The DevOps Lifecycle: A Comprehensive Guide

The DevOps Lifecycle: A Comprehensive Guide

The introduction of a more collaborative environment for software development and therefore the closing of the gap between developers and operations are two of the foremost significant contributions that DevOps has made to the software development and deployment processes. At the identical time, guaranteeing that there’s enough flexibility to satisfy any customer or market demands to induce the foremost out of everything that DevOps has got to offer, you ought to however implement a correct DevOps lifecycle in your company. This may allow you to form the foremost of everything that DevOps should offer.

In this article, we are going to discuss the DevOps lifecycle in its entirety, including its phases and recommended practices.

What does it mean to possess a Devops Lifecycle?

The different stages that are included within the DevOps process to guide users from development to deployment and monitoring are grouped together into what’s referred to as the DevOps lifecycle. It offers a standardized framework for integrating DevOps practices into your delivery pipeline so as to extend the speed of the delivery process while maintaining an identical level of reliability. In the meantime, it provides the flexibility necessary to fulfill the ever-changing demands.

During the entire project, each stage within the life cycle will repeatedly iterate, and also the project will proceed continuously through the lifecycle. The DevOps lifecycle is diminished into seven stages, which are as follows:

• Development
• Integration
• Testing
• Deployment
• Monitoring
• Feedback
• Operations

Why is it Necessary for Devops to Possess a Lifecycle Anyway?

A properly implemented lifecycle will provide a structure for the implementation of DevOps practices furthermore as an experience that’s more resilient and versatile in terms of development and management. Additionally to those benefits, a properly implemented lifecycle will provide the subsequent advantages:

1. It is important to enhance the speed and efficiency of the event process without sacrificing the standard of the merchandise that’s produced. The tip results of implementing DevOps are a product of upper quality, with fewer errors and a consequently improved user experience.
2. Increase the visibility of the delivery process while also helping to make an environment during which different teams can work together effectively.
3. Automatization is often easily integrated throughout the lifecycle. It makes it possible for users to effectively manage available resources, which has facilitating automated integrations and testing likewise as automated deployment and monitoring, all while reducing the quantity of labor that teams need to do.
4. The time that’s saved by development teams and therefore the increased efficiency that’s gained through the practice of DevOps are often wont to improve the merchandise even further, which ends up in a very higher return on investment.
5. Users, no matter the scale of their teams, are able to effectively organize and monitor the whole thing of delivery process due to these practices.
6. Monitoring and testing processes that are automated help speed up the method of locating and fixing defects or bugs, all while reducing the number of mistakes made by humans.
7. Workflows that are streamlined as a result of more visible and clearly defined workloads for every team member.

The Devops Lifecycle Divided into Seven Phases

Let’s take a better take look at each of those stages one at a time now that we’ve got a much better understanding of why a correct DevOps lifecycle is important.

Development

The coding of the software occurs at the start of the DevOps lifecycle, which is thought of as development. During this stage, the necessities for the project are analyzed, specified, and then communicated to the developers within the variety of codable requirements. Because the wants of the event rely on all of the opposite aspects of the project, it is considered the muse of the project. However, even these requirements are subject to modification betting on the constantly shifting requirements of the end-users or the conditions of the market.

Integration

In the subsequent phase of the DevOps lifecycle, the newly developed code is merged with the already existing code base with the aim of conducting a compatibility test. During this stage, you’ll anticipate not only greenhorn code changes, but also integrations with services provided by third parties.

Testing

The testing phase of the DevOps lifecycle is one of the more time-consuming stages. During this phase, the application is examined for any flaws or errors. Testing is finished to confirm that the application is of top quality and to work out whether or not the software meets the wants that are set. So as to ensure the application’s functionality, reliability, and performance, it’ll require the participation of an outsized number of teams, starting from developers to quality assurance engineers and even site reliability engineers.

Testing may be accustomed simulate the assembly environments and understanding the appliance behavior before deploying the appliance in a very productive environment. This can be accomplished by simulating the assembly environment. So as to make sure that there’s a smooth transition between stages, automated testing is going to be incorporated into a tool that supports continuous integration.

Deployment

When an application that has been developed and tested is prepared to be put into a production environment, this process is noted as deployment. During deployment, continuous delivery tools are utilized. Continuous deployment may be a practice that’s promoted by DevOps. In contrast to traditional monolithic deployments, within which each deployment is performed just once, continuous deployment involves minor updates to be continuously pushed to production.

The ability of teams to quickly push bug fixes and new features to an application is formed possible by that specialize in small deployments. It’ll also cause a much better experience for end-users because bugs are going to be fixed more quickly and therefore the application will receive new features on a more consistent basis.

Additionally, continuous deployments lessen the likelihood of major deployment failures occurring. Whether or not the deployment fails for a few reasons, you’ll still have the flexibility to quickly revert the appliance to an earlier version. This might end in a lesser impact being felt by the end-users.

Monitoring

Monitoring the appliance after it’s been deployed enables users to own a much better understanding of how the application behaves and a simpler thanks to answering incidents. Continuous monitoring is the simplest method for gaining an understanding of both the application and therefore the environment it operates in, likewise as locating anomalies in a timely manner. Monitoring can cover every facet of an application, from the foremost fundamental metrics like CPU and memory utilization to more complex metrics like monitoring API calls.

Utilizing metric logs to realize an understanding of the health and behavior of the appliance is of great assistance in locating any problems and finding solutions to those problems.

Feedback

Feedback is a vital part of the DevOps process, and also the feedback process begins at the look stage of the event and continues all the way through to the feedback provided by end-users on the application’s final version. It’s possible to boost the application by using the feedback obtained from users both internally and externally so as to fulfill specific end-user requirements. Even when functionality appears to own reached its full potential, one piece of feedback has the potential to shift a whole perspective on the functionality and result in enhancements.

The establishment of effective communication channels and also the continued upkeep of these channels alongside ongoing analysis of the knowledge constitute an extra factor that helps to make sure the efficiency of feedback.

Operations

The DevOps lifecycle involves a detailed operations phase, which is the stage where the project is maintained after the end-users are given control of the appliance. Monitoring plays a major role in the operations department’s ability to assess the application’s state of health. It guarantees that the application will still function normally and dependably throughout its entire lifetime of use.

The application’s upkeep primarily falls under the purview of the operations team, which is liable for its administration. However, it’s possible for it to spread to other teams in the event of difficulty like a bug that needs the combined efforts of multiple teams to develop, test, and deploy a fix. In certain circumstances, the responsibility of providing user support and managing end-user feedback is additionally delegated to the Operations team.

The Phase that was Missing: Maintaining Continuous Security

The DevOps lifecycle is lacking one important component, which component is security. It’s impractical to integrate security in a standardized manner into the DevOps process. This can be true despite the very fact that individual security components could also be added during the stages of development, testing, or monitoring.

With the help of automation, the overwhelming majority of the safety scanning, auditing, and testing aspects may be incorporated as an integral part of the delivery process. A security-focused environment is maintained throughout the applying lifecycle by beginning with code analysis, continuing on to secret scanning and dependency scanning, and at last moving on to inoperative security monitoring as a part of the general monitoring stage.

When the safety posture is improved, the application becomes more resilient, and there’s a decreased likelihood of vulnerabilities or attacks that might compromise the system.

To gain access to all or any of the advantages that DevOps practices should offer, it’s necessary to place in situ an appropriate DevOps lifecycle. Create a software delivery process that’s adaptable, resilient, and secure by combining the quality DevOps lifecycle with continuous security. This can allow you to stay up with any changes that occur within the technological landscape.

About Enteros

Enteros offers a patented database performance management SaaS platform. It proactively identifies root causes of complex business-impacting database scalability and performance issues across a growing number of clouds, RDBMS, NoSQL, and machine learning database platforms.