What is DevOps lifecycle? Benefits and Method
What is DevOps?
DevOps (a combination of “development” and “operations”) is a set of philosophies, practices, and tools that increase the ability of an organization to provide applications and services with high speed. It is the process of developing and improving their products faster than companies that employ traditional software processes for infrastructure and development. This speed allows companies better serve their clients and be more competitive in the marketplace.
Read more: GitOps vs DevOps: What’s the Different?
DevOps Security and DevSecOps
DevOps security, also known as DevSecOps, is the process and practice of securing the whole DevOps environment by implementing methods, policies, strategies, and technologies. The DevSecOps principle is that security needs to be integrated into every aspect of the DevOps lifecycle, including inception, design, build, test, release, support, maintenance, and beyond.
Traditional security works from the assumption that after a system is developed, security flaws can be identified and fixed before its release. In the new DevOps model, the traditional security practices are not implemented until later in the development process. They are slow to be used in the design and the publication of software created through iteration. This means they could become an obstacle to the delivery of applications and services rapidly.
With DevSecOps, security is the primary concern of everyone on the DevOps team. DevSecOps aims to make security decisions with speed and scale without sacrificing security. DevSecOps is a continuous and flexible collaboration between security engineers and releases engineers teams. It combines “speed of distribution” and “building security-grade code” integrated into a streamlined procedure. Iterations conduct security testing without slowing down the delivery cycle. Critical security issues are addressed as they are clear, not after a threat or compromise.
How DevOps Does Its Work
In the DevOps model, the development and operations team is no anymore “siloed.” In some cases, both teams will combine into a single unit where engineers collaborate across the entire lifecycle of an application, from development and test to deployment to operations and development.
In specific DevOps models, quality assurance and security teams can also be more closely linked to operations and development and throughout the application’s entire lifecycle. If security is the primary focus of all DevOps team members, it is often referred to as DevSecOps.
The teams employ practices to automate processes that traditionally were slow and manual. They utilize the technology stack and tools that allow them to operate and develop applications swiftly and effectively. The devices can also help engineers perform tasks on their own (for instance, deployment of code or provisioning infrastructure) which usually will need assistance from other teams. It also increases the team’s speed.
The DevOps life cycle
Due to the continuous nature of DevOps, practitioners utilize the infinity loop to demonstrate how the various phases in the DevOps lifecycle connect to one the other. Although it appears to flow sequentially, it symbolizes the need for continuous cooperation and improvement over the whole lifecycle.
The DevOps lifecycle comprises six phases representing the procedures and the tools, capabilities, and capabilities required to develop (on one side) and operational activities (on both sides of the loop). Each phase is when teams communicate and collaborate to ensure that they are in sync, speed, and quality.
Plan
DevOps teams must adopt agile methods to increase development speed and improve quality. Agile is a method of iterative approaches to managing projects along with software design that aids teams break up work into smaller parts to provide incremental value.
Build
Git is an entirely complimentary as well as open-source version control software. It provides excellent support for merging, branching, and rewriting the history of a repository, leading to several innovative and effective workflows and tools that support the build process of development.
Continuous integration and delivery
CI/CD lets teams create quality products often and in a predictable manner, using automated workflows from the sources to the production. Teams can combine changes to code frequently, deploy flags for features, and implement testing from end to end.
Monitor and alert
Rapidly pinpoint and address issues affecting product uptime performance, speed, and efficiency. Automatically inform your team of any modifications, high-risk activities, or problems, so you can ensure that services are running.
Operate
Manage the end-to-end delivery of IT services to clients. This includes the procedures involved in the design, installation, configuration, deployment, and maintenance of the entire IT infrastructure that supports the organization’s service.
Continuous feedback
DevOps teams should review each release and create reports to help improve future releases. By collecting feedback regularly, teams can enhance their processes and incorporate feedback from customers to enhance the next release.
Benefits of DevOps
Speed
Be agile and fast to develop new ideas for customers faster, adjust to market changes better, and increase your efficiency in achieving business outcomes. The DevOps model allows your teams of developers and operators to attain these outcomes. For instance, microservices and continuous delivery enable teams to manage services and release updates quickly.
Rapid Delivery
Increase your releases’ frequency, frequency, and speed to create and improve your product quicker. The quicker you can launch new features and correct bugs, the more quickly you can meet your customers’ demands and create an advantage in the market. Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery are processes that automatize the software release process from creation to deployment.
Reliability
Be sure to ensure the quality of app updates and infrastructure modifications so you can deliver them at a faster pace and still provide an excellent experience for the end-users. Implement practices such as continuous integration or continuous delivery to ensure the effectiveness of each update and security. Logging and monitoring practices can help keep you informed about the performance of your system in real-time.
Scale
Manage and operate your development and infrastructure processes on a large scale. Automation and consistency allow you to manage complicated or evolving systems with ease and lower risk. For instance, infrastructure as code lets you control your development, testing, and production settings in a repeatable, more efficient way.
Better Collaboration
Create more efficient teams using a DevOps organizational model based on values like the need for ownership and accountability. Teams of developers and operations work closely, share tasks, and integrate their workflows. This helps reduce inefficiencies and save time (e.g., decreased handover times between operations and developers writing code that considers the environment in which it will run).
Security
Quickly move while maintaining control while preserving the integrity of your organization. Without compromising security, you can implement the DevOps model by utilizing automatic compliance guidelines, finely-tuned control, and techniques for managing configurations. For instance, using infrastructure as code and policies in code allows you to design and track compliance at a scale.
Read more: The Importance of DevOps in Cloud Security Management
DevOps methods
DevOps is the direct successor to agile software development. It stems from the necessity to keep up with the increasing speeds of software development and agile practices. The development of agile methods has led to the need for a more comprehensive approach to the entire life process, which led to DevOps.
“Agile development” is a broad term used to describe a variety of different software development methods that iterate, many of which have been incorporated into DevOps:
- Scrum: is a framework that allows people can tackle complex, adaptive issues while producing products with the best value.
- Kanban: is a system for managing the development of products, focusing on continuous delivery without burdening developers. Like Scrum, Kanban is a method designed to allow teams to collaborate more effectively.
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): is a set of organizational and workflow practices designed to help enterprises implement scaling agile and lean practices. SAFe is among many frameworks that attempt to address the issues when scaling beyond one team.
- Lean development: is the application of manufacturing principles and practices into software development. Lean provides a framework of values, regulations, and best practices, based on experience that supports agile companies.
- Extreme programming (XP): is a method of software development to enhance the quality of software and the ability to adapt to customers’ changing requirements. XP promotes frequent releases during short development cycles, intended to boost productivity and create points to incorporate the latest customer demands. Other aspects of extreme programming are programming in pairs, performing an extensive code review, and unit testing of every code element. Not programming features until they are required and a flat management structure, code simplicity and clarity, anticipating changes to the customer’s needs as time goes by. The problem becomes more easily understood and regular communication with customers.
Read more: DevOps and Agile: How to Agile & DevOps Interrelated
How do you adopt the DevOps Model?
DevOps Cultural Philosophy
Moving to DevOps will require a change in mindset and culture. The simplest way to describe it is that DevOps is about eliminating the boundaries between two previously isolated teams, operational and development. In specific organizations, maybe it will not exist separate operations and development teams. Engineers can be involved in both. With DevOps, the two groups collaborate to improve the productivity of developers and the efficiency of operations.
They aim to communicate regularly to increase efficiency and enhance the quality of their customers’ services. They are fully responsible for their offerings, sometimes going beyond the areas where their positions or titles have been defined. They think about the customer’s needs and how they can help address the problems. Security and quality assurance teams could also become joined to the teams. Companies that employ the DevOps model, regardless of their organizational structures, will have sections that take the entire development infrastructure life cycle as part of their duties.
DevOps practices explained
Some essential practices can help companies accelerate innovation by streamlining and automating infrastructure and software development procedures. The majority of these practices can be achieved with the right tools.
One of the most important practices is to conduct regular yet minor updates that are very frequent and small. This allows organizations too can innovate more quickly for their customers. They are typically more incremental than the occasional updates made using traditional release methods. Minor, frequent updates make every deployment less risky. They can help teams fix problems faster by determining the previous update that led to the issue. While the frequency and amount of updates may differ, companies that employ the DevOps model will deploy updates more frequently than companies that use traditional software development methods.
Companies can also utilize the microservices model to make their software more flexible and allow faster development. The microservices model separates huge, complex systems into simple, autonomous projects. Applications are divided into parts (services), each assigned one purpose or task and functioning independently of its peers and the entire application. This minimizes the time and effort involved in making changes to applications. Additionally, each of these services is joined by small teams responsible for the service. Companies can improve their speed of action.
However, the mix of microservices and a higher release frequency can increase deployments that cause operational problems. Therefore, DevOps methods like continuous integration and delivery can solve these problems, allowing organizations to provide rapid delivery securely and reliably. Automating infrastructure, for example, software as code or configuration management, assist in keeping computing resources flexible and responsive to changes. Additionally, monitoring and logging allow engineers to keep track of the performance of infrastructure and applications to respond quickly to any issues.
These practices can help companies provide faster and more secure updates to their customers. Here’s an overview of some of the vital DevOps techniques.
DevOps practices
These are DevOps best methods:
- Continuous Integration
- Continuous Delivery
- Microservices
- The Code of Infrastructure
- Monitoring and Logging
- Collaboration and Communication
Below, you can find out more about each specific practice.
Continuous Integration
Continuous integration (CI) is a practice in development where developers frequently incorporate their changes to their code in a single repository, following which automated tests and builds are conducted. The primary objectives of continuous integration are to identify and fix bugs faster, increase software quality, and cut down on time required to verify and release new software updates.
Continuous Delivery
Continuous delivery refers to a method of development where code changes are constructed, tested, and then ready for launch to production. Continuous integration extends on constant integration by deploying any code changes to a test environment and/or an environment for production after the build phase. If continuous delivery is done correctly, developers will always have a deploy-ready build artifact that the standard test process has tested.
Microservices
Microservices architecture is an approach to designing one application using various smaller services. Each service operates in its manner and interacts with other services using an established interface that uses the most straightforward mechanism, typically the HTTP app programming interface (API). Microservices are designed around business capabilities, and each service is geared to only one purpose. You can utilize different software frameworks and programming languages to create microservices and deploy them separately or as one service or a set of services.
Infrastructure as Code
The term “Infrastructure as Code” refers to an approach in which infrastructure is managed and provisioned with the help of code and software development methods, including continuous integration and version control. Cloud’s API-driven model allows system administrators and developers to communicate with infrastructure in a programmatic manner and on a large scale instead of manually setting up and managing infrastructure. Therefore, engineers can interact with infrastructure through code-based tools and approach infrastructure similarly to how they handle applications. Since they are defined by code, servers and infrastructure are easily deployed with standard patterns and then up-to-date with the latest versions and patches or replicated using repeatable methods.
Configuration Management
Administrators and developers utilize software to automate the configuration of host and operating systems and operational tasks, and much more. Coding ensures that configuration changes are repeatable and uniform. It allows developers and system administrators to manually configure the operating system, systems programs, and servers.
Policy as Code
When infrastructure and its configuration are codified in the cloud, companies can manage and enforce compliance in real-time and massive ways. The infrastructure described in the code can be monitored, validated, and modified in a controlled manner. This makes it simpler for companies to oversee changes to resources and make sure the security precautions are applied in a distributed fashion (e.g., data security or conformity with PCI DSS and HIPAA). This helps teams within the organization to operate at a greater rate since non-compliant resources could be flagged automatically for further investigation or immediately brought back into compliance.
Monitoring and Logging
Organizations track data and logs to understand how the performance of infrastructure and applications affects their users’ experience. By capturing, categorizing, and then analyzing the data and records created by applications and infrastructure, companies can understand the impact of updates or changes on users and reveal the root causes behind problems or sudden changes. Monitoring becomes vital because services need to be accessible all day as infrastructure and application update frequency rise. The creation of alerts or real-time analysis of these data can help organizations actively to monitor their services.
Communication and Collaboration
Improved communication and collaboration within an organization are among the main aspects of DevOps culture. Utilizing DevOps tools and automatization, software delivery allows cooperation to be established by physically bringing teams together to share the work and the responsibilities of operations and development. In addition, teams establish solid norms of culture around sharing information and facilitating communications through chat tools such as issue tracking trackers for projects and Wikis. This improves communications between operations, developers, and other departments like sales or marketing, allowing all departments to work more closely on the goals and tasks.