deployment (CI/CD). Operational steps such as automation implementation and tools procurement can help you address the cost, skills, and complexity involved in application maintenance. The next important consideration is–how these practices adoption can change IT to a culture of DevOps.
IT culture change has many aspects. If you talk specifically about production application maintenance, it is when enterprises take a step ahead towards IT heroics to maintain an application. In every organization, there is one person who knows all about the critical application—from issues finding to resolve. In such a scenario, CIO needs to ensure that modern-day cloud infrastructure and applications are easy to manage by different teams with skills that are easy to find and with less complex processes. Plus, CIO needs to ensure that their team should lead to simplified architecture, operational standards and are automating more operational procedures. 

A data-driven culture, leveraging ML and embedded analytics in an operational platform help you aid application changes and incidents response efficiently. By overcoming the IT skills gap, architecture standards along with centralized monitoring platforms can reduce operational expenses and enhance system reliability.  Along with reducing or eliminating the skill gap, it helps you reduce IT costs and increase system reliability. 

##Final Thoughts 

The technology skills gap is the biggest issue that organizations are facing presently and demands prime consideration. However, [DevOps methodologies](https://successive.tech/services/) have some promising practices that can not only close the IT skill gaps, but it can also enhance the overall efficiency and productivity of the business. Successive Technologies has Certified Competency and Center of Excellence for Continuous Integration, Deployment, and Continuous Delivery. Our team ensures speedy onboarding of applications by automating the end-to-end delivery pipeline and facilitating continuous integration and development across the leading cloud platforms. Book a free consultation now with our experienced team of professionals who have years of experience in DevOps.