Decoding DevOps

The escalation of DevOps as a software development hygiene practice is all set to alter the way IT is being developed and delivered

DevOps- the chances are you might have heard this term numerous times. Even market trend watchers consistently post this as the biggest trendsetter that will alter software development methodologies and will have an overall disruptive impact on enterprise IT.

DevOps is clearly a disruption that will get entrenched in 2017 as IT services companies and software developers increasingly use this as the key differentiator to be relevant to business demands and to add value to client side IT organizations. DevOps is all about agility and continues delivery that gives a high degree of modularity to software development. SETTING THE CONTEXT Let’s try and understand why DevOps is critical to IT- both to the supply and demand side. Probably a good starting point would be to ponder about a key question: What ails current software development practices and why DevOps is being touted as the panacea? We posed this question to industry experts; this is what they have to say.

Pradeep Shilige, Executive Vice President, Digital Systems and Technology, Cognizant says, “DevOps may not be the panacea for all problems and it is certainly an important capability in addressing them effectively. By driving automation across the software delivery lifecycle, DevOps alleviates hand-offs and delivers the ability to quickly respond to feedback on demand. Further, by fostering a collaborative culture and necessitating skills enhancement across IT and operations staff, DevOps also helps build a more robust organization.”

Experts also say that the software development world is rapidly moving towards development of next-generation products and services that are mass-personalized and deployed at massive scale. These systems are also typically always on, continuously adapted to changes and connect the physical and digital worlds. At the same time, these systems need to be delivered with shorter development cycles and higher programmer productivity while maintaining the quality of the offering. www.dqindia.com 15