Top DevOps Trends Taking Over 2023
The more technology advances, the more we are introduced to new scopes and techniques that make our lives better. Well, this applies to personal lives, but did this have any impact on businesses? Well, let me tell you that any advancements we experience have to pass through organizations first and leave an impact. Businesses have been taking advantage of recent technological advancements in a major way. Whether they use them to make operations better and easier or in hopes of shifting their businesses to the new digital era. In order to ensure that this fusion between technology and operations can happen seamlessly, businesses have to find the ultimate way to accomplish that. Luckily, they found DevOps, which turned out to be the most effective way. Unfamiliar with the term? Have no worries, as by the end of this article you will learn everything about DevOps and its latest trends.
What is DevOps
We can’t deny that the extensive use of technology that happened to businesses was very effective, making all things better. However, since it was sudden and not very familiar, it also established a barrier between different teams across organizations. This is due to many factors, such as misalignment, miscommunication, and so on. These factors made it difficult to reach common ground. Luckily, DevOps was able to eliminate this barrier and help enhance collaboration across different teams.
DevOps began as a cultural shift before it was formally adopted as a development methodology. In the midst of the 2000s, two of the most important parts of any company began meeting to discuss potential technological solutions. Ultimately, these strategies are designed to help companies keep up with the dynamic nature of the industries in which they operate. The software development and IT operations teams were essential components. You're right; both are very crucial. They both work on the same codes and processes, but they are physically separated. And this is the problem they were trying to solve. As a result, we can sum up this fascinating tale by saying that DevOps is an acronym for development and operations brought together. It explains an innovative approach to growth. With this method, the organization can take advantage of the combined resources of the development and operations teams.
DevOps is all about the power of collaborative work and effort to produce effective and efficient outcomes. This comes in opposition to the distant work of departments usually found in all businesses.
The Evolution of DevOps over the Past Years
DevOps has witnessed a major transformation over the years. It all started in late 2007 and early 2008 when software development found its way into all organizations. It became an integral and fundamental part of them. Therefore, organizations had two teams for software development. It was people who write, which is the functional and development team, and people who deploy, which is the operational team.
Many originations then raised concerns about the gap that was found between operational and development departments. As it caused miscommunication that badly affected the business as a whole. Both the operations and development communities raised concerns. They demanded a solution other than the traditional techniques and models that could bring them together.
These communities took a serious step towards finding common ground. They started by creating online forums, holding events and conferences, and organizing local meetups. These were clearly very successful and helped the two communities take the first steps with DevOps. It was the first time DevOps solutions and practices were presented at a conference under the name 10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr. The presentation started with the title, "It is not my machine, it’s your codes, and It is not my codes, it is your machine.” To further display the ongoing disagreement between both segments. It also presented some of the first DevOps practices, like automated infrastructures. It also emphasized cultural practices like respect and cooperation, that should be found to reach the expected outcomes.
Since then, DevOps practices have been achieving many great successes. They proved their effectiveness in bringing together two of the most important departments in all organizations. 2017 was actually called the year of DevOps, as nearly 50% of organizations were implementing DevOps practices to streamline and automate their operations.
Importance of DevOps
As we explore the great timeline of DevOps and its revolutionary impacts, let's discuss how important it is and the benefits it brings to all organizations before going over the trends.
Improved Collaboration Across Different Departments
DevOps promotes open channels of interaction, cooperation, and communication between the development and operations teams as well as other interested parties. Working together across departments in this way results in better-quality software as all alterations are applied instantly and problems can be found and maintained sooner.
Enhanced Quality Assurance
Code can be tested more frequently and at a higher frequency with the help of DevOps practices like automated testing and continuous integration. This leads to higher-quality code, more stable programs, and fewer errors.
Increased Efficiency and Productivity
DevOps increases efficiency and output by eliminating mundane tasks and decreasing the need for human intervention through automation. This helps operations teams focus on development maintenance and monitoring while developers concentrate on creating new features.
Greater Flexibility and Adaptability
The practices of DevOps make it simpler to adjust to new demands and recommendations from customers. The software can be rapidly modified by teams to make it more adaptable to users' changing requirements.
5 DevOps Trends That You Should Keep an Eye On
Now that we are done with the quick overview of DevOps, let us start exploring its latest advancements. Since organizations and industries are always in a state of continuous change, this led to the emergence of DevOps trends that they need to adhere to. Here are the top six DevOps trends in 2023 that you should know about.
DevSecOps
The more security is prioritized, the more organizations recognize the need for more solutions that offer the maximum level of safety and security. As technology advances and becomes more democratized, people have more access to ways that could breach many organizations’ data. And this leaves them at great risk. DevSecOps is a term that branched out from DevOps. They mainly have the same purpose and goal; however, DevSecOps emphasizes more security throughout the practices and stages of the DevOps cycle. That is why a different cycle for DevSecOps emerged in contrast to the one for DevOps. The DevSecOps cycle ensures adding an extra security layer to each stage to protect organizations from any breach or malicious attacks.
Use of AI and ML
In addition to emphasizing security, we can’t possibly forget to include new technologies to enhance DevOps. The second DevOps trend revolves around the incorporation of two of the most powerful technologies that have appeared recently, which are artificial intelligence and machine learning. This led to the rise of AIOps and MLOps, which are expected to take over the DevOps landscape in 2023. Both AIOps and MLOps help enhance DevOps practices by including AI and ML-powered tools and procedures. For instance, automated testing will become more powerful with AI algorithms that strengthen the identification and addressing of problems in real time. As per machine learning, it can be incorporated to predict code changes and recommend better techniques to improve the quality of the code.
DevOps as a service (DaaS)
DevOps as a service, or DaaS, is one of the latest and certainly important DevOps trends. DaaS is the process by which companies and service providers offer DevOps solutions and models to other organizations. This includes all the DevOps infrastructure, practices, procedures, and tools. DevOps as a service helps organizations enjoy the benefits of DevOps faster and effortlessly without needing to spend much time and effort going through the DevOps cycle.
Low Code DevOps
Yes, Low code is not only an application development method; it is also one of the emerging DevOps trends that will have great impacts. Low-code DevOps combines the best of both worlds, which is the concept of low-code development and DevOps practices. This is either done through techniques like visual development or automation. Low-code DevOps helps organizations reduce the need for code by giving developers the ultimate solution to create applications and software easily and efficiently. This allows organizations to adapt and scale to market needs quickly.
GitOps
Finally, our last of the DevOps trends is GitOps. GitOps is a method in which Git directories serve as the authoritative and main source for a company's infrastructure and applications. Specifically, it prioritizes the use of logical code and automation for the deployment and management of both infrastructure and applications. GitOps has been a big deal in the DevOps world due to its convenience and fast adaptability.
In Summary
DevOps has expanded and paved the way for organizations to be more productive and efficient. By facilitating collaboration between the development and operation teams, any organization can guarantee the effectiveness and quality of outcomes. And now, with the recent DevOps trends and the powerful technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and low-code solutions that have started to find a way into DevOps, the future of business operations is promising.