DevOps is a set of practices that automates the processes between software development and IT teams, in order that they can build, test and release software faster and more reliably. The concept of DevOps is founded on building a culture of collaboration between teams that historically functioned in separation. The promised benefits include increased trust, faster software releases, ability to solve critical issues quickly and better manage unplanned work. DevOps is a philosophy, a cultural approach. It emphasizes effective communication between the developers (Dev) and the system operators (Ops).

“Dev” usually refers to software developers, but in fact represent a larger group of people. This group includes anyone who works on the development of the software.

“Ops” is a wider concept compared to “Dev” and is used to refer to systems engineers, system administrators, release engineers, database administrators, network engineers, security specialists and other disciplines.

Nowadays, the speed at which software products (applications) change version (release) has increased and continues to increase with the rising competition between products. In this competition, companies and their products have to achieve quality results in order to satisfy their customers in a similar environment. Some companies offer dozens, maybe hundreds of software changes per day in real time to improve user experience, correct errors or add new features. That is why it has become inevitable to make software production with agility. In the past, the desired agility could not be achieved when “Dev” and “Ops” were working separately; companies that developed software were experiencing inefficiency and customers were not satisfied. Delayed projects, faulty products, unsuccessful version trials, wasted money and time, loss of reputation led to the need for DevOps.

DevOps Lifecycle

While the traditional software development lifecycle used to mainly follow the Waterfall methodology in the past, Agile SCRUM methodology has become widespread today. However, we can still see this lifecycle as a mixture of Agile, SCRUM and Waterfall methodologies in most organizations.

DevOps Lifecycle is as follows:

• The code is transferred to the source control system (check in)
• The code is pulled from the source control system to be compiled (pull)
• Tests are run. The continuous integration server generates builds and releases. Integration and user tests are performed
• The outputs that pass the tests (artifacts) and builds are stored
• Deployment is made using an automatic release tool
• Environment is configured
• Databases are updated
• Applications are updated
• Tested applications are transferred to users without them experiencing an interruption
• Application and network performance are monitored and problems are tried to be prevented before they occur
• Each step is repeated with some improvement

With DevOps, a continuous deployment of the products through a feedback cycle takes place through the following steps:

• Infrastructure Automation
• Configuration Management
• Deployment Automation
• Infrastructure Monitoring
• Log Management
• Application and Performance Management

Benefits of DevOps

The biggest change that comes with DevOps is that team members who used to work separately and have different skills, such as developers, database administrators, system administrators, system analysts, have come together to form a single team. This collaboration of different roles has many advantages. Continuous delivery, problems to be fixed being less complex and faster solutions to problems are the technical benefits of DevOps. Faster delivery of product features, more consistent and stable running systems, and spending time for improvement rather than troubleshooting are the business benefits of DevOps.