Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
8.1 What Is DevOps?
DevOps is a combination of culture and practices—system administrators, software deve-
lopers, and web operations staff all contribute to the DevOps environment. With DevOps,
sysadmins and developers share responsibility for a service and its availability. DevOps
aligns the priorities of developers (dev) and system administrators or operations staff (ops)
by making them both responsible for uptime. DevOps also brings all of the various envir-
onments, from development through test and production, under software version manage-
ment and control.
At its most fundamental level, DevOps is about breaking down silos and removing
bottlenecks and risks that screw up an organization's Development to Operations de-
livery lifecycle. The goal is to enable change to flow quickly and reliably from spe-
cification through to running features in a customer-facing environment. (
Edwards
DevOps is an emerging field in operations. The practice of DevOps typically appears
in web application and cloud environments, but its influence is spreading to all parts of all
industries.
DevOps is about improving operations. Theo Schlossnagle (2011) says DevOps is “the
operationalism of the world.” Increasingly companies are putting a greater importance on
theoperationalpartoftheirbusiness.Thisisbecauseofanincreasingtrendtobeconcerned
with the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a project, not just the initial purchase price, as
well as increasing pressure to achieve higher reliability and velocity of change. The abil-
ity to make changes is required to improve efficiency and to introduce new features and
innovations. While traditionally change has been seen as a potential destabilizer, DevOps
showsthatinfrastructure changecanbedonerapidlyandfrequently inawaythatincreases
overall stability.
DevOps is not a job title; you cannot hire a “DevOp.” It is not a product; you cannot
purchase “DevOps software.” There are teams and organizations that exhibit DevOps cul-
tureandpractices.Manyofthepracticesareaidedbyonesoftwarepackageoranother.But
there isnoboxyoucan purchase, pressthe DevOpsbutton, andmagically “have” DevOps.
Adam Jacob's seminal “Choose Your Own Adventure” talk at Velocity 2010 (
Jacob 2010
)
makes the case that DevOps is not a job description, but rather an inclusive movement that
codifies a culture. In this culture everyone involved knows how the entire system works,
andeveryoneisclearabouttheunderlyingbusinessvaluetheybringtothetable.Asaresult
availability becomes theproblemfortheentire organization, notjustforthesystemadmin-
istrators.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search