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What is devops architecture and what are its benefits
DevOps is the practice of integrating software development and operations teams to create a coherent, high-performing release pipeline. The goal of DevOps is to automate most routine activities involved in building, releasing, and operating software. It also emphasizes collaboration between developers and other IT professionals such as network engineers, database administrators, security experts and more. DevOps is designed to improve the quality and efficiency of software delivery. Some of the most common practices associated with DevOps include:
Automation, with software-defined everything.
Continuous integration and testing.
Microservices and containers.
Frequent deployment. The following sections cover these practices in greater detail.
## What is automation? Automation is the practice of using software to execute tasks that humans would otherwise perform manually—a practice known as “automating.” Automated tasks are commonly performed by scripts or computer programs called executable documents, and the computers on which they run are often called “automated teller machines. If you work in a DevOps environment, you’ll have to automate many of your day-to-day activities. Most of the tasks you perform will be automated, including:
Updating the software used within an organization.
Installing and configuring new software.
Deploying the latest versions of code to production environments.
How can you implement devops in your own organization
Implementing DevOps in an enterprise requires cooperation and communication between software developers and operations engineers. Developers should build software that closely follows the needs of production IT, while operations teams should be available to support developers as they perform their jobs. Through close collaboration, the lines of what was once a clear distinction between developers and operations engineers can begin to blur. Information will begin to flow seamlessly between the two teams, and teams can better benefit from what each has to offer.
Consider the following benefits of DevOps:
1. Decreased Development Time: A well-oiled development process can be a significant driver for software quality and reliability. By collaborating closely with operations teams during development, developers will improve testing practices, reduce downtime and increase application performance throughout the life cycle of their software. It’s estimated that applications can be delivered faster by 15 percent when DevOps practices are in place.These improvements result in increased flexibility for the business, lower costs and improved productivity for your employees.
2. Increased Speed to Market: In the past, software development projects were often delayed due to the time it took applications to reach production. Companies would push out software too early, fixing a few bugs and hoping they could be put in production. DevOps removes this risk of putting information into production that is not ready for prime time. It also allows developers to deploy changes more quickly because there is less downtime and more flexibility in testing operations before moving into a production environment.
3. Less Risk of Disruption: One of the most feared events in IT is a production outage. As information technology (IT) systems become more complex, it is less likely that a single outage will be the sole cause of system failure. You can improve reliability and stability through DevOps practices by implementing tools such as Build Engine, which allows multiple machines to run simultaneously on a development server and a production server. These tools allow operations engineers to deploy software and fix problems quickly without compromising uptime for operational users.
The role of automation in devops architecture
The goal of DevOps is to automate as much of the product build process as possible. One of the most important elements of automation in DevOps is continuous integration (CI). CI was designed to eliminate tasks that are not central to the release process, such as building a new feature and testing it into production. The goal with CI is to have all code developed from a single source all integrated. The most significant benefit from using continuous integration is less manual, error-prone work. As soon as new code is integrated into the main project, it can begin testing and be made available to the developers who depend on that code. CI is one of the most important components of DevOps. It ensures that every step of a project’s lifecycle is automated and can be developed from a single source.
A software configuration management (SCM) system is an essential tool for DevOps. It stores all of the files for a project so that any changes made can be tracked and the entire project can be built from a single source. SCM has several features that ensure that the development process of an application is as automated as possible.
A full lifecycle automation process begins with a project initiation phase in which the scope, goals and requirements are defined, approved and budgeted for. The next step would be the build process, which begins with a test stage. The main goal of CI is to eliminate tasks that are not central to the release process. The third step of a full automation lifecycle is integration testing.
Tips for creating a successful devops culture
The most important aspect of DevOps is the adherence to strong communication between developers and other IT professionals. A culture of communication is often promoted by encouraging collaboration and regular meetings between developers and operations engineers. Regular meetings allow teams to discuss software features, provide feedback, and address any problems that may arise as a result of new code. By communicating and working closely together, members from both teams can identify ways in which to simplify the process of releasing new code. This communication also helps to reduce the time it takes to release new code, as developers are able to watch operations engineers make edits and additions.
The other aspect of DevOps is the effective use of automated tools for software testing, which is visible in the use of a Continuous Integration (CI) tool such as Jenkins. CI helps promote an agile development practice by ensuring that code is checked into a Git repository, which then runs tests automatically on the code base. This ensures that a continuous stream of new features does not obscure older, working features. If a build is failing or broken for any reason, the developer is unable to release code until CI is fixed. Teams that are aiming to improve communication and streamline development processes can benefit from implementing CI tools and other workflow utilities such as ChatOps.
Teams may also use continuous delivery, which aims to automate the process of releasing software. This helps to reduce the time that it takes for developers to respond to issues and deploy new code.
Tools and technologies that support devops architecture
The DevOps architecture relies on a number of tools and technologies. Here are some of the most popular tools and technologies associated with DevOps: Cygwin, Jenkins, Vagrant, VirtualBox, SSH and SCP.
Cygwin is a Unix-like environment for Windows. It is commonly used in DevOps setting due to its cross-platform support and additional mechanisms such as GNU make available on Windows.
Jenkins is an open source automation platform that can be used by developers working on any code base with every build stage of their project in mind. It does not use traditional build tools and it is specifically designed for developers. Vagrant is a tool that allows developers to work on virtual machines without compromising on their local development environment. All operating systems are supported out of the box in Vagrant, so, it can be used to install multiple operating systems on the same machine with a single command. VirtualBox is an open source virtualization software that enables users to run multiple operating systems (where each virtual machine has its own independent file system and network settings) simultaneously on one hardware. This can help developers to test multiple operating systems in a single machine at the same time.
