6 Feb 2017

Discover rapid returns with DevOps in your business

by GLiNTECH

Bridging the gap between product development and operations in the form of DevOps is heralding a new era in quality control and business agility

Welcome to the new world of DevOps. For technical people running the world’s online services DevOps is all in a day’s work, but what does it mean for the rest of us? It’s about time this quirky buzzword became front-and-centre of enterprise IT and business strategies to improve product and service development for good.

When I founded Glintech 15 years ago we were entering a new world of online transaction processing and Web services. It was an exciting time to establish a world-leading data integration practice right here in Sydney and industries like financial services were alive with opportunities for digital business.

Perhaps the most profound change during that time – in addition to the runaway success of the Web – was the approach organisations took to developing and managing a new service. Projects were often performed in isolation and the resulting products were hurriedly passed over to operations teams and ultimately customers.

To improve this cycle, countless hours are being invested in better techniques for project management, product development and operations management. These established disciplines are what every business leader knows well and are good place to start when introducing the role of DevOps.
 

DevOps is not product or service, it’s methodology for improving the alignment of product development, operations, quality control and continuous improvement. It doesn’t matter what type of product or service it is, the principles of DevOps can be applied to anything.
 

DevOps casts away preconceived notions of products being standalone entities and a “refresh cycle” is something with a set period. DevOps promotes a culture of rapid development and fast feedback – things every business needs to innovate and thrive. As predictive analytics grows, we will get more immediate feedback about products, services and processes, which complements the iterative development cycle fostered by DevOps.

DevOps was conceived to overcome product development gaps in fast-paced online services environments, but its value proposition extends far beyond a data centre. And I’m pleased to support this independently-produced guide to help inform business leaders of the opportunity DevOps, cloud and infrastructure modernisation brings to the enterprise.
 

The future is all about the connected economy and getting there will require persistence coupled with a willingness to move quickly. It’s time to apply DevOps thinking for rapid business outcomes.

~ Dimitri Spyridopoulos is founder and managing director of GLiNTECH.