How DevOps Boost Business Deliveries During COVID-19?

The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted unprecedented circumstances on businesses across the world.

Nearly the entire business world has been thrust into remote working with almost no notice.

Embroiled in the new normal, IT businesses are being tested on their agility and the ability to deliver software products and services quickly to ensure business continuity.

However, the strong adoption of DevOps can help companies quickly deliver value to end-users.

Even though DevOps has been a goal for many IT firms for years, the work-from-home reality has shrunk the timeline for DevOps adoption.

DevOps has become imperative for enterprises’ survival and to ensure business continuity.

As per the market estimates, the DevOps market is anticipated to reach USD 10.31 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 24.7%.

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DevOps Aiding Remote Work

DevOps is, by default, developed for remote workspaces. It features an automated software development methodology that doesn’t differentiate whether the team works remotely or on-premise.

Due to its autonomous and distributed nature, DevOps can provide the necessary boost to business deliveries during the ongoing crisis.

Leveraging DevOps During COVID-19 Pandemic

1) Relying on Continuous Delivery (CD)

DevOps aims to increase speed and flexibility with Continuous Delivery (CD).

CD facilitates automation of the software delivery process to enable assured and comfortable deployments. The DevOps team can use an automatic trigger to frequently release error-free code into production.

With CD, the DevOps team can-

• Frequently deploy working software
• Utilize a predictable deployment pipeline
• Ensure that code is in a deployable state

Conventionally, deployment is often considered a slow process that involves code freezes.  However, with CD, the changes are almost insignificant and don’t require implementing code freezes.

2) Decoupling Release and Deployment

The economic uncertainty incited by the ongoing pandemic makes it hard to take risks. Introducing a new software product or service may further induce a financial burden.

However, despite this uncertainty, DevOps can allow organizations to take bold risks during software development.

Separating ‘Release’ from ‘Deployment’ is the required DevOps strategy.

By separating release from deployment, the product team can manage the risk of releasing features to end-users while the engineering team continuously delivers software.

One of the best ways to separate release and deployment is using a feature flag or feature toggle software.

3) Embracing a Holistic Approach

One aspect of DevOps often overlooked is the cultural transition from a rigid IT Ops team to an agile DevOps team. Ensure a holistic approach by integrating different teams and processes during any digital initiative.

The holistic approach helps the DevOps teams collaborate with product and development teams, facilitating more organizational cohesion. The DevOps team feels empowered to make decisions that align with customer-related business goals.

4) Moving Ahead with DevOps

During the COVID-19 crisis, a strong DevOps strategy helped end-users and positively impacted the organization internally.

DevOps helps IT businesses to deliver software products quickly while maintaining high quality and reliability.

It allows cross-functional teams to be more flexible and make smarter decisions during uncertain conditions that require bold actions instead of small, incremental changes.

ALSO READ: Why Startups ‘Fail’ in DevOps?

In Conclusion

DevOps has all the qualities to help IT businesses sustain themselves in the ongoing pandemic. However, it’s imperative for the company and teams to effectively use DevOps methodologies and some best practices to exploit it as never before.