Because of this, companies have started embracing modern development methodologies, like scrum and agile. DevOps helps streamline the development process: it bridges the gap between IT operations and software development and allows teams to deliver more frequently. Automation is key when talking about accelerating with DevOps since it facilitates efficiency, reliability, and consistency in the company.
DevOps automation is the process of automating manual and repetitive DevOps tasks so that they can be completed without human intervention. Automation helps eliminate the need for large teams, reduces the number of errors, increases productivity, and creates a short DevOps lifecycle. This may all seem very straightforward, but in practice, it can be challenging to know where to start and what to automate. There are some best practices that can help every company move in the right direction.
DevOps Automation Best Practices
DevOps is often considered to be the same as CI/CD (continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment). In reality, DevOps includes a lot more than CI/CD, but CI/CD is an integral part of DevOps automation. Continuous integration (CI) enables the testing of changes and allows users to check whether the changes break anything in the environment. With continuous delivery (CD), you can develop software so that successful release candidates can be deployed to production at any time. Continuous deployment (CD) takes it even further: each successful change is sent to production immediately. Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), when combined, form a collaborative approach that allows employees to work on projects while sharing ownership. Additionally, teams maintain quality control through automation and use continuous deployment to distribute new features to users.
In regards to the management of change, certain practices can help create consistency. Version control is essential for enabling teams to cooperate by providing everyone with a standard process and codebase to work with. Having a system that coordinates and enables modifications, while also tracking your code's version history, helps preserve product direction, decreases the likelihood of detrimental code changes, and fosters collaboration. Finally, with configuration management, everyone can handle complex deployments using templates and manage changes with suitable controls and approvals.
With continuous monitoring, you can utilize technology to monitor performance throughout the software lifecycle. There are a few things to consider here:
- Logging provides you with a continual stream of data about the important components of your organization.
- Monitoring gives the basic data in logs and metrics a layer of intelligence and insight.
- Alerts provide you with crucial debugging information, while also notifying you when there is a problem.
The correct monitoring software can mean the difference between a little service interruption and a large outage.
Benefits of DevOps Automation
Automation is essential in order to achieve DevOps objectives - high value and quality delivered fast and frequently. Additionally, automation decreases the incidence of errors, while achieving accuracy, reliability, and consistency. In short, automating everything allows for the DevOps goal of high-quality delivery, as well as more frequent and faster releases.
If you want to know more about DevOps in general, DevOps assessment, automation or management:
- visit our devops service page;
- give us a call at +385 1 3141 562;
- contact our sales department at sales@sedmiodjel.com.
