Organizations that want to create more flexible workflows, automate development cycles, and improve visibility in the development process have seized upon DevOps as their methodology of choice. This set of practices and technologies that automate development, testing, and deployment makes it much easier for organizations to quickly launch and update products in the cloud and bolster cloud computing strategies.
According to research from Gartner, over 95% of new digital workloads are going to be deployed in the cloud by 2025. Businesses around the world are leveraging DevOps at an ever-increasing rate to support these cloud deployments. In 2021, 83% of IT decision-makers reported implementing DevOps procedures to unlock more business value from their technology. That same year, 58% of organizations reported better performance and higher ROI due to adopting DevOps, and nearly half of companies saw a reduction in the time to market for software and services.
With the benefits of DevOps clearly laid out, it’s no wonder that organizations want to adopt and scale it to meet their needs.
These five key steps are ideal for helping companies adopt DevOps and create cultures that help them reap the benefits of having faster, more agile IT practices.
Step One: Get Executive Sponsors
Management support, including from C-level executives, is necessary for any DevOps initiative to succeed. Most software developers are ready and eager to bridge the gap between development and operations. Indeed, many will have been working with Agile and Lean practices and leveraging open source software for years. This attitude may prove more difficult for IT operations professionals to realize, as they focus on stability.
One way to get the necessary executive sponsorship is to provide incentives like bonuses or rewards for DevOps stakeholders, such as developers, IT operations staff, and leaders in different lines of business. Bringing them together in technology review boards can also help them get on the same page and encourage developers to expose other stakeholders to the benefits of DevOps and how it can help them.
Step Two: Create Repeatable Workflows
Companies often want to expand DevOps across the organization once it takes hold. To facilitate this process, it’s essential to create repeatable workflows that can be used by multiple teams so that, as it becomes more widely used, teams will have a clear path to follow.
They can leverage what’s already been done, rather than having to reinvent the wheel, and start benefiting sooner.
Step Three: Prepare for Company-Wide Adoption
Getting the most out of DevOps requires preparing the entire organization for its adoption. While some team members may be ready right now to leverage the tools and methodologies, others will require training.
As part of preparing for company-wide adoption, organizations need to consider creating career paths for those employees that show potential to lead DevOps teams and train employees on the necessary tools and methods to ensure DevOps initiatives are successful. When employees receive training on DevOps’ foundations or becoming a DevOps Leader, they’re better positioned for the new roles and responsibilities that come with DevOps initiatives.
Step Four: Choose the Tools for Scaling DevOps
It’s tempting for organizations to embrace as much software as possible when it comes to DevOps. Puppet, Chef, Docker, Jenkins, GitHub, Kubernetes, Jira, and Ansible are just a few that companies gravitate to as they roll out DevOps initiatives.
However, it is worth giving this careful consideration, as other tools may work better for a particular initiative or organization. For example, strongDM, an infrastructure access platform, supports a variety of tools used in DevOps and enhances security and compliance. This is highly significant if SOC 2 or other standards apply to the organization in question.
Before adopting tools, organizations also need to establish metrics to measure DevOps’ success. They will want to use these metrics to determine which initiatives are helping them meet their business goals by looking at how they can save time, reduce costs, or improve the customer experience – for example, a faster load time for a particular application. By setting metrics, organizations will have a baseline from which they can pursue other DevOps initiatives or change course if something isn’t producing measurable benefits.
Step Five: Make DevOps Part of the Culture
DevOps isn’t just for new applications! As organizations migrate their legacy applications from on-premise systems to the cloud, DevOps can help them move faster.
Additionally, organizations can future-proof DevOps and ensure it becomes part of the company’s culture by allowing teams to take on new projects or test out new technology to support new initiatives.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that DevOps isn’t just a one-and-done implementation. Like the methodology itself, the process of adopting DevOps is ongoing, with organizations having to refine how they develop, test, and deploy software and technology. This also applies to collaboration between teams in DevOps cultures.
These five steps can help make DevOps successful even in the largest organizations.
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