The epic changes brought about by mobile and cloud computing over the past 5 years have completely transformed the way organizations do business today. We now live in an age where mobile devices are the PCs of choice and mobile apps are the ubiquitous software of choice in this digital era. IT is shifting completely to the cloud and this new paradigm is leading organizations to adopt quicker and more agile frameworks for managing that software.

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It used to be that software release cycles would take upwards of 18-24 months or more. But with the innovations spurred on by the consumerization of IT and heightened customer demands, companies today are hard-pressed to get applications out the door as fast as possible.

The need for creating a novel software application from “soup to nuts” is about 3 months for an initial version and upwards of 6 months for the full feature set. And not only has the lifecycle shortened but apps have become much more complex and require cross-collaboration and integration between various IT constituents, such as Operations, Development, and Q&A in ways previously unimagined. The result has been a new discipline known as DevOps.

Someone has aptly called attention to DevOps as “Just the (Necessary) Consumerization of Software Development.” We agree with this assessment. DevOps has gained a tremendous amount of market buzz in recent years. But it’s not just a new trend! DevOps really does describe a substantial epic shift in how businesses manage their computing services.

Following the lead of one source, DevOps can be aptly defined as follows:

DevOps is an emerging set of principles, methods and practices for communication, collaboration and integration between software development (application/software engineering) and IT operations (systems administration/infrastructure) professionals. It has developed in response to the emerging understanding of the interdependence and importance of both the development and operations disciplines in meeting an organization’s goal of rapidly producing software products and services.

This is a big statement, but at its core DevOps is really a cultural shift as much as a technology and process change. Simply put, this new paradigm recognizes that to avoid falling through the cracks businesses today must move high quality software applications out the door as fast as possible.

DevOps is about excellent customer service, cost savings, and increased efficiency. But it’s also just as much about different business units being agile, adaptable, and flexible enough to work together to produce excellent products and services. DevOps is best summed up as a new way for people, process, and technology to work together in organic harmony.

So the obvious question to ask is this: “How is your organization leveraging DevOps today?” When it comes to your IT infrastructure, what are you doing to ensure faster production cycle times, more efficient workflows, and better cost savings and revenue generation? If a blank is drawn on these questions, then you need to put together a DevOps strategy.

In the next part we’ll explore in more detail what you need to consider in adopting such a strategy. We’ll look briefly at some ways to make DevOps central to your organization, or how to move from A to B through the phases of Executive Buy-in, Building a Roadmap, Automation, and Cultural Change – key issues that pertain to the core of DevOps delivery.

Stay tuned!