In the world of software development, operations and development teams often face struggles that are hard to reconcile, from communication mix-ups that lead to long hours to demanding deployments, to maintenance requirements and the constant pressure to innovate (and, that’s just the start). These hurdles can lead to internal roadblocks that strain even the most resilient organizations, causing delays and hindering your organization’s bottom-line.
Enter DevOps, the transformative movement that not only streamlines business operations but also addresses these pain points head-on. But, before adopting any new solution, it’s important to understand the long-term benefits — and other considerations — prior to making the investment.
Let’s unravel the benefits of DevOps that you need to know.
DevOps is a software development approach that emphasizes collaboration, communication, and integration between development (Dev) and operations (Ops) teams. It aims to automate processes, streamline software delivery, and foster a culture of continuous improvement to deliver high-quality software efficiently and reliably.
While there are many reasons why DevOps can be vital to your organization, the main reason is that this approach ultimately enables faster development of new products and easier maintenance of existing deployments. It does this by improving and enhancing the workflow between these teams, allowing companies to develop software efficiently and with minimal holdups, if any.
On the surface, the basic benefits of implementing DevOps include:
Also, it’s important to note that for any business that values staying ahead of the competition, DevOps also promotes a culture of continuous improvement, which ultimately leads to higher quality software, increased customer satisfaction, retention, and brand loyalty, a reduction in staff turnover, and the ability to adapt to market changes swiftly.
Now that we’ve covered the surface-level benefits of DevOps, let’s dive in a little deeper to understand the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a DevOps solution at your company:
Business Efficiency
DevOps practices are like precision tools for your business operations. They sharpen efficiency, greatly reducing the time it takes to bring products to market. DevOps takes care of repetitive, time-consuming tasks through automated workflows, freeing up your team to focus on more strategic work.
Collaboration in the Workplace
DevOps helps foster better communication and collaboration strategies, breaking down barriers between development and operations.
Cost Savings Through DevOps
Because of the efficiency that comes with a DevOps solution, your organization will be able to optimize resource allocation, saving costs in the long-run.
Security in DevOps
Security is not only a main driver of organization’s adopting DevOps in the first place, but these solutions themselves come with security top-of-mind.
Faster, Better Product Delivery
One of the major selling points of DevOps is its emphasis on rapid, high-quality software releases, enabling organizations to launch new products and solutions, deploy software, and deliver updates swiftly without impacting the user experience.
Scalability and Availability
DevOps enables seamless scalability and high availability through automation and clear performance insights. It simplifies issue resolution, ensuring quick, precise problem-solving, and maintains stable operating environments, minimizing downtime and other disruptions.
Initial Learning Curve
Implementing DevOps may require your team to acquire new skills and adapt to different processes. This initial learning curve can be challenging and time-consuming. Luckily, companies like Copado take this into consideration, ensuring all your questions are answered.
Resistance to Change
Team members who may be comfortable with your legacy systems and processes (or, lack thereof) may resist the shift towards DevOps, fearing it will disrupt their established workflows. DevOps is not just a process; it's a cultural shift that requires buy-in from all team members. Changing the company culture can be a significant challenge.
But, having a plan to introduce staff to these changes will likely have them eager to see the efficient impact it will have on their work.
Availability of DevOps Professionals
In general, DevOps is still rather new. This means that it may be difficult to have a wide range of DevOps pros to choose from or to hire in-house, leading many companies to outsource it. Additionally, the lack of generalized DevOps knowledge can make it difficult for companies to know where to begin.
Infrastructure Cost
If your network infrastructure isn’t ready for DevOps, this may set you back. Usually, DevOps is employed in cloud environments. If you’re finding you need DevOps but you’re not yet operating in the cloud, you may need to explore migration first.
At the end of the day, you’ll have to determine whether or not the benefits of DevOps outweigh any disadvantages. But, generally, an experienced DevOps consultant like Copado will be able to address each of these concerns so that you’re 100% comfortable with your investment.
We know that DevOps streamlines workflows, boosts collaboration, and accelerates product delivery. This initially helps your organization cut costs, which is usually a priority for any business growth strategy.
But, it’s more than that.
To start, a significant DevOps adoption helps to elevate the overall quality of software and its updates, with continuous testing and integration. This leads to fewer post-release issues and happier customers — and staff — overall. Imagine the time your company can have back because of the amount of issues that can be resolved? And, with a focus on communication and collaboration, your teams will feel empowered and valued at work; not stressed and overwhelmed.
Secondly, because security is paramount, you can be rest assured that a data breach won’t be a reason that your company will lose resources down the road. This may not be top of mind for some organizational leaders, but it is helpful to have that peace of mind.
Lastly, one major principle of DevOps is that with the right DevOps experts to help you, the solution will align seamlessly with your network infrastructure. It may take time getting used to, but this should pave the way for more agile business practices and overall efficiency. These upgrades end up fostering a culture of innovation (and, leaving time for it!), empowering teams to continually improve operations and create new products and solutions much faster.
The results of this will of course be different for each business, but these are the biggest changes you can plan for.
In general, DevOps can provide substantial benefits to a wide range of industries and business types, particularly those that rely heavily on software development and IT operations. Some industries and business types that benefit most from DevOps include:
In order to truly understand the impact that DevOps can have on your organization, it’s helpful to look at other companies that have actually implemented it. How did a DevOps solution help them overcome their challenges? And, were the potential benefits of DevOps worth it, even considering some of the disadvantages it might present?
We’ve put together a list of some of our DevOps success stories in the form case studies to give you a better look:
Holcim: Helping Holcim EMEA Digital Center Deploy Salesforce Projects 2X Faster.
T-Mobile: Through the power of DevOps automation, T-Mobile increased Salesforce innovation and established a successful DevOps practice, improving deployment time by 75%.
Conga: Conga went from releasing through a painful, manual process to a quick, efficient and scalable automated release process — adding countless hours and dollars back into Conga’s pocket.
Vueling: Vueling uses Copado to unlock 400% more Salesforce releases, risk-free deployments and 360 customer views. Discover how this low-cost airline leverages the power of low-code DevOps!
MacMillan Learning: Copado’s automation and collaboration features reduced the need for manual intervention and code creation and helped MacMillan Learning meet their bi-weekly release goal.
Embracing DevOps is a major step for companies who are tired of seeing the disconnect between development and operations slowing their software development, deployment, and maintenance, ultimately impacting their bottom line.
By implementing DevOps, you're not just improving productivity; you're fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement, leading to a more productive and innovative organization that now has what it takes to stay ahead of the competition.
What to learn more about Copado’s DevOps approach, and how it can help your business see all these benefits (and then some?) Simply book a demo with a professional member of the team and see first-hand how your business could benefit from an automated, secure, and easily implementable DevOps strategy.