DevOps: A Force Multiplier for Business Agility

Conventional bimodal IT operation is now giving way to a single methodology that is focused on enabling better business. 

The mandate for IT ops today is constant innovation for business agility. This can be a tall order, given that IT resources are often at odds with manpower and budgets constraints. To get around hefty – and sometimes unnecessary – investments, it is best to first redefine the role of IT in a way that expands its supporting position into something much more strategic. This will aid greatly in speeding up decision making, making teams more adaptable and helping businesses secure opportunities, even in times of uncertainty.

Conventionally, IT teams have operated under the lens of bimodality, a concept first introduced by Gartner to describe the practice of managing two distinct modes of delivery: one emphasising reliability, accuracy and security, while the other focusing on exploratory tactics to enable speed and agility.

But at the rate that the business world is accelerating, IT must enhance the bimodal strategy with an approach that streamlines management across all platforms. It is only with the convergence of myriad IT capabilities within the organisation that businesses can tap advances in technology and adapt evolving user needs – to generate economies of scale and operational efficiency. And this is where the DevOps approach comes in.

Simplify IT. Magnify agility.

At Red Hat, we view the DevOps methodology as an integration of process, culture and tools, and in a way that improves business value and IT service delivery.

A holistic Red Hat DevOps approach is an end-to-end strategy comprising solutions and support – structured to meet today’s IT agility demands. But further to that, it is also the execution of the methodology know-how in conjunction with:

• In-depth assessments – with consultations that clearly benchmark the level of DevOps maturity in the organisation, and the drawing up of a business agility roadmap
• Containerisation – to support the development, building and management of fast deploying, container-based applications via a hybrid cloud applications platform

In response, IT teams would be able to adjust the way they work in four defined areas:

1. Development process

To adopt user story-driven approaches with accelerated development and release times, as opposed to relying solely on traditional waterfall workflow

2. Application architecture

To utilise smaller, more manageable microservices instead of monolithic “legacy” applications which are close to decade-old

3. Deployment and packaging

To introduce lightweight container technology for development, rather than virtualising an entire OS

4. Application infrastructure

To open up new ways of provisioning IT resources and utilising IT budgets efficiently, via software-defined developments

It is only when all these elements are in place that organisations can have their big business objective met: which is to put IT in a better position to increase business value and responsiveness – via rapid service delivery – and without compromising on quality.

Find out more about achieving agility at this webinar, or take our quick assessment for a glimpse into your DevOps status.

-----

Daniel Hand
Director, Consulting – Cloud & DevOps, Red Hat
Daniel joined Red Hat in September 2015 and is responsible for consulting services on Cloud & DevOps. With more than 16 years of prior experience in pre-sales and consulting, he has worked with enterprises, SMBs and start-ups across Europe and APAC, and in all elements of cloud and hybrid architecture design and strategic planning.

-----

Connect with Red Hat Consulting, Training, Certification

Learn more about Red Hat Consulting
Learn more about Red Hat Training
Learn more about Red Hat Certification
Subscribe to the Training Newsletter
Follow Red Hat Training on Twitter
Like Red Hat Training on Facebook
Watch Red Hat Training videos on YouTube
Follow Red Hat Certified Professionals on LinkedIn

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License