DevOps based Web Application Development and it’s Implementation

In today’s competitive world of accelerated product cycles, a siloed system of working separately as development and operations teams may seem undexterous. DevOps does away with silos, makes it possible to automate delivery pipelines, and this leads to the team taking the product back to the drawing board and working with lightning speed in case of changes. It becomes possible to deliver a superior product to the market without any time delay.

It is no wonder then that most companies are turning towards DevOps to develop products quickly, test them, and thus get them to the market with no delay.

More than a system, DevOps is a cultural rethink, which accounts for its immense power which enables the tremendous success of companies that hire DevOps consultants or partners.

So how do you implement DevOps in web app development?

There is a downside to this though, and if you don’t address it, you are bound to be ousted from a playing field that has giants like Google and Netflix, who have redefined product lifecycles. The downside is this — you cannot bring feedback into the mix until you complete the product and all its phases. But what good is that? Also, products in today’s markets should operate within changing requirements and parameters. The market is complex and more long-term than what a sequential model allows.

DevOps and web applications workflow explained

This is what it looks like:

Planning –>Coding and Version Control (with tools like git or svn) wherein you write and build code –> Deployment phase (with tools like Docker)–> Testing (Automated by tools like Jenkins and Maven) –> Monitoring and Production

If you think this is a linear process, think again. Depending on the code you write, if there are bugs or problems in the CI environment, you receive feedback from the application and performance environments. Feedback can also arrive from the performance and testing rooms. The result is a multi-pronged approach that brings every person into the fold and gives responsibility for the entire process to every member involved in the software delivery process.

Scalability

One huge advantage is that with such a finetuned and well-functioning cross-curricular environment, scalability is easier. This also means better team scalability.

Speed

The speed of delivery in a web app development process that follows the DevOps philosophy is significantly quicker. DevOps gives developers a broader perspective and a more comprehensive view of the processes. For instance, a web developer who changed to a DevOps team writes in TechBeacon about how DevOps added crucial layers to his process. In a traditional system, a developer would directly write code that adhered to a fixed set of standards, but a developer who has worked with DevOps takes into consideration many things before finishing writing code – for example, how will this code fare in the automation tests and will it work in the CI environment. In other words, the developer also understands the environment within which the code is going to operate even before writing the code.

Better code

Due to the highly synchronized and flexible working processes in a DevOps system, developers are encouraged to come up with better code, and there are qualified cells to perform regular code reviews. When developers look beyond just the technical dynamics of code and bring in maintainability, deployment and testing standards to the process of coding, the result is a very superior product.

There are many benefits – automation of the delivery pipeline and a cross-collaboration that propelled the likes of Netflix and Google to fame — but the most positive impact of DevOps is on the organizational culture and the spirit of collaboration that it produces.