There has been a lot of buzz lately about continuous delivery and (ongoing buzz) about DevOps. I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss the two and figure out how exactly they fit together. To help me with this, I turned to a recent article by Paul Swartout on packtpub.com. So the question I want to answer first is:
What is continuous delivery and DevOps?
To start, continuous delivery refers to the process of releasing high quality software quickly and with confidence through the use of build, test and deployment automation. By applying lean techniques to the development, test and deployment of software, waste is reduced and staff is freed up to work on more important tasks. By following a continuous delivery model, release cycles can shift from a matter of months to weeks or days.
DevOps, alternatively, is an IT movement that is designed to address the disconnect between operations and development. While operations teams or focused on making sure the IT infrastructure doesn’t go down, development people aim to push code, change with business needs and develop new functions to differentiate their organization and provide a competitive advantage. The goal of DevOps is to break down the silos with the undeniable benefits of lower operational costs, faster deployment and greater flexibility to respond to business needs.
How do continuous delivery and DevOps work together?
Continuous delivery and DevOps can certainly stand on their own but they complement each other very well to speed the delivery of applications. Swartout says:
If you want to continuously deliver quality software you need to have a pretty slick and streamlined process for getting the software into the production environment. This will need very close working relationships between the development teams and the operations teams. The more they work as one unity, the more seamless the process.
Continuous delivery will give you the tools and the best of breed practices to deliver quality software quickly. DevOps will help you establish the behaviors, culture, and ways of working to fully utilize continuous delivery.
“If you have the opportunity to implement both [continuous delivery and DevOps], it would be foolish not to at least try.”
Click here to read Swartout’s original article: “Continuous Delivery and DevOps FAQ’s”
Click here to learn more about continuous application delivery
Click here to learn more about enterprise DevOps