DevOps Architecture

DevOps Architecture

Introduction to DevOps Architecture

In Software Engineering, Development and Operations both play vital roles in order to deliver applications. The development comprises analyzing the requirements, designing, developing and testing of software components or frameworks. The operation consists of administrative processes, services, and support for the software. When both Development and Operation are combined together to collaborate, DevOps architecture comes into the picture. Moreover, it can be gathered that DevOps architecture is the solution to mend the gap between Development and Operations teams so that the delivery can be faster with fewer issues.

DevOps Architecture and Components

DevOps architecture is used for applications hosted on cloud platforms and large distributed applications. Agile Development is used here so that integration and delivery can be continuous. When the Development and Operations team work separately from each other, it is time-consuming to design, test and deploy. Also if the teams are not in sync with each other, it may cause a delay in delivery. So DevOps enables the teams to amend their shortcomings and increase productivity.

Below are the various DevOps components

1. Build

Without DevOps, the cost of the consumption of resources was evaluated based on pre-defined individual usage with fixed hardware allocation. But with DevOps, the usage of cloud, sharing of resources comes into the picture and the build is dependent upon the user’s need which is a mechanism to control the usage of resources or capacity.

2. Code

Many good practices like widely used git enable the code to be used which ensures not only writing the code for business but also helps to track changes, getting notified about the reason behind the change and if necessary reverting to the original code developed. The code can be arranged properly in files and folders etc and they can be reused.

3. Test

The application will move to production after it is tested. In the case of Manual Testing, it consumes more time in testing and moving the code to production. The testing can be done by automation which decreases the time for testing so that the time to deploy the code to production can be reduced as automating the running of the scripts will remove many manual steps.

4. Plan

DevOps use agile methodology to plan the development. Unplanned work always reduces productivity. With the Development and Operations team in sync, it helps in organizing the work to plan accordingly so as to increase productivity.

5. Monitor

Continuous Monitoring is used to identify any risks of failure. It is also helpful in tracking the system accurately so that the health of the application also can be checked. The monitoring becomes easier with services where the log data may get monitored through many third-party tools like Splunk.

6. Deploy

Most systems can support the scheduler for automated deployment. A cloud management platform enables users to capture accurate insights and view the optimization scenario, analytics on trends by the deployment of dashboards.

7. Operate

DevOps changes the way the traditional approach of developing and testing separately. The teams operate in a collaborative way where both the teams participate actively throughout the service lifecycle. The operations team interacts with developers and they come up with a monitoring plan which serves the IT and business requirements.

8. Release

Generally, deployment to an environment can be done by automation. But when the deployment is made to the production environment, it is done through manual triggering. Most of the processes involved in release management commonly specify to do the deployment in the production environment manually to lessen the impact on the customers.

Features of DevOps Architecture

Below are the key features of DevOps Architecture.

1. Automation

Automation most effectively reduces the time consumption specifically during the testing and deployment phase. The productivity increases and releases are made quicker through automation with less issue as tests are executed more rigorously. This will lead to catching bugs sooner so that it can be fixed more easily. For continuous delivery, each code change is done through automated tests, through cloud-based services and builds. This promotes production using automated deploys.

2. Collaboration

The Development and Operations team collaborates together as DevOps team which improves the cultural model as the teams become more effective with their productivity which strengthens accountability and ownership. The teams share their responsibilities and work closely in sync which in turn makes the deployment to production faster.

3. Integration

Applications need to be integrated with other components in the environment. The integration phase is where the existing code is integrated with new functionality and then testing takes place. Continuous integration and testing enable continuous development. The frequency in the releases and micro-services lead to significant operational challenges. To overcome such challenges, continuous integration and delivery are implemented to deliver in a quicker, safer and reliable manner.

4. Configuration Management

This ensures that the application only interacts with the resources concerned with the environment in which it runs. The configuration files are created where the configuration external to the application is separated from the source code. The configuration file can be written while deployment or they can be loaded at the run time depending on the environment in which it is running.

Conclusion

DevOps architecture enables collaboration between teams which is one of the essential features of delivery. It helps in improving the work culture among the teams to remain in sync to understand the status of work related to other teams. It helps in getting the releases faster and enables the teams to work in a more organized way by planning the work better and getting the work done in a more effective and smarter way. There are many DevOps architecture certifications available from Amazon, Microsoft, and Red Hat. DevOps architecture effectively decreases the deployment time which makes it highly recommended among the organizations.