What Is DevOps? DevOps Services & Solutions

DevOps can be defined as the joining of application development and IT operations to streamline productivity and provide continuous software delivery. When thinking of software development, there is typically a flow of gathering an idea, coding that idea, deploying an executable, and then managing that deployment and learning what changes need to be applied and run through that entire process again. DevOps is the continuous use of that cycle with no breaks or interruptions in service. This is only made possible when IT operations and development can work in unison.

Utilizing proper DevOps services and solutions allows for every step of that process to be working simultaneously. To put it as plainly as possible, DevOps provides for the implementation of new code with minimal downtime thanks to cooperation between development and IT departments. 

In this section of our guide, we’ll cover how DevOps works—the processes involved. We’ll explore the DevOps model, strategy, and key questions to keep in mind as you begin planning.

Not every DevOps model will look the same. Before implementation, you should have an idea of what your model will look like for your business. Remember that depending on your business or software's specific needs or software, you may need to adjust your model accordingly. Typically, this model breaks up application development into varying segments that are handled by either operations or development departments. Ideally, this model will look like an infinite loop that can provide a continuous workflow for your developers and operations staff. Dev teams will usually handle planning, coding, building, and testing code while operations can focus on release, deployment, and monitoring. With a successful DevOps model in place, all of these processes can happen simultaneously.

Your DevOps strategy is the first step into successfully building and utilizing DevOps within your organization. When creating a strategy, there are four main areas in which you should focus:

1. Determine Your Goals

Before you begin seeing the benefits of DevOps solutions, you need to determine what you want the strategy to accomplish when working as intended. This could include finding your current challenges and areas of failure and deciding how you want them to change based on your DevOps implementation. Knowing what you wish to accomplish is the first step in utilizing any new technology.

2. Identify Development Foundations

Along with deciding what goals you wish to meet, it is important to know the foundations that new development will build on. Foundations can be anything from transparent communication between departments to more concrete ideas like the availability of CI/CD tools.

3. Realize Success Factors

The only way to know if your DevOps strategy is working properly is to set goals that will measure your solution's success. Factors such as continuous monitoring, testing, or delivery can be set as said goals, and the proper utilization of each element can be regarded as successful DevOps integration.

4. Make Adjustments Based on Monitoring

After launching your DevOps solution, you must monitor the strategy to ensure that the foundations and goals you set are being achieved. Much like DevOps as a whole, successful monitoring requires all departments' collaboration to understand what the monitored metrics mean and how they affect the operation as a whole. Successful DevOps is made possible through active monitoring and continuous implementation of new code and solutions.  

DevOps works by changing company culture and procedures to better combine development and operations departments to achieve the most optimal workflow. DevOps works to remove barriers between departments. Automation is a significant part of any successful DevOps strategy, and a DevOps engineer will work to automate as many facets of development and operations as possible.

Every day, more organizations are shifting to a DevOps-focused business model, and it is clear to see why. Here are just a few of the benefits of DevOps:

• Speed - The overall goal of any DevOps strategy is to increase the rate at which work can be done. 
• Consistency - One of the major ways that DevOps can speed up workflow is by reducing downtime. Having a more consistent IT infrastructure allows Devs to get the most out of every second of work.
• Security - Implementing a DevOps model can be done with zero sacrifices to security. Through automation, security can be streamlined to remain secure and be less of a hassle for employees. 
• Communication - DevOps is much more than the implementation of automation. The collaboration and communication of multiple departments allow for a shift in company culture that can reach areas far beyond development and operations.

Sometimes, switching to a DevOps model for your organization can be too much to handle internally. That is where third-party solutions such as managed DevOps services come into play. CDW is at the forefront of the tech industry and is prepared to offer industry-leading DevOps services and solutions for your business or organization:

Whether you are thinking about implementing DevOps or if things have got messy along the way, CDW consultants are ready to assist your organization at any time. CDW has experts in everything from IaC to App Monitorization, and we are ready to help take your business to the next level.

You can think of a DevOps transformation as the action of shifting your company into the modern age. No matter your current IT structure, CDW DevOps partners and service providers can work closely with you to transform your organization. Legacy software can be added to cloud-based solutions; models can be developed, adjusted, and implemented specifically to your company's needs. Before you know it, CDW experts can have your business running an efficient and powerful DevOps Strategy.

Learn more about CDW Amplified Development Services

Completely changing how your organization functions can be a daunting task, not to mention the major shift in company culture that comes with implementing DevOps. If you are interested in DevOps solutions or perhaps have started your DevOps journey but got lost along the way, CDW experts in DevOps assessment are here for you. On average, CDW professionals bring in 20 years of experience and have in-depth knowledge and understanding of all DevOps practices. 

Explore all CDW DevOps Solutions

Let’s take a deeper dive into DevOps processes, methodology and best practices:

Observability - Monitoring is one of the key pillars of DevOps and needs to be automated as often as possible to increase workflow. Typically, monitoring can be based on three key processes. Traces, logs, and metrics are all used in unison to successfully monitor any DevOps solution.

Frequent Automation - Another fundamental principle of DevOps is the frequent and efficient implementation of automation wherever possible. Proper utilization of cloud-based resources is essential to scaling your automation growth along with your business.

Utilize Feedback - Getting feedback from both your customer and employees allows you to address issues in real-time. Addressing past problems ensures that every new digital interaction with your organization can be better than the last. Do not underestimate the power of feedback. Ultimately, feedback should also be automated as much as possible to increase the rate at which issues can be dealt with and fixes can be deployed. 

The DevOps lifecycle is the implementation and operation of the following phases. Eventually, each will be done continuously to best suit business objectives and the organization as a whole.

• Development
• Integration
• Testing
• Deployment 
• Monitoring

One of the most significant benefits of using IaaS is that it can scale with your business flawlessly. Specific industries have fluctuating workloads that can change at a moment's notice, and static in-house IT solutions are not ideal for those situations. IaaS allows for companies to pay for what they need when they need it. This allows a business to save costs in crucial downtimes so that money can be available to expand along with spikes in workloads.

There are many different tools and pieces of software available to help with your DevOps journey. Whether you are implementing a DevOps strategy in-house or hiring a third-party service provider like CDW, you will need to familiarize yourself and all departments with new software and tools. It is not uncommon to use many different pieces of software in a DevOps model.

Some tools may be perfect for monitoring but lack in other areas like inter-departmental communication or possible automation. A major benefit of hiring experts like at CDW is that we have extensive experience with various software and can help you to better understand your options before making expensive purchases.

The second half of the word DevOps stands for Operations, which includes your organization's IT infrastructure. One of DevOps' key principles is the use of development practices to provision and deploy technology and IT management. Using resources such as Infrastructure as Code or IaC, an organization can vastly reduce IT management costs and minimize hardware and network downtime. DevOps only works when all of its principles are applied through both development and operation departments.

An organization of any size can benefit from taking a cloud-based approach to DevOps. Cloud tools offer instant insights and feedback as well as the ability to monitor network consumption and usage rates easily. Remember that even the most robust cloud-based solutions still require the proper tools and knowledge to be utilized properly. The experts at CDW are ready with industry-standard tools to manage your cloud-based solutions. Depending on the size of your organization, you could need more robust cloud-based solutions. Below, you will find some types of cloud-based operations and what they entail.

As the name entails, a private cloud deployment is only accessible internally. Private cloud solutions are typically for data retrieval done entirely in-house or other internal network solutions.

Not as simple in name as private clouds, public clouds are a model in which services are managed by a third party using the public internet. Public cloud solutions can be comprehensive and include IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, and other services.

When hiring a third party for DevOps implementation, you will often utilize a multi-cloud. These solutions use more than one public provider for cloud-based solutions. Services could include data storage or even the sharing of computational resources. Multi-clouds allow organizations to pick many different tools to ensure that the best solution is in place for any given task or scenario.

A combination of any private cloud deployment and a public based cloud solution can be considered a hybrid cloud. Working together both on-site and remote allows for some of the most efficient use of multiple services. Hybrid clouds are great for DevOps models, because they help build a centralized infrastructure where multiple services can collaborate in real-time to address issues and implement changes from feedback. 

While DevOps is a strategy meant to optimize your business, it is also a shift into the future of productivity and company culture. DevOps promotes communication on all levels and helps break down barriers that have slowed down progress between departments in the past. DevOps allows for both development and IT operations to work in unison to provide the best possible user experience and end product through the power of automation and communication. Though it may seem like a daunting task, there are many resources available, like the experts at CDW, to help aid you no matter where you are in your DevOps journey. 

CDW’s DevOps team partners with local, national and global organizations to help bridge the gap between IT and business groups. Our experts bring an average of 20 years of experience to every assessment, consultation and engagement, and have a deep knowledge of the evolving tools and processes that drive DevOps success.