July 9, 2021
DevOps Services Partner – Make the Right Choice
DevOps as a Service is gaining traction among companies seeking faster delivery and greater productivity.
DevOps as a Service (DaaS) is a delivery model that streamlines the tools developers and operations teams use to collaborate. How it works is, the service provider gathers all of the tools involved in the DevOps process, moves them to the cloud, then links them together so that they work as one cohesive unit.
The key benefit is that all elements of your DevOps strategy are combined into a single system that supports better collaboration, continuous monitoring, and detailed logs documenting all activities.
An effective DevOps as a Service strategy offers organizations the ability to innovate faster, adjust to changing market conditions, and quickly scale thanks to the power of automation.
In this article, we’ll dig into the idea of DaaS and the key things you should look for in a DevOps Services Company.
A Holistic Approach to DevOps Services
While DevOps as a Service does automate much of the traditional DevOps process, the goal isn’t to replace human developers and operations teams.
In fact, DaaS is designed to coexist with the DevOps team, allowing them to focus their efforts on more meaningful work. One of the core tenets of DevOps is that the process centers on continuous improvements.
So, once organizations have mastered the manual aspects of DevOps, they can start applying automation to processes that could be further optimized.
In most cases, companies looking to bring DevOps culture into their company would like to do so as quickly as possible.
DevOps as a Service is one of the easiest ways to accelerate DevOps adoption without undermining the foundational elements needed to develop an effective, sustainable strategy.
However, organizations need to make sure they select a qualified DevOps Services provider that goes beyond bringing development tools into the cloud and can also offer a variety of services. You’ll want to partner with a provider that helps you hit DevOps milestones that can take a long time to figure out without an experienced guide.
In these next few sections, we’ll go over what are DevOps services you should look for in a provider.
Leadership Team Development
Whether your goal is to build a dedicated DevOps team or not, implementing any DevOps initiative requires strong leaders to lead the charge. Even if your entire team is outsourced, you’ll need people on the inside responsible for keeping DevOps projects on track.
A qualified DevOps services provider will help you identify the best people to fill this role and bring them up to speed, introducing them to the processes and culture that set the stage for success.
Culture Transition
As we’ve mentioned in the past, successful DevOps adoption depends on having the right culture in place. Gartner estimates a whopping 90% failure rate for teams that attempt a DevOps initiative without also making the appropriate adjustments to their internal culture. For many organizations, change can be really challenging. DevOps consulting services can aid leadership in making the case for DevOps by highlighting the benefits to employees, which include the following:
- Greater job satisfaction
- Increased engagement
- More opportunities for professional development
- Fewer hours spent fixing and monitoring processes
- More time for meaningful work
DevOps consultants can be a valuable asset when It comes to explaining the “why” behind the shift and quelling fears about automation and job security.
Change can’t happen on its own, and it demands buy-in at all levels. Organizations can avoid a great deal of the internal resistance that comes from such dramatic change by working with a third-party expert as a source of external support.
Strategy
Developing a comprehensive DevOps strategy is a complex process that begins with the following steps:
- Identify your objectives
- Build a business case
- Restructure teams
- Update processes
- Identify and implement the right tools to support your efforts
- Develop a collaborative, transparent culture
DevOps consulting services will help you develop a roadmap for how to roll out new processes to the entire team, complete with milestones, project owners, and a unified set of tools to support your efforts. You’ll work together to select and prioritize which projects will be handled first, second, and so on.
They’ll also help you establish feedback loops across the entire lifecycle and establish performance metrics that help your teams focus their efforts on what matters, and help you design a strategy that evolves alongside your business.
Detailed Plan
For the first iteration of any DevOps project, a documented plan will guide everyone’s activities, outline expectations, performance metrics, and more. Where your strategy serves as a framework for your initiative, this step gets into the specifics.
Here, you’ll need to make sure your plan is complete, comprehensive, and well-aligned with DevOps principles. Future plans will be informed by feedback from users and customers. Without the right DevOps services and solutions, organizations risk making mistakes that could compromise the process for years to come.
Process Training
DevOps training typically includes Agile methodology training, which can be obtained through a professional certification program such as those offered by the DevOps Institute. Courses are offered through learning institutions all over the world, both online and in person.
Working with a consultant can help you identify which employees require training and at what level. DevOps services providers can help business leaders assess how to approach training, as well as where it makes more sense to outsource.
DevOps Consulting Services Are a Logical First Step
Great DevOps engineers are hard to find, much less convince them to join your team. They’re also an expensive hire, with an in-demand, technical background, which means that many organizations don’t have the budget to hire and develop an entire DevOps team.
The rise of cloud computing has taught us that just about any job can be performed by an outside resource, and DevOps is no exception.
Over the past few years, the number of DevOps consulting companies has grown considerably. So much so, that for companies looking for high-quality DevOps services, the challenge lies in making the right decision.
Planning a DevOps Initiative? Download Our Free Guide!
3Pillar Global uses DevOps as a critical part of our digital product development. Download our Free DevOps guide where we discuss the benefits and common challenges experienced with DevOps or watch our on-demand webinar "Is DevOps Right For You?".
