The IT field keeps evolving with time. Also, new methods and approaches pop up from time to time. However, delivering quality software to market demands is not an easy task. It warrants teams to iterate and experiment quickly. Deploying newer software versions too, often in line with data and feedback, is necessary. It is here that Cloud and DevOps step in to help out.
So, what is DevOps? DevOps refers to a transformation aimed at integrating software development and operations teams from a business viewpoint. It is a blend of techniques found in Lean and Agile methodologies. DevOps is used to transform the way organizations create software products. It combines the principles of development with operations that address the challenges that organizations face today. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is the availability (on-demand) of computer system resources, especially computing power and data storage, without the user’s direct active management. Large Clouds usually have functions distributed over multiple locations, where each function is a data center. The two approaches, Cloud computing and DevOps are related to one another and work closely. Let us find out how.
Understanding Cloud DevOps
DevOps is essentially a set of practices, philosophies, and tools used for automating and integrating the processes between software development and IT operations teams. This helps to improve the product quality and accelerates time to market.
Cloud, on the other side, facilitates simultaneous development, thus enabling continuous collaboration between different teams across the world. When Cloud and DevOps work together in an environment built for agility and flexibility, it can be called Cloud DevOps. According to a study conducted to test software delivery performance, around 900 IT professionals across the world were surveyed on how they attain success in software delivery. The results observed that the performance of the companies using DevOps with Cloud increased by 81%.
How Cloud Computing and DevOps are Related?
Both Cloud and DevOps have multiple benefits to offer in the era of an agile business world. Cloud technology ensures that organizations can access a wide range of solutions and features at a speed that aligns with their needs. With the Cloud, there is no limit on how much functionality an IT company can access. Cloud tech makes it easy to enhance and upgrade features in any environment quickly.
DevOps, in the same way, supports an agile environment for everybody involved. Both solutions have their benefits to consider for productivity and speed. However, when the Cloud and DevOps come together, they enrich each other’s strengths to make a more compelling offering.
Clouds are designed and built in a way that allows them to exploit the advantages of all DevOps methods. The Cloud provides tools for centralized deployments and can offer support for DevOps built-in.
For example, if DevOps teams have to assemble the different components for a solution in a particular way, the Cloud’s advanced automation capabilities can streamline the entire process and make it even more repeatable. This, in turn, saves a lot of time and energy for producing software products.
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
The use of IaC tools such as AWS CloudFormation, Terraform, or Azure Resource Manager helps to define and deploy infrastructure in a consistent and repeatable way. Such an approach minimizes the risk of configuration drift and allows teams to manage infrastructure efficiently. Both Cloud as well as DevOps use these tools for risk minimization and efficient use of infrastructure, which mimics how closely they are related to one another.
Scalability and Flexibility
Scalable and flexible applications and infrastructure avoid single points of failure, handle variable loads, and ensure high availability. Such an approach reduces downtime, improves customer satisfaction, and enables business continuity. DevOps uses flexible and scalable infrastructure for software development and delivery, whereas Cloud computing employs Scalable and flexible resources to streamline the software development process.
Automation
Today, automation is the key to minimal manual intervention and speedy procedures. DevOps automates recurring testing and builds that comply with product deployments. Cloud computing, on the flip side, automates all processes for quick disbursement of resources for DevOps and other processes. In a sense, both methodologies work closely to speed up the overall aim of producing products through automation.
Collaboration and Communication
Collaboration and communication between teams ensure alignment and cooperation. This kind of approach improves transparency, reduces silos, and enables continuous improvement and feedback. While DevOps implements seamless communication for collaboration between software development and IT teams, Cloud computing ensures smooth communication between different techniques for efficient allocation of resources for different processes.
Continuous Monitoring and Feedback
Continuous monitoring tools such as CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail help to monitor your application and infrastructure for security events. Both Cloud computing and DevOps implement automated response and alerting so that security incidents are detected and addressed promptly.
Elasticity
Elasticity determines the responsiveness of one particular variable to a change in another. Both DevOps as well as Cloud are highly elastic. If there is a change in one variable such as storage, other variables such as power and computation capability change accordingly. Even the increase or decrease in scalability impacts the resources and processes of Cloud as well as DevOps in the software development and deployment process.
Agility and Rapid Deployment
Agile methodologies such as Kanban and Scrum emphasize communication and collaboration between team members. Agile teams work in sprints and employ daily stand-up meetings to assess progress and determine issues that have to be addressed. Both Cloud and DevOps use Agility and rapid development to achieve goals. While Cloud computing uses Agility for efficient use of resources and collaboration, DevOps implements Agile techniques for quick and effective development and deployment of software products.
Cost Management
The cost of producing software products can skyrocket for many reasons. Time, resources, and manpower are enough to elevate your costs to a great extent. However, cost management becomes easier with the use of Cloud-based DevOps. Since Cloud computing has all the resources for software deployment and testing, you can cut down the overall costs. Both DevOps and Cloud computing have common resources. So, those cost management parameters correspond to each of these methodologies.
Bonus: “Also, Check out our article about How Do Agile And DevOps Interrelate to each other?”
The Benefits of Cloud-Based DevOps
DevOps by itself presents a series of benefits to any IT company. However, Cloud-based DevOps comes with additional perks. The list is virtually endless.
However, the most popular advantages of using Cloud based DevOps include:
Cloud-Centric Automation Options
Automation is a critical tool to make DevOps more efficient. Many Cloud platforms offer advanced tools for automation through DevOps processes such as continuous integration and continuous development. CircleCI, GitLab, Travis CI, and Jenkins are examples of such tools used for continuous integration. These tools provide speed and consistency, with minimum human interaction.
Centralized Platform
The Cloud provides a centralized platform where organizations can handle everything from testing and deployment to operating and monitoring their production work. As a result, keeping track of everything in the same space becomes easy. When all information for DevOps is in one place, managing things such as compliance and security becomes easier. In addition to this, you can get more business intelligence and meaningful insights this way.
Scalable Infrastructure
Having a Cloud-based Infrastructure is the best option to ensure that you can downscale or upscale any infrastructure as and when required, without spending a lot of time and money on systems. This kind of scalability means that DevOps is an extremely efficient solution to roll out new features, opportunities, and functionality as your business grows. Plus, you can combine the Cloud with the Agility of DevOps to access limitless development opportunities for your company.
Agile Development
Since Cloud can provide different testing and staging servers, DevOps teams enjoy the freedom to wait for the required servers to become available to continue their work. Also, using DevOps throughout the Cloud encourages better experimentation for teams because builds can happen speedily. DevOps teams can provision servers quickly that are best suited to them.
Uptime and Stability
As Cloud providers concentrate on stability and uptime, they can look after all the maintenance and management elements of the platform. Instead of worrying about these problems, IT companies can pay attention to product development to result in improved user experience, improved product performance, and faster time to market. The key to success lies in choosing a Cloud provider that can present the right level of uptime for your venture.
Best Practices in Cloud DevOps
Each methodology in the IT sector comes with a myriad of practices. It is essential to follow the best practices to make the most out of the said service. Cloud DevOps is no exception in this case. Here are the best practices that you must follow to optimize Cloud DevOps.
Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery is a necessity
CI/CD pipeline is the core of the DevOps philosophy. Here, CI means building and validating the project regularly by updating code changes at periodic intervals. CD, on the other side, means deploying code automatically in the production environment.
Test for Performance
Capitalizing on automated performance testing will let you test your application’s performance at periodic intervals. This will enhance the likelihood of identifying issues earlier and improving the overall performance too.
Integrating Containers
Containers help you compartmentalize applications. That means you can work on particular areas without worrying about the effect on others. This makes it easy for you to deploy and update the applications.
Communication and Collaboration
Every team must be on board with the project with relevant and updated information. In addition to this, there must be a forum to share valuable feedback for further improvement.
Continuous Monitoring and Logging
All system activities should be recorded and monitored to make sure that the events are triggered at the right time. Continuous Monitoring corrects anything that is not performing well. Constant logging will let you identify issues quickly for a speedy resolution.
Invest in Infrastructure
A good infrastructure is an integral part of streamlining DevOps processes. As well as saving enough time, it will slash your costs in the long run.
Concluding Words
Cloud and DevOps are the future of the IT technology world. The development of organizations in today’s era relies on bringing software into operations rapidly. This digital transformation warrants companies to take a leap of faith toward Cloud with DevOps. While DevOps ensures quality software development along with speedy delivery, the Cloud facilitates the overall process with various tools and resources. So, Industry leaders have to work towards reducing the business and technical obstacles to adopting DevOps in Cloud development and capitalize on its maximum potential.
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Amol Shete
Senior Software Engineer
A well-experienced DevOps engineer who loves to discuss cloud, DevOps, and Kubernetes. An energetic team player with great communication & interpersonal skills.
FAQ's
DevOps refers to a transformation aimed at integrating the software development and operations teams from a business viewpoint to produce high-quality software products at a faster delivery rate. Cloud computing is the availability of computer system resources on demand, especially computing power and data storage, without the user’s direct active management.
Cloud computing is essentially the delivery of computing services – including storage, servers, databases, analytics, networking, software, and intelligence – over the Internet (“the Cloud”) to ensure economies of scale, faster innovation, and flexible resources. You pay only for the Cloud services you use, lower your operating costs, run your infrastructure efficiently, and scale with changing business needs.
In contrast, CloudOps or Cloud Operations is the process of identifying and defining relevant operational procedures for optimizing IT services within the Cloud environment. It is the culmination of traditional IT operations and DevOps applied to Cloud-based architectures.
DevOps is a preferred choice for any IT aspirant. It opens up room for a myriad of employment opportunities. However, Cloud computing is also in great demand as most of the processes related to DevOps and other IT processes are completed on Cloud.
It depends on individual choice, but learning DevOps thoroughly along with basic Cloud computing knowledge is highly recommended. It paves the path for a more remunerative career. Plus, you stand a chance of getting promoted to higher positions at a faster rate.
The demand for Cloud computing is increasing with the increase in the number of IT companies switching to Cloud-based operations. Also, DevOps has become the epicenter of quality software development at a faster pace. Combining both methodologies makes a better choice for any IT aspirant. Freshers can quickly land a job in any company with Cloud DevOps in their arsenal.
