The explosive growth in the DevOps movement is driving new thinking in software development.
That's one of the biggest takeaways from the ThoughtWorks 2015 Technology Radar - a bi-annual assessment compiled by the ThoughtWorks Technology Advisory Board of current and emerging technologies and tools being deployed by the company's software engineers and clients.
According to the report, the DevOps movement is being driven by the adoption of cloud computing services that have irrevocably changed how organisations handle and access their own, as well as third-party, data.
Market research firm Gartner expects strong growth opportunities for DevOps toolsets, with the total for DevOps tools reaching $2.3 billion in 2015, up 21.1% from $1.9 billion in 2014. By 2016, DevOps will evolve from a niche strategy employed by large cloud providers to a mainstream strategy employed by 25% of Global 2000 organisations, Gartner says.
Jaco Greyling, CA Southern Africa presales manager for application delivery, enterprise management and mobility, says DevOps was born out of a necessity to cope with increased business demands on IT to help drive innovation.
"In a nutshell, DevOps is a process which helps foster collaboration between the teams that create and test applications and those that maintain them in production environments, in order to release new applications faster," Greyling explains.
Every organisation wants to develop applications faster, and do so with higher performance and quality, while stabilising IT costs, he adds.
"Development and operations largely remain separated by a 'big wall' step of release, as many activities and components must be aligned on either side over the course of weeks or months to deliver code into production."
Key to success
According to Greyling, while collaboration and methodology are key to a successful DevOps strategy, there are still high technology hurdles to overcome before true DevOps can possibly be realised within a larger enterprise.
Today, everything is driven through a connected, mobile and application-based world where customers are far more likely to experience a brand and interact with that enterprise through software applications than a live person, he states.
"In this new reality, every company, in order to survive and grow, will need to become a technology company. Every business will need to become a digital business. How organisations embrace the acceleration of technology adoption will define their performance in the application economy."
He points out that new research commissioned by CA Technologies shows many organisations are achieving significant and measurable benefits from DevOps - anywhere from between 17% to 23% improvement in key business metrics such as revenue, time-to-market and new customer acquisition.
In the same study, he adds, IT leaders recognise they must change how their organisations work to accelerate time-to-market, improve software quality, speed application development and meet growing customer demands.
"The study also confirms two-thirds of IT leaders are deploying new technologies, updating processes and collaborating across IT domains to implement DevOps and achieve these goals. In nearly all countries, the majority of respondents indicated DevOps is needed now more than ever."
In another research of 50 senior IT decision-makers across SA, 44% of respondents indicated they already have a DevOps strategy in place. "This study also echoes the findings of the international study with over 94% of respondents indicating there is a greater need for DevOps now more than ever."
DevOps pitfalls
However, Greyling reveals the research shows the potential pitfalls to a DevOps rollout are wide-ranging, although many are related to people and processes more than technology.
He notes the lack of a few clear obstacles poses challenges not only to potential DevOps adopters, but also to the market in general as it looks to provide solutions to ease deployments and enable successful DevOps implementations.
"The top reason why organisations are struggling with their DevOps adoption is complexity - too many people or departments. Roles and responsibilities across development and operations are also cited as a serious challenge. This is why a successful DevOps strategy needs strong executive buy-in and leadership."
Executive-level IT leaders need to see the bigger picture across IT domains, including application development, quality testing and IT operations, and they need to set the mandate for DevOps and ensure departments fall in line, says Greyling.
He notes companies are also recognising the need for more training and development, and a lot of emphasis will be placed on training over the next couple of years.
"Other companies are recruiting from outside to bolster their DevOps competency, with DevOps specialists in high demand. Like any disruptive trend, change start with us and companies can't afford to be caught napping or they will risk their very existence in this new reality," he concludes.
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