DevOps-as-a-Service – Understanding What It Is, Its Scope, Benefits, and More

Should you build your DevOps from scratch and invest in your IT department or choose DevOps-as-a-Service and outsource these tasks? It’s a common dilemma for businesses that want to take advantage of these cutting-edge innovations.

DevOps, which stands for “Development & Operations” together, is a process that combines different philosophies, tools, and practices to integrate the work of software development and IT teams.

As a result, DevOps increases the speed, efficiency, and security of software development and delivery. Compared to traditional processes, it optimizes the software development lifecycle to give your businesses and customers a competitive advantage.

Since you need the right resources and tools to keep up with DevOps, it can be challenging and time-consuming. Therefore, many rely on the DevOps-as-a-Service model.

Here’s everything you need to know about the key aspects of DevOps, including its scope and benefits and how to start your own initiative.

What Is DevOps-as-a-Service? What Is Its Role in the Software Delivery Process?

As both models rely on the cloud infrastructure, DaaS is often confused with SaaS (Software as a Service). However, both are different.

Essentially, DevOps-as-a-Service (DaaS) is a delivery model that allows companies to obtain DevOps solutions from an outside service provider. Its main objective is to integrate the work of software development and operations teams.

As a result, instead of having separate teams, DevOps-as-a-Service connects several parties and makes them work together in a single unit, streamlining and automating the process to cover multiple aspects at the same time.

Relying on DaaS means the traditional collaboration is moved to the cloud. Therefore, you can track every action performed during the software delivery process and implement key strategies to deliver business value, such as continuous delivery (CD) and continuous integration (CI).

With DevOps-as-a-Service, you can enhance development, maintenance, and deployment processes to set up and configure your applications.

Pros of DevOps-as-a-Service

DevOps-as-a-Service offers multiple advantages, including the following:

• DaaS is the best option for companies when there’s a lack of internal DevOps expertise or an insufficient budget to hire and train new employees with those skills.
• DevOps-as-a-Service allows you to adapt to changing markets in less time to develop more products or offer innovative services.
• Using DaaS, you can automate DevOps processes to reduce manual work. As a result, there’s improved efficiency and increased productivity.
• Outsourcing DevOps helps you move faster and make operations more efficient for better and quicker results.
• Experts and teams involved with DevOps processes are allowed to use intuitive interfaces, calling on necessary tooling, even if they don’t understand the toolchain’s work.
• DaaS hides the complexity of data flow management across all levels of the toolchain.

Cons of DevOps-as-a-Service

While DevOps-as-a-Service brings many benefits, there are also a few drawbacks to consider, including the following:

• Most DevOps toolchains require CI/CD pipeline and monitoring capability during the software development process, as well as for deployment and production tasks.
• Businesses and companies cannot evaluate and choose the best tools integrated. Instead, you may have limited options when choosing tools and capabilities.
• DevOps must comply with security protocols. Otherwise, your data could be at risk.
• Outsourcing means that there might be limited customization, so you might be unable to adapt DevOps tools and processes to your needs.
• There are often fewer tools to manage DevOps when you rely on DaaS.
• You should monitor services and tools usage and pay close attention to costs and expenses to stick to your budget.

DevOps as Service Market

DevOps-as-a-Service providers often offer four different services to curate and integrate the toolchain with internal processes. These are:

DevOps Tools Vendor

Companies can face several challenges when keeping track of DevOps tools. However, vendors can make this task easier. In addition, they offer solutions according to your needs.

Public Cloud Platform Providers

These providers offer public cloud services, such as databases or storage capacities, for public use. Therefore, they’re flexible and virtually scalable, allowing experts to develop applications according to their objectives.

Microsoft Azure, a set of innovative and interoperable tools, AWS, and Google Cloud are good examples.

Systems Integrators

System integrators combine hardware, networking, and storage from multiple vendors to build computing systems. Companies can use them if they’re looking for cheaper, pre-configured software and component options.

IT Teams

Several IT teams are trained to handle DevOps tasks as part of development processes.

DevOps as Managed Cloud Service

The tools you use for building, testing, and deployment processes will move to the cloud as DevOps migrates your integrations to this ecosystem. As a result, continuous delivery becomes a managed cloud service, enabling automation and internal collaboration.

Here are some of the most popular options for moving DevOps to the cloud:

AWS Tools and Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s powerful global network has been designed to host complex IT environments. It makes migrating DevOps to the cloud easier and quick.

These are its most popular service features when it comes to continuous cloud delivery:

• AWS CodeBuild
• AWS CodePipeline
• AWS CodeDeploy

Google Cloud Platform Tools and Services

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) also offers different options for DevOps through its global network, an extensive list of capabilities, and user-friendly interfaces.

GCP supports full cloud development suitable for multiple platforms, such as Android Studio, Visual Studio, and Powershell.

These are some native management tools used for the Google cloud environment:

• GCP Deployment Manager
• GCP Cloud Console

Microsoft Azure Tools and Services

Microsoft’s cloud management platform, Azure, also offers great DevOps solutions. It’s the preferred choice for those looking for an easier transition from a hybrid cloud environment to a full cloud environment.

Here are some of the best DevOps tools that Microsoft offers:

• Azure App Service
• Azure DevTest Labs
• Azure Stack

Final Thoughts

DevOps-as-a-Service and other cloud-based solutions can bring countless possibilities to your business.

Therefore, if you want to improve your company’s efficiency and productivity while reducing costs, you should consider hiring a DaaS provider.

However, remember you must assess potential risks to benefit from DevOps-as-a-Service while protecting your data and business operations.

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