DevOps represents a phenomenal work culture wherein the requisite tools and techniques are in a constant change of flux — evolving with time at a breakneck pace that can render the previous year’s techniques archaic. As such, it’s imperative to keep abreast of DevOps trends to enhance the process of software development.
According to experts, DevOps is soon to reach its cultural zenith so it’s the ideal time for industries to start incorporating it into their operational processes. The following are some of the most important DevOps trends in 2018.
Serverless Computing
Using the correct DevOps solutions, serverless computing can be rendered into a reality. With this model, you don’t have to spend anything on infrastructure because the cloud provider acts as the server. As such, you can direct all your resources towards the development itself. In 2018, serverless computing will reach its peak and new means of assembling and disassembling the stacks will be ideated upon.
Research and Markets analysts have found that serverless computing and abstraction of containers and orchestration edges are driving the function-as-a-service market, and they believe this market is likely to grow annually by 33% over the next couple of years.
Using Docker
The DevOps community is extremely taken with the Docker application because it’s the most efficient tool for containerization. This tool can be used to can handle the dual-pronged task of app development while simultaneously managing configurations. Furthermore, Docker, as a tool, is constantly evolving and upgrading through new updates. In fact, one of the latest updates included the support of a native Kubernetes which facilitated the use of cloud-agnostic containers so that users could spend less time and finances on different PaaS systems.
Automation
Automation is a cornerstone of DevOps as it negates the need for the time-consuming and resource-heavy process of manual testing. There are various skeptics who still swear by manual testing as the automated alternative is deemed to be an exhausting process. However, automation is likely to win out in the end because it can save a lot of time and resources, especially since it can test several units simultaneously. As such, automation is not likely to become obsolete any time soon.
Automation needs to primarily be applied to the following stages:
• Business Planning: This entails recognizing the skills, outcome, and the resources necessary.
• Collaborative Development: Automating the process of draft development and the programming plan.
• Testing: Automation can enhance the efficiency of the unit and integration testing, which can, in turn, enhance the speed of production.
• Release and Deployment: Can enhance the implementation of code review and simplify developer check-ins.
• Monitoring: Automation can help recognize and deal with errors and mistakes immediately whenever they happen. Automation helps elicit immediate feedback from the customers and then act on them.
Metrics
Metrics is a fine point of DevOps because it helps us gauge the impact of implementing DevOps in order to fine-tune it. Metrics tell us whether our processes are getting more efficient, less so, or if they are in a stand-still. A variety of tools are used by companies to track the efficiency of DevOps, and it’s essential that they continue doing so in order to maximize their utility.
Big Data
Machine Learning is the most efficient means of processing the big scope of data that’s generated when DevOps is applied to the software development process. Of course, this is an expensive process, however, it helps you gauge the strengths and weaknesses of your DevOps solutions, which can, in turn, help you weed out all inefficiencies, proving to be more cost-effective in the long run.
Easy Restoration of Information
The Kubernetes open source project has made it easy to restore and access just about any piece of information from a container within a few seconds. As such, even if there’s some catastrophic failure, you can rest assured that all your information will be restored immediately. Furthermore, the system can also produce and send a report so you can determine why the failure occurred and rectify it.
Agile Software Development
Agile Software Development is a form of software development wherein the requirements and solutions arise when the self-organizing and cross-functional teams work collaboratively with their customers and end users. It emphasizes iterative, incremental, and evolutionary development. Nowadays, it’s one of the most popular forms of software development, however, it’s not used in its initial form. However, DevOps seeks to shake things up and get us back to square one as it can only truly succeed in environments that are flexible.
Using Advanced Technologies
The market is flooded with a number of DevOps tools and plugins. Furthermore, new tools and applications are being launched on a daily basis. In order to stay ahead of the curve, it’s essential to analyze the utility of the latest solutions and incorporate the ones that can maximize your utility.
Enterprise DevOps
RightScale, a cloud-management provider, conducted a study wherein it was found that 84% of all enterprises have incorporated at least some of the basic tenets of DevOps into their operations in 2017. However, there’s still a noticeable gap between embracing the principles of DevOps and applying it in practice because only 30% of those companies have successfully incorporated DevOps into their organizations. As such, it’s believed that in 2018, companies will start incorporating DevOps on a larger scale.
Digital Security
In order to enhance security, it’s important to go beyond simply enhancing the authentication and the encryption processes. To really render your processes impenetrable and secure, you need to inscribe digital integrity into the very code of the SDLC cycle in each of its phases, be it requirements, scrums, or testing. Automation can also be used to create reliable security checks into the DevOps pipeline, thus drastically cutting down on your company’s exposure to security threats. It’s also economically viable because it saves up on late-stage application security mitigation tasks.
Microservices Architecture
Microservices are being used collaboratively with DevOps now because they are completely independent and do not create any collateral damage on other systems in case of a failure. Microservices architecture allows companies to add new features with the greatest ease and efficiency, owing to their lack of dependencies. In 2018, more and more companies are likely to migrate to microservices architecture to increase the efficiency of their delivery. However, before you adopt this strategy, you should determine whether you really need it for your organization.
DevSecOps
DevSecOps — a collaborative linking of DevOps with Security — is likely to become mainstream in 2018 as security technologies will gain prominence with developers. Security will have to be embedded into the SDLC and CI/CD pipeline as developers will be held accountable for the security of their applications and data.
DevOps Assembly Lines
Pipelines are the standard right now as they allow you to visualize your apps from the source control straight to production. However, the market is shifting towards continuous delivery (CD) right now, so organizations are starting to automate their software development processes. As such, 2018 will see a shift towards the direction of DevOps Assembly Lines incorporating the tenets of Continuous Delivery as opposed to CI.
