CLOUDDROVE

HOW DEVOPS CAN SHIELD YOUR

READY TO SHIFT TO THE DEVOPS CULTURE?

JUNE, 2021

What makes DevOps

Popular in the IT
industry?

www.clouddrove.com
CONTENT
01 Introduction

02 What is DevOps?

03 What makes DevOps Popular in the IT industry?

04 The 8 Key DevOps Principles

05 How DevOps makes startups more stable and scalable

06 4 Essential tools for Startups to monitor DevOps

07 Key DevOps Challenges a Startup Should Look at

08 Why Devops: The Key Benefits
09 Implementing DevOps in your Startup

10 Conclusion - Endnote

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01
INTRODUCTION

DevOps has become quite a commonly used terminology in the

Information Technology space. Today it is touted to be the most
significant part of any successful software development process.
If your enterprise is on the path to a digital transformation, you
simply cannot miss DevOps. It is instrumental in achieving a high-
performing business when adopted the right way.

Here’s everything you need to know about DevOps- read this

ebook to explore the importance of this culture and methodology
within IT along with delving into the details of its tools, processes,
and framework.

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WHAT IS DEVOPS?
DevOps (development and operations)
is essentially a framework that relies on
the combination of software
development and operations. The
methodology aims to offer a combined
and simultaneous focus on both aspects
of IT service. With a strong focus on
collaboration to shorten the
development cycle and deploy code
faster, DevOps tries to achieve business
goals by emphasizing more on human-
related issues as compared to technical
ones. Thus, DevOps prioritizes the
delivery of best-quality applications and “DevOps is not a Goal, But a never-
services by bringing teams to work ending process of continual
together. The eventual result is improved
improvement”
products, automation of essential
processes, and efficient communication. – Jez Humble

The most important part of this

methodology is the culture of
collaboration. When a business
implements DevOps, it delivers high-
quality solutions not just through tools
and automation but also by ensuring a
swift correspondence between the
developers who write the software and
the operators who maintain it.

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WHAT MAKES DEVOPS

POPULAR IN THE IT
INDUSTRY?
99% of respondents in a survey conducted by Atlassian say that DevOps has had a
positive impact on their organization. Evidently, DevOps is an inevitable corporate
term of today’s times. Here are the key reasons that make DevOps an inevitable
part of the IT industry today.

1. Shorter Cycles, Faster Impact

When teams work in silos, it is often difficult to ensure the success of an application,
eventually leading to subsequent changes and hence an extended cycle of
delivery.
In the case of DevOps, since the development and operations teams jointly work on
projects, the end product/applications are available quicker because of the
seamless coordination. This helps an organization achieve a competitive edge,
better speed, and efficiency, and faster time to market.

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2. Lesser Implementation Failure and Recovery Time

More often than not, the programming defects are responsible for the failure of
teams during the implementation process. DevOps helps to detect code defects
with frequent code versions leading to reduced implementation failures. Although
some glitches may be unavoidable and demand a recovery time, DevOps makes
this less challenging with reduced recovery time due to the collaborative inputs of
both the teams for solving issues better and faster.

3. Improved Communication and Cooperation

When companies adopt the DevOps culture, their development team focuses on
delivering the product while the operations team ensures its availability and
security. The coordination leads to higher productivity and better teamwork rather
than individual tasks. Working in teams ensures better participation and scope for
experimentation, innovation, and hence good results. For the IT industry people
working towards a common goal can bring about a huge difference in their
overall business objectives.

4. Improved Communication and Cooperation

When companies adopt the DevOps culture, their development team focuses on
delivering the product while the operations team ensures its availability and
security. The coordination leads to higher productivity and better teamwork rather
than individual tasks. Working in teams ensures better participation and scope for
experimentation, innovation, and hence good results. For the IT industry people
working towards a common goal can bring about a huge difference in their
overall business objectives.

5. Higher Efficiency

DevOps tasks can be made efficient by automating the code testing process and
with the use of speeding up tools. The continuous integration servers reduce
manual time by automating the code testing while speeding up tools such as
cloud-based platforms help compile the code quicker with greater access to
hardware and resources. Additionally, the use of environment avoids waste of
time in transferring data by integrating development, testing, and
implementation.

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THE 8 KEY DEVOPS

PRINCIPLES
To achieve a DevOps culture in its entirety, here are some of the most important
principles that are deemed essential when migrating or adopting this
methodology.

1. Infrastructure Automation

“The most powerful tool we have as developers is automation.“ Scott Hanselman

Automation is central to the DevOps process. The automation of workflows in

particular lets developers focus better on writing codes and working on new
features. A good example of automation in the DevOps environment is the use of
software applications to build and test applications instead of relying on manual
checks. When the application is in a language that doesn’t require compilation,
the teams can run automated tests to ensure that the code is production-ready.

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In case of errors or bugs in the code, automation also alerts the developers. Since
DevOps teams use Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), the software manages the
provisioning and configuring of resources by utilizing scripts, APIs, and CLIs to
implement IaC than doing it manually. As a result, next-gen container-based
cloud platforms are being built that have infrastructure that is treated as a code.

2. Continuous Integration (CI)

A primary DevOps best practice, Continuous Integration lets developers merge

the code changes in a common repository. This helps the development team
detect problems or errors quickly and work on them immediately. CI avoids the
labor-intensive manual compiling of code (which can also be prone to errors)
apart from making regular builds of the product available for testing. The eventual
goal of Continuous Integration is to introduce a consistent and automated
process to build and test applications. The uninterrupted integration process
allows teams to make code changes frequently resulting in better collaboration
and software quality.

3. Continuous Delivery (CD)

Continuous delivery begins where continuous integration ends. This process

ensures that the new codes are tested, sent back for bug fixes, retested, and then
sent to a central repository - thus automating the delivery of applications to the
infrastructure environments. There are multiple environments that the teams work
in (eg. development and testing environment) and Continuous Delivery pushes
the code to the respective environments through automation.
Some of the benefits of Continuous Delivery include low-risk releases & error-free
product deployments, higher quality of products and services, lower costs, and
superior products, all of this owing to the constant feedback throughout the
delivery lifecycle.

4. Monitoring

Monitoring further builds on Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery to

detect compliance issues and security threats during every phase of the DevOps
pipeline and make sure that the application runs smoothly. DevOps teams
monitor the performance of the apps, system, and infrastructure through various
technologies and techniques. If an issue is detected, the teams immediately revert
the application to its previous state and work on solving the problem. Monitoring
concludes the DevOps pipeline and focuses on offering feedback so that the
relevant teams can fix it in real-time. For security instances related to incident
response, threat assessment, and database, monitoring can be very helpful apart
from providing general feedback on the overall health of the software.

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5. Logging

Logging implies the handling of large volumes of log data or log messages
generated by the software application and infrastructure. It includes processes
such as log collection, aggregation, storage, and even archiving and disposal. This
vast amount of data helps track business activities such as transactions,
database logs, Nginx errors, etc to gain better insights. Logging covers everything
from information systems to service and even web servers. Logging is integral to
DevOps as it helps in collating all the data and examining it as a whole for the
teams to collectively analyze reports and visualizations that are made accessible
to everyone.

6. DevSecOps (Development security operations)

Using cloud technologies and moving towards becoming a DevOps organization is

a parallel process. The advanced cloud developments like serverless computing
and Infrastructure as Code raise concerns about an organization’s security and so
does DevOps owing to the pace of development and operations. Consequently,
organizations now require various steps to use new security capabilities.

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Every business that adopts DevOps should also shift to the DevSecOps practices
that introduce security and proficiency across all technology disciplines.
DevSecOps tools and approach ensure that security is built-in and is an intrinsic
part of the applications. Thus, security is present at every step of the delivery cycle
through continuous integration. The major advantage of this is a reduction in the
cost of compliance and faster delivery and release of the software.

7. Backup and Disaster recovery

There’s an important distinction between backup and disaster recovery. Backup is

the process of making an extra copy (or multiple copies) of data. You back up
data to protect it. You might need to restore backup data if you encounter an
accidental deletion, database corruption, or problem with a software upgrade.

Disaster recovery, on the other hand, refers to the plan and processes for quickly
reestablishing access to applications, data, and IT resources after an outage. That
plan might involve switching over to a redundant set of servers and storage
systems until your primary data center is functional again.

Some organizations mistake backup for disaster recovery. But as they may
discover after a serious outage, simply having copies of data doesn’t mean you
can keep your business running. To ensure business continuity, you need a robust,
tested disaster recovery plan.

8. GitOps

GitOps is about using a version control system like Git to host all information,
documentation, and code for a Kubernetes deployment and use automated
directors to deploy changes. It helps developers manage operational workflows,
especially for Kubernetes, using Git and their own version control system. It
centralizes all the aspects resulting in a singular path to manage operations and
development.

DevOps affects change in the company culture by increasing collaboration and

communication between many departments, as well as creating new processes
for continuous delivery.

Myth Buster:
DevOps does deal with automation, but that’s not its only function.

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HOW DEVOPS MAKES

STARTUPS MORE STABLE
AND SCALABLE

DevOps plays a crucial role in a start-up and offers it better flexibility and agility.
Additionally, DevOps promises a higher possibility of sustaining in the market and
building a competitive edge. Here are a few pointers that highlight the
importance of DevOps.

Team Flexibility: When a startup sets up a DevOps team it boosts the product
development team by offering adequate flexibility to them.

Problem Solving: The DevOps team works to make sure that most processes are
in autopilot mode. For a startup, this means a better focus on their core business
and a lesser number of complexities and problems to solve while building a
product.

Better Product Understanding – Since teams work together in DevOps, there is a

seamless flow of information about the product helping them understand it
better. This common understanding of the product that they are developing leads

05
to better contribution from everyone on strategies, improvements, and other
aspects such as scaling, performance, etc.

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Customer Satisfaction: For a startup, customer satisfaction is a definitive guide to

measure the success of the product. DevOps engages the customers to make
them integral to the product development process by taking regular customer
feedback through reporting mechanisms.
(replaced below)

Automated Data Backup - DevOps ensures backup of critical data automatically

thus ensuring that the important information is stored securely. Implementing an
automated data backup and restoration process for the staging environment
protects the code and saves time and cost taken to recreate it later.

Frequent Improvement: A common challenge for any developer is making

changes to the product at a later stage leading to higher costs and time incurred
to the startup and hampering the business continuity. However, DevOps, owing to
its flexibility and Agile practices aids in making changes continuously and offering
an improved product at every iteration.

The DevOps market size is expected to grow from USD 2.90 Billion in 2017 to USD
10.31 Billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.7% during
the forecast period.
Source: marketsandmarkets.com

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4 ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR

STARTUPS TO MONITOR
DEVOPS
DevOps includes several subcategories, and a huge number of tools as well.
Here’s a list of some of the most popular ones.
Infrastructure as a Code

1. Infrastructure as code

[IaC], the cornerstone of DevOps helps businesses boost productivity, agility, and
quality of work. The primary tools that are used to implement Infrastructure as a
Code are the open-source tool Terraform and Cloud Formation.

Terraform - Built by HashiCorp, Terraform is an open-source infrastructure-as-

code software tool that assists organizations with setting up and provisioning of
data center infrastructure. Terraform codifies APIs into declarative configuration
files which can be treated as code, edited, reviewed, and versioned while sharing
with the team members.

Cloud Formation - CloudFormation is an AWS service with a common language

provision AWS and other application resources for the cloud environment.
CloudFormation figures which AWS services need to be provisioned or how to
make these dependencies connect together.
CloudFormation abstracts away the subtleties in managing dependencies
between resources. And makes versioning and iterating on the infrastructure
highly accessible.

2. Containerization

Containerisation has been gaining a lot of attention lately since it offers higher
portability by packaging all the necessary dependencies in an image file along
with the software. Containers are easier to deploy, need fewer resources to run,
and are better manageable. The two most well-known container orchestration
systems today include Kubernetes and Docker.

Docker - Docker is an open-source technology for developing, shipping, and

running applications. Docker packages applications in containers to make them
portable for any system. Most importantly once you package an application and
its dependencies in a Docker container, it will run in any environment. Applications
built with docker also do not interfere with each other.

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Kubernetes - Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration platform

automates most manual processes involved in the deployment, management,
and scaling of containerized applications. Since Kubernetes clusters can span
hosts on on-premise, public, private, or hybrid clouds, it is an ideal platform to
host cloud-native applications that need rapid scaling.

3. Configuration Management

There are a number of tools for those wanting to implement configuration

management for their startup. Right configuration management takes the
responsibility identification, control, and audit processes. Here are the tools that
are known to do it best.

Ansible - Designed for application deployment, updates on workstations and

servers, cloud provisioning, configuration management, intra-service
orchestration, and much more, Ansible provides powerful automation for cross-
platform computer support. With Ansible you can configure a whole network of
computers at once, without any special programming skills. The instructions are
human-readable and easy to understand.

Puppet - Available as an open-source as well as in commercial versions, Puppet

automates and centralizes the configuration management process. Puppet allows
separate configurations for different hosts and is also used as an automatic
deployment tool for applications on the servers. In case of any alterations in the
configurations, it automatically changes to the predefined configuration while
monitoring them continuously.

Chef - Chef is a Configuration Management tool that automates processes and

tasks across numerous servers and devices in simple steps. With a declarative
approach in programming, it does not require complex or lengthy scripts of code.
This makes Chef easy to use by teams that may not be very well-versed with
programming, although basic knowledge of Ruby DSL language is necessary.

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4. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment Tools

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment tools leverage workflows to

exploit the automation feature and build a CI/CD pipeline, to boost the teams for
better output. A number of tools are available in the market but the following four
contain some of the key features for seamless integration and deployment.

Gitlab CI/CD - This tool helps you test, build, and publish the software without the
need for a third-party application or integration. Gitlab CI/CD is easy to learn and
use, is economical and secure and jobs can be executed faster by setting your
own runner with all dependencies that are pre-installed.

Jenkins - Jenkins is a server-based application and needs a web server run on

platforms like Windows, Linux, macOS, and Unix. For using Jenkins, users need to
create pipelines with detailed steps that a Jenkins server can take. Jenkins
pipeline consists of a set of tools designed to host, monitor, compile and test code
and code changes.

Github Actions - GitHub Actions are code that can be edited, re-used, shared, and
forked like code. The tool now makes it easier to automate how a business can
build, test, and deploy projects on any platform, including Linux, macOS, and
Windows.

Argo CD - Argo CD follows the GitOps pattern that uses Git repositories as the
source for defining the application state. The tool automates the deployment of
the desired application state in specified target environments to track updates to
branches, tags, or pinned to a specific version of manifests at a Git commit.

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KEY DEVOPS
CHALLENGES A STARTUP
SHOULD LOOK

Even while most startups acknowledge that DevOps can bring about a great deal
of automation and integration for their business, implementing it is often
challenging. Doing away with old methods and adopting newer techniques is
always an uphill task. Here are the challenges most startups encounter when they
plan to take the leap.

1. Moving to Microservices from Traditional Infrastructure

In a world of digital transformation, the old is fast replacing the new. And even if
the traditional infrastructure has worked for years, it is likely to turn redundant
soon. Switching to an infrastructure-as-code with microservices is a much-
needed step to adapt to the changing markets and customer demands.

However, the main problem while adopting microservices from traditional

infrastructure is that the startup should first have processes such as configuration
management, automation, and continuous delivery in place. This assists them in
dealing with the additional operational workloads that microservices entail.

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2. Resistance to Changing

Most people are not comfortable with the idea of change, more so if they are used
to a process or method of working for years. DevOps as a method demands
working in teams and insists on collaboration while it is likely that many teams or
individuals might have worked in silos and had limited communication with other
members. This often is a task for the DevOps leaders and they need to efficiently
navigate through the transformation process.

Additionally, if the existing work culture commands control and a strict hierarchy,
DevOps can seem a totally new environment since the team members are
expected to be flexible and open to feedback in a collaborative environment
rather than follow set processes.
3. Lack of Clarity

Many startups jump the DevOps bandwagon without thoroughly researching and
investing time in the changes and challenges it entails. It is important for leaders
to plan in detail about the process of switching to a true DevOps culture and this
can mean a major overhaul in the structure and design of the startup

A haphazard transformation without a proper plan, strategy, and vision make

DevOps very difficult to accomplish. Startups should take into consideration
factors such as cost estimation, roadmaps, and deliverables in the execution plan
and build as much clarity as possible for a successful shift.

4. Challenge of Collaboration

DevOps revolves around ensuring an output with the help of multiple teams
working together. This means doing away with or eliminating barriers, silos, and
team/individual goals. Hence when separate teams have shared goals, the
culture of collaboration can be a challenge initially. Moreover, if the startup
operates from multiple geographies, cross-team tasks need more effort. Not to
forget the difference in time zones and language.

5. Adapting to New Tools

DevOps is a combination of tools, processes, and culture. The teams and the
startup will grow faster if its people are trained properly to use the new tools
wherever required. It is equally important to integrate these tools with the
infrastructure and that they meet the security requirements. DevOps tools assist in
planning, development, testing, deployment, operating, and monitoring of
applications.

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WHY DEVOPS: THE KEY

BENEFITS
There are numerous benefits of switching
to the DevOps culture. Here are some of
the major reasons for you to understand
how it can bring about a positive change
in your business workflow.

1. Security:

DevOps is well known to take care of the

security aspect of the applications
through DevSecOps. Here, security is a
significant component of the pipeline and
helps detect and track security issues
during the various stages of development
itself rather than pointing them out after
the product has been released. This also
helps save on a lot of cost.

DevSecOps is a necessary reaction to the

bottleneck effect of old security models in
the new and modern continuous delivery
pipeline. It bridges the traditional gaps
between IT and security and ensures safe
delivery of code.

2. Agility:

Agility encompasses a wide set of factors

and capabilities and DevOps requires
most of them to build a successful
workflow and meet customer
expectations. Agility makes an
organization flexible to be able to
maintain its capacity when demands
fluctuate. It also improves the way
management is performed and makes
sure that there is no slowing down or
interruption in the current process.

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Agile methods foster better working

relationships among the various teams
involved and successfully bridges the IT
business divide. Agile deployments also
offer a much more accurate view of many
things, including the progress of the
product and whether it will meet
expectations and quality.

3. Speed:

DevOps’s biggest benefit is the

acceleration of the pace at which an
organization functions. DevOps speeds up
the frequency at which software is
delivered as well as the necessary
modifications through automated testing
and integration. Since developers keep an
eye on the product all through its life cycle
for any updates or bugs, the time to
monitor, locate and fix bugs is decreased.
The result - shorter time to market

4. Innovation:

DevOps promotes innovation by enabling

teams to constantly improvise and
understand the customer expectations
better. Since it is a collaborative effort,
individuals are encouraged to brainstorm
and introduce new perspectives each
time while nurturing an innovative
environment. Hence every project offers
scope to improvise with a great deal of
flexibility. Innovations, whether in a startup
or an enterprise, are the foundations of
market disruption and leadership.

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IMPLEMENTING DEVOPS
IN YOUR STARTUP
If you have already spent enough time
on taking the decision to make DevOps
a part of your process, the hesitation is
understandable considering that the
shift is a major and difficult one.
Nonetheless, you must have realized by
now how rewarding and necessary
DevOps is if you want your business to
achieve to make a mark in the
constantly evolving market.

To make the implementation process

easier, try to break it into stages, and
based on where your startup stands at
the moment, build a detailed approach
to plan the execution. Here’s a look in
the brief sequence of implementation:
1. Initiate an agile development
process
2. Adopt cloud computing
3. Modify your processes to suit the
Continuous Integration and
Continuous Delivery workflow
4. Begin automating software
deployment
5. Automate the software testing
process
6. Start implementing continuous
deployment

The above-mentioned steps can be

smoothly followed only if they are
supported by the right tools and
infrastructure. Additionally, to ensure a
seamless DevOps environment, the
development pipeline should be
automated and agile.

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CONCLUSION

Finally, the need of the hour is to stay ahead, precise and

competitive in the business. DevOps helps achieve all of this and
more with the cultural shift that it brings to the organization. This
mindset promotes the integration of development and operations
- the formula for a successful product.

Every startup that has a long-term vision for its product must
consider a shift to DevOps. DevOps fundamentally changes the
practices, processes, workflow, and culture in an organization, and
hence moving to DevOps is more of a journey than a destination.
From revolutionizing the digital customer experience to
applications and infrastructure, DevOps has been successful in
integrating thousands of businesses and is definitely here to stay.

Ready to Shift to the DevOps Culture?

Talk to our experts at Cloud Drove to understand in detail the
process and benefits.

Contact - [email protected]
Website - www.clouddrove.com

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