DevOps as a Service is a delivery model for a set of technologies that improve collaboration between an organization’s software development and operations teams. In this delivery model, the DevOps as a Service provider provides separate tools that cover different areas of the overall process and links them so that they function as a single unit. DevOps as a service is the exact opposite of an in-house best-of-breed toolchain strategy, where the DevOps team uses a number of different products.
The goal of DevOps as a Service is to ensure that every activity during the software development process can be tracked. The DevOps as a Service system helps to ensure that the organization achieves its goals and successfully implements tactics such as Continuous Delivery (CD) and Continuous Integration (CI) to create commercial value. If a problem is detected in the production environment, DevOps as a Service notifies the development group.
DevOps as a Service Advantages
DevOps as a service can be interesting for companies that lack internal DevOps knowledge or the resources to hire or train employees with these skills. This technique also masks the difficulties of managing the flow of data and information throughout the toolchain. Individuals and teams working in the DevOps process can use simple interfaces to access the components of the tools they need without having to understand how the entire toolchain works. For example, with the same DevOps as a Service offering, a developer can use source code management tools, a tester can use application performance management tools and the IT operations team can make the changes by using configuration management tools. This allows the team to monitor and report on activity within the toolchain.
DevOps as a Service seeks to improve collaboration, monitoring, management and reporting by bringing together specific DevOps tooling components into a single overall system. An efficient DevOps as a Service strategy allows an organization to respond more flexibly to its markets and introduce new products and services as the market changes. DevOps and DevOps as a Service are compatible with traditional development and deployment methods.
DevOps as a Service Disadvantages
The discussion of DevOps-as-a-Service offerings assumes that one can agree on a single complete DevOps toolchain that meets the needs of any organization, let alone the one that a vendor might provide as part of a managed services model. Most DevOps toolchains include a CI/CD pipeline and monitoring capabilities, from software development to production deployment, but each organization’s needs and preferences are different.
A managed DevOps service model can also limit an organization’s options in terms of tools and specific capabilities, compared to evaluating and selecting best-of-breed products that are integrated in-house. Managed DevOps providers may offer fewer options for individual tools, either their own or those of partners.
Other potential issues with a DevOps-as-a-Service model include trade-offs between speed and security, as well as the service provider’s ability to meet availability and reliability requirements. To keep costs under control, an organization must closely monitor the use of services and associated tools.
In addition, an organization’s internal staff must understand how managed DevOps services and hosted tools interact with each other and integrate with its own IT infrastructure and cloud platform to support the applications once deployed into production.
The DevOps as a Service Market
DevOps service providers include DevOps tool companies, public cloud platform suppliers, system integrators, & even internal IT teams who curate & integrate toolchains. DevOps as a Service providers often offer at least one of the following services:
The provider creates, manages and maintains a proprietary stack. They also provide users with techniques to manage cultural change when combining tasks normally performed by separate software development and system operations teams.
a more open stack, where the vendor develops a proprietary interoperability system but allows some hosted open source components; or an orchestration layer that integrates with existing tools via open application programming interfaces.
The main DevOps as a Service tools and products. DevOps as a Service is offered by a variety of providers, including large public cloud platforms, large and small managed service providers and DevOps consulting businesses.
Vendors may offer as-a-service versions of their tools that represent specific links in the DevOps toolchain and combine them with other tools in the toolchain. However, these vendors typically do not cover and support the complete DevOps toolchain, especially when they combine products from multiple vendors.
How to Adopt DevOps
Adopting DevOps requires that you commit to analyzing and possibly changing or eliminating all the teams, tools and processes used in your company. It’s about creating the necessary infrastructure so that teams can produce, launch and manage their products without relying too much on other teams.
DevOps Culture
A DevOps culture encourages teams to adopt new ways of working that involve more collaboration & communication. It is about aligning people, processes and tools to achieve a more consistent customer focus. Multidisciplinary teams are responsible for the entire lifecycle of a product.
Continuous Learning
Organizations that are characterized by DevOps encourage experimentation and a willingness to take risks. There, it is normal to think outside the box and failure is seen as a normal part of learning and growing.
Agile
Agile approaches are very popular in the software industry because they allow teams to be inherently flexible, well-organized and adaptable. DevOps is a cultural shift that encourages teamwork between the people who develop and maintain software. Agile and DevOps work well together to increase efficiency and reliability.