While DevOps transitioned from a buzzword to an essential part of operations at many technology companies, a majority of shops only partially adopt the practice if at all. This is one of the most interesting findings of a study of IT professionals published this month in BetaNews. Still many firms are seeing benefits and improved efficiency because of merging their software engineering and network operations functions.
Let’s dive into the details of this industry survey to see what organizations are doing in lieu of a full DevOps implementation. Are they still able to see achieve a better process by only going part of the way? The answers provide some food for thought for your own company’s development efforts.
2nd Watch, a Cloud-based managed service operator, surveyed over 1,000 IT professionals on their organization’s use (or non-use) of DevOps. Most tellingly, nearly 80 percent of the surveyed companies still maintain separate software engineering and operations teams. Still, a number of those organizations use some of the tools commonly associated with DevOps, including CI/CD, automation, and Cloud-based infrastructure ops software.
Nearly two-thirds of the tech orgs in the survey use “infrastructure as code” approaches to improve the efficiency of their operations. Some of the biggest applications in this area are Terraform, Configuration Management, and Kubernetes. 2nd Watch noted that almost 40 percent of the surveyed companies still manage network operations manually.
2nd Watch also commented that the manual process of network management remains incompatible with a DevOps approach. However, the process of teamwork and strong interaction are essential. “In order to transform a business into a DevOps organization, companies should work towards bringing separate operating groups together as a single team,” commented Jeff Aden, 2nd Watch’s executive vice-president of marketing and business development.
Another quite surprising survey finding relates to the software QA approach at these companies. Nearly 25 percent of the surveyed firms employ little to no quality assurance process. While some code testing happens, it appears to be a disorganized practice at some of these companies.
The numbers look better when it comes to the use of automation in the SDLC. 70 percent of the surveyed companies leverage an automated process for some portion of code management and deployment. On the other hand, around 20 percent of the companies use no form of application monitoring; instead they rely on end-user notification. Thankfully, the rest prefer a more modern approach.
Aden summarized how his company’s survey reveals the piecemeal approach many companies take towards DevOps adoption. “The results reveal the 80/20 rule, where slightly more than 20 percent of respondents are actually engaging in DevOps in its purest form today. There is still a tremendous opportunity for companies to modernize their organizations to accelerate development and remain competitive in the marketplace,” said Aden.
Ultimately, it’s still a positive if organizations are able to gain some benefits by the use of automated DevOps tools without merging their development and network operations. Companies need to take the approach that works best for them. Still, shops that eschew organized testing and application monitoring aren’t likely to stay in business for long.
Thanks for reading this edition of the Betica Blog. Keep coming back for additional insights on the software development world.
Posted on June 27, 2018