The past year has seen a large number of businesses embrace the digital revolution. In one TEKsystems survey, 9-in-10 C-Suite executives say their company is firmly on board the digital transformation bandwagon. About 72% are leveraging the transformation to meet ever-changing customers’ expectations. Meanwhile, others see digital transformation as an opportunity or legacy systems to achieve operational efficiency. In total, 47% of respondents said their organization is maturing and advancing in digital transformation. The other 53% of organizations are transforming gradually in silos or evaluating their ability to transform digitally.

Unfortunately, though, digital transformation has never been a ride. A $1.7 trillion industry already, but only about 30% of all transformation efforts succeed.

Typical challenges range from security concerns to excessive competing tech priorities and even aversion to risk. Aligning vision, culture, and structure has also been cited as a stumbling block. Besides, many companies also complain about the inability to deliver value at scale.

Development and Operations, popular as DevOps, could solve many of the challenges experienced during digital transformation.

What is DevOps

DevOps is a set of practices that work to integrate and automate software development and IT processes. It allows the two teams to work together to build, test, and release software faster and more reliably.

The term is formed by combining the two words “development” and “operations.” It signifies a cultural shift that bridges the gap between the development department and operations team that historically existed in siloes.

Essentially, DevOps is a culture, a philosophy, so to say. It’s a firm handshake between the two involved departments that emphasizes a shift in mindset. It unites the processes found under these two departments, allowing experts to collaborate on agile, continuous delivery, automation, and much more.

The unified approach’s primary purpose is to achieve greater efficiency, faster innovation, and shorter time-to-market development.

Role of DevOps in Achieving Digital Transformation

DevOps helps organizations achieve digital transformation by;

  • Changing the market’s social mindset, 
  • Eliminating detrimental silos, 
  • Creating the perfect environment for continuous innovation and agile experimentation.

Consequently, organizations can position themselves to satisfy evolving consumer needs better, thus gaining a competitive advantage.

Let’s elaborate;

  • DevOps changes the cultural mindset 

Many organizations are too invested in their corporate cultures to transform. They are woefully set in their traditional ways of development, shipping, and operations. Abandoning those old habits that have worked so well for so long looks like throwing away the business altogether.

DevOps teams are the perfect catalyst for change in the organization. Why? Because DevOps is about making things happen. As soon as you establish a DevOps team, you’re changing the organization’s cultural mindset, adopting a do-it-now approach. The team will be able to execute business ideas seamlessly without red tape, committees, or detractive bureaucracy, etc.

  • It unites people, processes, and technology

Digital transformation requires three things– people, processes, and technology – to work together towards a common goal. Otherwise, there’s a risk of wasting resources or losing the plot altogether. DevOps traditionally bring the three together, enabling them to grow and change the organization’s digital face as one.

For instance, DevOps eliminates loopholes for wasteful allocation of people and tools by ensuring better focus on the objective. It frees up resources previously “hidden” or wasted on low-priority areas. 

As a result, the company can channel all its resources to essential areas only. In the end, you enjoy faster production and a greater likelihood of meeting project deadlines.

  • Companies tend to self-steer towards better solutions 

Having the development and operations teams work together makes IT infrastructure more testable, observable, dynamic, and resilient. It also creates an in-demand-style working environment. This can help your digital transformation by enabling safer, more rapid changes to support IT infrastructure. Ultimately, you’re also likely to see accelerated changes to software applications and services.

The united working approach also allows for quicker identification of requirements, which can improve operability. Remember that DevOps ensures all changes in systems and IT infrastructure are run from code in version control. This removes manual control ambiguities and enables traceability back to control.

  • Automation becomes a driving factor

Digital transformations are 80% about automation. Whether you’re moving from legacy systems to modern solutions or creating new platforms, automation is at the center of it all. Unfortunately, attaining automation throughout the organization isn’t as simple as it may seem. DevOps can help here too.

Key priorities in the DevOps operational approach include shortening feedback loops, increasing flow, and encouraging continuous experimentation and learning. These are seeds upon which automation can become a reality. In addition, the principals of the DevOps model advocate for optimized automation to realize the maximum impact.

  • DevOps supports rapid experimentation

At the core of digital transformations are multiple experiments seeking the right answers to all kinds of questions. The chief aim? To help the organization gain a competitive edge and serve customers well. Learning from current engagements and revising services, therefore, happens at all times. The faster the experimentation – the better.

DevOps supports all the three experimentation goals in any digital transformation process. It improves the business’ ability to understand/interpret feedback quickly, enables change development based on the feedback, and improves the speed at which organizations can reliably implement those changes to get the new products out to market.

It Doesn’t End There

DevOps also creates new revenue streams and breaks down the silos that inherently hinder digital transformation. In the end, your products will also be more reliable thanks to version control and standardized technology stacks.

For more information on digital transformations, DevOps models, and how to get the two to work together, contact United Perfectum today.