What is DevOps as a Service (DaaS)?
Despite the global Covid 19 crisis, CSG has reduced the number of incidents caused by each release by 83%, Adobe was already able to meet 60% more app development needs and Etsy now deploys over 80 times per day. If you don’t want to be left behind, keep reading to find out how DevOps as a service can bring value to your company.
What is DevOps as a Service?
Severe market conditions and requirements for software development are constantly changing. This process dictates new rules for development companies, requiring them to be even more efficient and flexible. Industry leaders such as Netflix, Nordstrom, Capital One found themselves in a difficult position when their source files grew and it became almost impossible to handle them and make updates. To solve this issue, those companies moved to AWS and implemented DevOps solutions.
Removing the barrier between software development processes and IT systems maintenance is the main goal of applying the DevOps methodology. However, the DevOps benefits don’t stop there: they also include maximizing synergies, improving integration, and synchronizing workflows across all IT departments involved in a project, including QA, security, and even customers. All of this can be achieved with DevOps.
One of the main advantages of DevOps is its ability to quickly meet business requirements by reducing code delivery time. According to the DORA report, companies that implement DevOps practices deploy 208x faster, speed up the product release period 106x, and reduce the possibility of failure when making changes 7x.
But, building a DevOps infrastructure from scratch can be challenging, so finding a ready-to-use solution is a smart alternative to reinventing the wheel. DevOps as a service (DaaS) is a set of managed cloud-based tools that form a pipeline to support all DevOps elements. This can incorporate tools for tracking and checking code, auto unit testing, bug tracking, auto-deployment, and a monitoring system.
DevOps as a Service (DaaS): Advantages and Disadvantages
In the classic sense of the word, DevOps is an ideology based on the fundamental processes of merging development, deployment, and maintenance of software products.
Hence, DevOps as a service is a unique opportunity to reduce work cycles, accelerate work execution, and improve deployment.
Business benefits of DevOps as a service implementation are numerous:
- shorter time to market: to stay afloat, businesses must meet the growing demands for releases and updates. DevOps services primary aim is to ensure continuous delivery; as most processes are automated with DevOps, teams are able to create and deliver products faster;
- DevOps as a service links development, testing, and operation into a single process so that software is updated more often without loss of quality. This increases the efficiency and competitiveness of the business;
- thanks to metrics and monitoring tools, the DevOps engineers receive the fastest possible feedback on both the state of the system and its functionality from users.
- with Daas on board, companies can focus on improving their software rather than maintaining it;
- cloud-based DaaS is a popular cost-cutting solution: because of the nature of cloud services, it’s easy to get the computing power you need to run tests and deployments, and then give up access to that power when you no longer need it. This can lead to significant cost savings compared to having internal servers running 24/7, even when they are not doing anything important. Also, the use of cloud services is a more data-driven process where everyone is using the same set of data. This allows for better documentation and stricter quality control;
- with DaaS, infrastructure management will be in the hands of experienced DevOps engineers, so you will have a lot of support in case of any issues with the deployment pipeline. They can also help your IT department learn how to use and maintain these new tools;
- zero-downtime deployments allow for a fast and secure rollback to a previous version of your product, in case a new update does not work properly.
There is a positive prediction made by Fortune Business Insights. In the coming years the market share of DevOps will only grow:
Most often, DevOps as a service is delivered in three main roles:
- Continuous integration: DevOps is an almost endless merger. With its help, the code is updated and undergoes testing and assessment of its effectiveness continuously.
- Continuous delivery: constant product updates, configured at a certain frequency. In this case, the releases and testing are carried out in automatic mode. To do this, it is enough to mount certain settings just once.
- Continuous deployment: all updates are released immediately as soon as testing is completed successfully. The end-user has the ability to quickly evaluate the results and provide feedback. Developers, on the other hand, do not worry about the release of new versions, but simply work closely on existing tasks.
DevOps as a Service: Disadvantages
While DaaS is a brilliant solution for many weak spots in a company (we’ll discuss them in the following paragraph), just as most IT software on the market, it is not perfect. One of its drawbacks is that it is constantly operating in the cloud, so you will have to pay more attention to security issues.
The disadvantages of DevOps (although this one can rather be called a feature) are also determined by the very specifics of the methodology. For example, not everyone needs DevOps. For a small company running a small project, the cost of DevOps tools and expensive specialists would be a waste. Before introducing DevOps principles into a company, it is always worth assessing the ratio of costs and expected effectiveness. If the costs, both labor and money, are too high for the company, then the transition to a new methodology may not speed up, but on the contrary, slow down the development and implementation processes.
Also, to work with DevOps, developers need certain development expertise. With DevOps as a service on board, they will have to test, debug, deploy, and monitor the software they develop, not just forget about it the moment they put in the last line of code. Sometimes it even requires training sessions that the company will have to spend its time and money on.
To implement DevOps in the cloud, you need not only to change processes and connect new tools but also to change the corporate culture in general, which is quite laborious. Without adherence to the basic principles (for example, automation, documentation, constant quick feedback, adherence to the culture of interaction between departments) DevOps is impossible.
How Can your Business Benefit from DaaS?
DevOps tools already are an inevitable part of most industry leaders. Companies like Facebook, Google, and Netflix release updates and new versions of their products into the industrial environment daily. How do you think they achieve this speed with acceptable quality? Traditional IT services cannot provide enough flexibility to achieve this.
On one hand, companies want to grow and develop, and for this, they must offer new products and services that differentiate them from competitors. On the other hand, customers require the highest quality, most convenient products and services that can adapt to constantly changing requirements. Users are accustomed to the fact that their favorite apps are updated weekly featuring new possibilities, and they expect the same from other products.
It is clear that enterprises are forced to respond to such requests, however, they are not ready to abandon the classical approach to the development and provision of new products: stability, reliability, security, and risk management are an indispensable condition for the existence of their business. To illustrate the ambiguity of the situation, analysts at Gartner coined the term Bimodal.
How can companies speed up the development process without losing the quality of the end product? This can be achieved due to the advantages of DevOps, which, thanks to modern automation tools, have received a new impetus for development.
Our Expertise in DevOps
Because of Covid-19, thousands of businesses have had to adapt and change, as well as introduce new technologies and methods in order to survive. OpsWorks Co. conducts infrastructure audits to show a complete picture of how your product is performing and what processes need to be optimized to meet the demands of today’s market. Our Solution Architects utilize secure and efficient technologies. Many enterprises have moved to the cloud, so the demand for cloud consulting services is constantly increasing.
Our expertise includes the provision of business solutions to over 100 companies. The OpsWorks Co. team has an extensive background in AWS, Azure, and GCP clouds. We provide an all-in-one package of services: cloud infrastructure design, optimization, migration, and support.
We utilize the best DevOps practices for:
- Cloud Migration (on-site/off-site)
- Serverless Infrastructure Adoption
- Infrastructure as Code Deployment
- Cloud Consulting and Management
- Infrastructure Technical Audit.
What Headaches does DaaS Solve?
With the advent of microservice architectures, containers, and complex products, it has become clear that there is no such thing as too much DevOps. If you have a complex and constantly changing product, a fully-fledged DevOps service is a must. The complexity of the architecture and the interconnections between the infrastructure components require deep understanding, and digging into these details reduces developer productivity and quality. Even an experienced developer cannot do everything well at once. Instead of looking for expensive development for a complex product or service, it is more logical to hire DevOps service, which will take over the operation of the infrastructure.
Final Word
If you are looking for a reliable DevOps as a service provider, OpsWorks Co. is at your service! We provide full support for the process of moving apps, data, and other elements of your server to the cloud. The OpsWorks Co. team ensures a safe and quick infrastructure migration to the cloud.
