The Role Of Cloud In DevOps

The Digitization Era

DevOps is becoming increasingly popular as a means to empower software teams to increase their competitiveness in today’s dynamic business landscape. Like Agile, it encourages companies to better leverage their time, resources, and user skill sets to build, test, and deploy software faster. At the same time, DevOps improves the quality of each deliverable by being able to do so much more than simply applying agile practices to modernize and manage IT infrastructure.

Apart from digitizing processes, DevOps allows enterprises to capitalize on capabilities that support an increasing volume of high-velocity projects. This is possible by combining it with the cloud to achieve true business agility.

Enter The Cloud

A key DevOps principle revolves around harnessing the power of automation to speed up rote processes and minimize downtime. It is all about getting more work completed in less time without burning out teams. DevOps extends into QA testing, release, and beyond for optimal results. It works in the cloud to enable fast application development that helps businesses achieve their goals effectively and reduce the costs of testing, operations, and deployments. 

DevOps in the cloud represents a dynamic solution that aids every phase of the DevOps operation. Cloud computing, along with other smart technologies such as version control, allows operations and developments to take place simultaneously while avoiding time-wasting activities. Companies can then build experimental test environments for rapid solution prototyping without dealing with physical hardware. 

The two technologies bring other possibilities as well. They deliver high availability (HA) with unparalleled application performance, near-zero downtime, and smooth multi-channel experiences. DevOps focuses on automation and repeatability while cloud platforms offer APIs for provisioning and resource management. So, the benefits are twofold when enterprises migrate their projects to the cloud and take advantage of automation opportunities. They enhance security, reduce manual costs, and allocate most of the operational workload to CSPs. Suppliers offer flexibility, scalability, performance, and monitoring support that highlights the growing superiority of the cloud over traditional data center solutions. 

Disruptive Technologies

Employing innovative approaches in markets where great products and services are no longer enough to meet evolving customer demands is essential. It is the end-user experience that stands out more than anything else. As a result, businesses demand that IT departments increase velocity while taking product ideas from concept to production in as little as 4-6 weeks. They can only attain a change of this magnitude by moving to DevOps which has dynamic implications for the enterprise IT ecosystem. 

Companies can run a DevOps environment if they have a software-defined hardware deployment, otherwise known as a private or cloud setup. This encourages production teams to perform future development in elastic cloud frames. Furthermore, DevOps can deliver measurable value by integrating employees from ops into cross-functional agile teams and prioritizing automation. 

Notably, many businesses are choosing the hybrid approach by investing in platforms that can operate on-premises or in a public cloud. This strategy deploys workloads where it makes the most financial and technical sense for organizations. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so the decision-making process should involve business priorities, budgeting, and risk tolerance. 

A Game Changer

At the most basic level, DevOps is the automation of agile methodology which is an intelligent software project management process. It empowers developers to proactively respond to the needs of the modern and busy enterprise in near real-time. If we bring cloud tools and technologies into the equation, it is their ability to complement DevOps processes that shines. Cloud computing can help in any situation, irrespective of the DevOps route your company travels to digital transformation. Let’s consider a couple of common examples. 

Example 1

Organizations that prioritize operations for developers often use the cloud to accelerate efficiency and productivity. What happens is that cloud computing plays an integral role in codifying and automating new processes. This allows developers to attain greater control over technology components which lessens wait times. Also, service teams can quicken the development process, eliminate human error, and achieve repeatability by leveraging the cloud to automate the process of building, managing, and provisioning via code. 

Example 2

Cloud computing uses the AWS Service Catalog to enable self-service methods for provisioning infrastructure. There is no need to wait for IT departments to facilitate resources and developers can get new products to market faster. Also, businesses can address long queues and rapidly create development environments.

What Cloud Does For DevOps

Cloud computing supports continuous practices in application lifecycle management by making resources that support business activities easily available in real-time. To further explain, let’s look at the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and the role of cloud technologies at each level.

1. Build

Today, business applications need advanced technology stacks that are time-consuming to develop and configure. The cloud is the solution as it delivers smooth access to development platforms almost instantly rather than taking months. It prompts a LAMP stack and application ecosystems like SAP in just one click, allowing development teams to commence work without delay. Teams can also identify and test innovative technology components resulting from the high accessibility that cloud computing enables.

2. Experiment

An effective DevOps approach involves completing the manual work upfront in the build phase, and the remaining SDLC is an automated pipeline. The cloud provides efficiencies that spin up test environments of higher complexity as one progresses through the delivery pipeline. It then becomes possible to quickly develop test environments that effectively address the scope and complexity of production. 

3. Run

Deploying to production often calls for new or extra infrastructure in which bits of tech lead to unnecessary expenses. The cloud solves this problem by facilitating high speed in developing flexible, scalable, and resource-efficient operational environments. 

Making The Move

What motivates businesses to use DevOps as a leading technology to reach the cloud? The answer lies in the need to simplify and accelerate development processes that slow business growth. Many organizations, particularly SMBs, are unable to launch products and services because of the inability to deal with application development backlogs. 

Although businesses hope to streamline their application development processes by shifting to DevOps, they also know that DevOps alone does not suffice. The latency that results from making capital investments in hardware and software hinders the development process even if it is made agile. Developers have to wait for IT to assemble or install capital resources before they can deploy any applications. This means that DevOps does not provide much value without the cloud and vice versa, as dependencies between the two exist. 

Let’s look at some Cloud and DevOps best practices next:

1. Set Clear Development Requirements

Assess what your company is doing now vs what it needs to do in the future.

2. Define Your Business Case

Understand why you need to initiate the project.

3. State The Initial DevOps Processes

This will provide a roadmap of your business goal or desired outcome and include the milestones you must achieve to reach it. 

4. Present The Initial DevOps Solution And Correlation To The Cloud Platform

You cannot set forth DevOps tools and techniques without having an in-depth understanding of your cloud platform. DevOps processes, automation, and ecosystem must synergize with the target platform. For this, you need to determine the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ of your business case.

5. Trust Your Teams

All your employees must be on board with having DevOps drive cloud development. Encourage your staff to embrace change as you prepare to adopt two technologies at the same time. This can be an issue in companies where traditional developers want to learn but need training and guidance. It is the willingness of developers to demonstrate adaptability and leadership when organizations introduce new tools, processes, platforms, and day-to-day practices.

6. Specify CloudOps

CloudOps looks at how data and applications will run in the cloud over the long term. This will give developers better visibility into how business applications operate and their feedback can offer actionable insights.

Conclusion

At Clouve, our experts are ready to bring their knowledge and expertise to your business. When working with us, you benefit from:

  • Experienced DevOps Specialists

We equip you with tools and technologies tailored for your specific needs.

  • Cost-Effective Service

Subscription-based IT model to improve performance and productivity.

  • Quick Service Delivery

Releases that keep up with changing client requirements.

  • Visibility Across Data

Ensure regulatory compliance and data integrity.

  • Conversion

Effortless modernization of your IT infrastructure.

Contact us today to get started!