Breakfast + Lunch = Brunch.

Chilling + Relaxing = Chillaxing.

Some of the best things in life are fusions of two equally great things in order to make something that’s even better. That’s why this little equation has us very excited:

Development + IT Operations = DevOps

Sure, many talk about “DevOps” with various definitions and in many different applications. But is there anything real behind all the buzzwordy hype?

From the tested and delivered value our customers are experiencing – the answer is a resounding YES.

This month we plan to cut through the language and illuminate the real value that a genuine DevOps practice (and overall culture) can bring to any organization.

Let’s start with the basics.

 

What exactly is DevOps?

 

Our DevOps model is defined as “a set of practices and cultural patterns designed to improve your organization’s performance, revenues, profitability, and outcomes.” We believe that having a DevOps approach is important for every modern business in an increasingly technological world.

Companies can no longer afford to specialize in their industry alone. The pizza war proves it: Every company today is a technology company. From 2010 to 2019, Domino’s share price rose 3,405 percent. Some of their competitors only saw a fraction of that share growth. Why?

Domino’s understood that they needed to be a technology company first and a pizza company second. They put a number of applications into place to allow their customers to easily order a Domino’s pizza from multiple devices and multiple platforms including via text, Twitter, and Amazon’s Alexa. This is a prime example of a company embracing technology as a core part of its business.

As organizations continue to embrace digital transformation, how should their various teams be structured? How can DevOps principles help increase the speed, efficiency, and value they bring to their customers?

Next, to show you the value of DevOps and how it can transform your business, let’s take a look at the traditional organizational structure of an IT organization.

 

Traditional Organizational Structure Inefficiencies

 

Traditionally, the organizational structure of a team implementing changes would be:

  • Dev Group / Application Team
  • Network Team
  • Security Team
  • QA Team
  • Other smaller teams

These are all separate teams working on their own goals… and not working together. Any changes requested may take weeks to go through all of the various silos. With so many moving parts and red tape, things never seem to get done. This is the traditional place that DevOps arose to address.

 

DevOps is the DevOpposite

 

Organizations using a DevOps approach have small cross-functional teams that include all of the skill sets mentioned above. These could be assigned per project or product. These cross-functional teams allow for a better implementation of a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline and can lead to faster go-to-market strategies. When you bust the silos of traditional IT organizations, you don’t have to wait for each separate team to complete their tasks before moving a project along.

So, what is the ideal DevOps team structure? It can be different for every team, and different practices may be more ideal for your business objectives, and where you are at in your digital transformation. Ideally, working with a highly knowledgeable team of experts that can analyze your current situation and how best to move forward would allow you to adopt DevOps practices and principles in a tangible way that can help you achieve your goals, and keep DevOps away from the buzzword garbage bin.

 

DevOps… More Than a Buzzword

 

Hear it from James Grow, Fishtech Group’s Director of DevOps and Security Automation:

“It’s almost become a buzzword, and it’s kind of a tragedy, but knowing what DevOps is about, and then adopting those concepts helps us to scale, automate, and improve our culture, employee satisfaction, and most importantly, help deliver faster value to our customers.”

Utilizing a consultative approach, Fishtech Group covers the tools and processes needed to implement a DevOps practice while addressing the necessary changes to adopt new toolsets, processes, and training for all facets of an IT organization.

It’s time to embrace the DevOps revolution and see the speed-to-value ramp up in your organization. Let silos be a thing of the past and learn how to continuously and reliably deliver value to your customers faster. DevOps truly provides the purest form of Digital Transformation.