DevOps Tactics: Targeting Victory For Mobility Enterprises

The proliferation of mobile devices across the business operations is a trend that is fast approaching critical mass. According to research from Gartner 2.35 billion smartphones and tablets were shipped in 2013 and are only projected to increase to 2.5 billion in 2014. The resulting impact will not only allow enterprises closer access to their customers but also enable greater sensitivity towards consumer preference.

The pressure on IT organisations to develop higher quality applications in a faster and more efficiently organised manner or a “continuous delivery” model has increased significantly over the last two years according to research from CA Technology. Industries such as banking, finance, telecommunications which are highly sensitive to IT setbacks due to losses from delivery delays are looking for a high degree of speed and enhanced customer experience in their applications to save on any potential losses.

“DevOps methodologies can best be defined as a collaboration between the development and operations which allows the SDLC (software development life cycle) to run smoothly,” said Sumal Karunanayake, VP, Application Delivery, Asia Pacific and Japan, CA Technologies. “As the process runs from design stage on to the production stage with the ability to generate continuous data in its feedback which feeds back into the SDLC for agile product creation.” DevOps methodologies in application development and operations call for a closer synergy between the two departments in order to tackle incidences of defects, slow app delivery, strategic misalignments and costs in Software Development Life Cycle.

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As the trends towards innovative mobility solutions become more prevalent across the globe, the Asia Pacific and Japan markets are quickly coming on par with European and North American counterparts in implementing DevOps strategies to enhance business outcomes. The DevOps approach aims to minimise the friction between application development, delivery and maintenance between the Development and Operations branches of an enterprise and requires a strategic view in its implementation. The ultimate outcomes from a DevOps strategy are built in to the unique identity and culture of the organsiation that implements it through a mix of quantifiable and attitudinal initiatives.

In the summer of 2013 Vanson Bourne surveyed nearly 1300 IT professionals across 21 countries including U.S., U.K., Germany, China and India and released a white paper providing valuable insights on the state of DevOps across all business verticals. The results of the study showed that there is still an alarming ignorance amongst IT professionals regarding the exact understanding of DevOps itself, nearly one in six express uncertainty in their understanding of the concept. However, the survey also discovered that the adoption of DevOps resulted in the faster deployment of services and products to the market by 20 percent. As the practice allowed enterprises to be far more agile in their reaction to market realities they were able to increase their customers by 22 percent and their overall revenues by 19 percent. Fortunately, it was also clear that 39% of IT professionals had already adopted a version of DevOps for their needs and 27 percent were planning to do so in the future.

It is important to keep in mind that any process based concept, such as DevOps, is developed on the strength of leadership vision within an organsiation and is collaboratively strategised by the CXO suite. This fixed focus on automation within the software development life cycle complements the quantitative side that executes the leadership directives in the IT department. It becomes essential for decision makers and stakeholders within the company to collaborate on the ground floor of any application product development process to ensure a seamless flow in productivity.

All infographics courtesy: Vanson Bourne for CA Technologies