The State of DevOps

DevOps aims to streamline how developers and operations professionals work together through a new integrated approach. DevOps strategies are growing in popularity among many organizations as organizations seek to help developers to build applications faster and operators to launch the same applications more quickly.

It's a transition from the traditional 'siloed' style of development, where problems often resulted from the lack of communication and collaboration between business operations and IT stakeholders.

For example, where developers built an application one way, and operators managed deployment in another, the disconnect could result in delays when the organization need to rapidly innovate to handle business demands.

The central focus of DevOps is on improved collaboration, with development and operations working together more effectively. This article will explore DevOps in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, the potential for growth, and how organizations can get started.

The need for a DevOps focus

In a recent interview with Network World, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst explained that whereas "infrastructure is a cost center," the applications created by developers "can actually make money,"resulting in a shift in CIO thinking.

The center of focus now is how to develop apps faster by boosting developer productivity. In doing so, CIOs can help their organizations grow revenues as well as the bottom line.

"That's really where the value is," Whitehurst stated. "That's where CIOs should be focusing." As a result, many organizations are making DevOps a primary focus.

DevOps is still relatively new to APAC

This new mode of development is still in the early stages of uptake in the APAC region, but the need for developers and operators to work together can push adoption.

DevOps is currently growing in Asia Pacific and Japan, according to a study of 1300 senior IT executives, conducted by research firm Vanson Bourne, on behalf of CA Technologies from May to June 2013.

We expect this focus on fault-free application delivery to push the uptake of DevOps-style strategies in the near future as organizations look to gain a competitive advantage. Consistently meeting business goals is a difficult undertaking, with the issues only scaling up as enterprises grow larger.

By aligning IT operations and business goals through a focused DevOps strategy - both in terms of an organizational culture and the right tools, organizations can improve both communication and collaboration, and have a positive business impact by creating and deploying applications more efficiently.

Strategies for DevOps

A DevOps strategy isn't something that can be put in place overnight, and it's important that organizations understand the best approaches.

Starting small and identifying a few areas where developers and operators can work together is an effective way to begin a DevOps mode of operations. By finding specific problems to solve, these groups can rally as they focus on a common issue, helping organizations establish a new DevOps culture.

Then, by beginning a DevOps mode of operations and deploying DevOps-enabling tools, organizations can streamline how developers and operators collaborate. Once such a strategy has been implemented, developers can begin building applications faster, with operators swiftly handling the associated launches.

Once the DevOps culture and tools have been established, organizations can gradually move away from siloed development - and many of the associated communication and collaboration issues.

Watch "Accelerating DevOps and Innovating with PaaS" webinars here.