The DevOps Cloud Marriage a Positive for Enterprises

DevOps is hard to define. Sure, I’ve come up with definitions before, as has everyone in the field, but it’s still hard to be undisputed in your definition. It’s not just difficult to define, it’s also contentious to talk about where DevOps should go. Some want more security (like me), some want more speed, some want something else, it’s unclear. One thing that’s clear is that DevOps doesn’t revolve around “tools.” Culture may be the most important component to DevOps, but it wouldn’t exist without the DevOps cloud marriage.

DevOps Without the Cloud

I could leave this entire section empty and my point would be proven. DevOps wouldn’t exist without cloud innovation. The entire concept of DevOps focuses on the importance of fast releases. We live in a society that demands faster everything. Falling behind today can cause any company to go under. The cloud is here for enterprises to improve workloads, release faster, improve collaboration, bring tools together, and so many more benefits.

The cloud also brings about various new tools and innovations for users. Microservices are a growing field that companies can take advantage of and optimize for their specific environment.

The ability to easily introduce new development pipelines is one of the greatest benefits of a cloud infrastructure. These surfaces are constantly growing and changing with faster releases. DevOps teams can take advantage of these new development pipelines due to the structured collaborative teams.

DevOps teams are also able to work from anywhere with ease. This can be a problem if not managed properly, as evidenced by various enterprises, but proper cloud management and security practices create a working environment for everyone.

Where Containers fit in

Containers are a cloud tool that specifically improved DevOps practices. Containers are lightweight and easy to move and integrate. This allows teams to work separately and come together easily. The releases are faster, which is arguably the most important component to DevOps.

The entire idea of containers is beneficial to DevOps teams. It doesn’t make a lot of sense anymore to use the traditional virtual machine method. VMs are slower and use more computing power. They also don’t scale as well. Containers improve on VMs by running atop the OS kernel directly, meaning that they are more lightweight, start much faster, and are easier to move. This kind of flexibility is immensely important for DevOps teams.

You Still Need the Culture

As important as the cloud is, the culture is more important. Technologies often breed social innovation, and this is the case in DevOps.  Having the cloud doesn’t mean as much without the proper approach and work environment. Collaboration is more important than ever, as having different minds approach the same problem is crucial.

I recently spoke with Gremlin’s Tammy Butow, and one of my questions was about DevOps culture. She responded with:

“From what I understand, DevOps was created to break down the silos between Dev and Ops teams. A more inclusive culture where everyone worked together as desired. That’s a step in the right direction but it’s not enough.

I am a Principal SRE here at Gremlin. To me, SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) breaks down silos across your entire company. As an SRE you work with Engineering (all teams), Finance, Marketing/PR, Customer Support, Sales, Legal/Compliance and more. To be successful and make a large positive impact as an SRE you need to break down silos across your entire company and work with everyone. It’s the most inclusive role I have ever seen and I love it.

I’d also say that Designers, Data Engineers, and Product Managers would need to break down silos across their entire companies to be extremely effective too.

I love the quote, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’

It takes a team time to do truly groundbreaking work but it is worth it.”