{"id":3997,"date":"2015-08-24T08:58:57","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T13:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/?p=3997"},"modified":"2015-07-20T16:40:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T21:40:46","slug":"what-is-devops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/what-is-devops\/","title":{"rendered":"Just What Exactly is DevOps?"},"content":{"rendered":"

DevOps is officially an amalgam of Developers and Operations, two separate strands of the software management and network administration processes. Development and Operations are often in contention with each other \u2013 but both are essential to success.<\/span><\/p>\n

DevOps sets out to bring the two together, and have them work in harmony. It started as a buzzword, morphed into a trend and is currently evolving into a global movement that could impact an entire businesses \u2013 not just IT.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Clash of Cultures<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"WhatStereotypes have been part of the problem. Traditionally, developers have been viewed as tweakers and innovators \u2013 risk-takers willing to do whatever is necessary to move a project forward. Operations people are quite the opposite: their concern is to keep things running smoothly \u2013 \u201cDon\u2019t rock the boat\u201d, and all that. For them, change isn\u2019t good unless it can contribute to maintaining the status quo \u2013 preferably after having been field tested and verified, for several months.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not the best climate, for advancement and success. And increasingly at odds with current trends toward Web-based applications and service delivery, and the shift to mobile.<\/span><\/p>\n

Continuous Beta<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"DevOpsYou may have heard of \u201cagile development\u201d \u2013 a sort of fast-track method of producing software and network code that was proposed in the so-called \u201cAgile Manifesto\u201d of February 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speed element aside, much of the focus of agile has been on customer-centered activities. Its emphasis shifts to determining what users really want, how easily they can use software and site features, the overall user experience and how rapidly changes to existing elements could be made.<\/span><\/p>\n

Google set the ball rolling with GMail, whose continuous stream of updates has kept the email application in a state of \u201ccontinuous beta<\/a>.\u201d It established the protocol for Web-delivered applications, which can be continuously tweaked and improved by downloading modifications through the user\u2019s Web browser. The same approach applies to modifying websites.<\/span><\/p>\n

New versions can be rolled out on a daily or even hourly basis, amending and improving features one at a time. Anything that doesn\u2019t work can be rolled back, to a previous iteration. It\u2019s a methodology that sits in stark contrast to the historical approach of upgrading software on an annual basis, with a major release that might not address current and recurring problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Changing Mindsets<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"DevOps<\/a>The shift toward the Web and mobile applications has put pressure on developers to abandon the old ways of writing up specifications for new and ongoing projects: months of data-gathering and research, testing and retesting, then implementations that can also take months. Do that in the current climate, and you\u2019ll soon go out of business.<\/span><\/p>\n

Websites and applications now are in a constant state of flux \u2013 and the development process has to reflect this. To update and tweak on a daily or hourly schedule, your infrastructure has to be synonymous with your code \u2013 and you need automation, to keep up.<\/span><\/p>\n

The need for automation extends to network administration as well; software is required to help manage all that infrastructure. At present, network operating systems aren\u2019t geared up too well, for automation. But there\u2019s a move toward software-defined networking, which will add \u201cinfrastructure as code\u201d into the repertoire of network hardware.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Cultural Shift<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Organizations that have embraced DevOps tend to produce cloud-based software, and use automation tools like Chef or Puppet. But beyond the tech, DevOps is a philosophical approach \u2013 one that can extend beyond developers and operations teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

The enterprise as a whole can benefit. Mutual respect and co-operation between departments need not be limited the IT division. Sales, Human Resources, Finance, and Management can get in on the act. What\u2019s required is some change in attitudes, and a bit of empathy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Empathy? What\u2019s That?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Empathy<\/a>The ability to step into another person\u2019s shoes. To see things from their point of view \u2013 to acknowledge and appreciate their motivations, needs, and limitations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sounds woolly \u2013 but it\u2019s an integral part of the DevOps process.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Breaking Boundaries<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

The best DevOps practitioners are willing to learn new skills \u2013 in the DevOps ideal, from their colleagues in other departments. This is a multi-disciplinary mindset, shared by people who can be as comfortable writing code and testing new features as when they\u2019re configuring network infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t too many of these people around, right now. So the imperative of the DevOps movement is to identify those who are currently out there, and to recruit and train new talent, grounded in this approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Questions \u2013 Not Practices<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Best<\/a>It\u2019s very much a work-in-progress, so a best practices guide isn\u2019t really available. The guideline takes more of a questioning angle:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u2022 What can we do, to really satisfy our customers?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u2022 How can we determine what our customers and users really want?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u2022 What do our developers require, to create software and systems that can be easily managed?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u2022 What do our operations people need, to run our websites and systems most effectively?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u2022 How can we promote effective and productive interaction, between the various divisions in our enterprise?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u2022 What are the problems that need to be addressed, within our organization?<\/span><\/p>\n

And so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some Resources<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Patrick Debois, The Build Doctor, RI, Planet Infra, Bitfield, Unix Daemon, and Agile Sysadmin blog on and about the DevOps movement<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Agile System Administration group on Google is a low-volume mailing list that includes most of the DevOps founding members. They can also be found on Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DevOps is officially an amalgam of Developers and Operations, two separate strands of the software management and network administration processes. Development and Operations are often in contention with each other \u2013 but both are essential to success. DevOps sets out to bring the two together, and have them work in harmony. It started as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-it","category-tech","category-technical"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3997"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4024,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997\/revisions\/4024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}