With the economy making a comeback after the pandemic’s impact, businesses must remain competitive by embracing technological innovation. To boost their operations and products, companies are employing an array of advanced technologies, from data analysis, artificial intelligence, and IoT to 5G, blockchain, and cloud computing. Embracing technology plays a vital role in a business’s success, but it must also maintain streamlined internal operations.
DevOps is a streamlined approach that helps organizations speed up their application development process. By prioritizing transparency, effective communication, quality assurance, and customer experience, DevOps implementation in software development can significantly reduce project timelines while boosting customer satisfaction levels.
It is crucial for experts in this domain to remain updated with the latest technological advancements and techniques. To help with that, we have assembled a list of fascinating advancements to keep an eye on and investigate until 2023. To learn more, refer to our blog post, which evaluates and re-evaluates technology infrastructure.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Utilizing AI has the capability of considerably boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of the DevOps process by automating repetitive, manual procedures typically necessary for developing new software. It has the potential to assist with tasks like changes in code, deployment, and more, liberating engineers to devote their time and effort towards strategic initiatives, such as managing the entire development process or creating groundbreaking new software. Machine learning, which is a subcategory of AI, empowers computers to learn from data and perform tasks in real-life settings, thereby opening the door for even more automation.
ML and AI can significantly enhance software engineering teams’ efficiency. Augmented automation, increased feedback and alerts, as well as heightened situational awareness are just a few of the advantages available. Automation using AI can create test cases, generate test data, and innovate software implementation like never before. Including AI in the software development life cycle can improve other tasks such as code compilation, code completion, error checking, documentation lookup, decision making, as well as project time and cost estimation.
Automation has numerous benefits, such as greater speed, efficiency, accuracy, and quality. Looking towards the future, AI and ML will be capable of predicting potential issues in the DevOps pipeline and preemptively resolving them.
Disruptive Methods
Deliberate disruptive techniques involve engineers introducing faults to software programs to test their resilience, known as ‘stress testing’. The aim of this process is to put the program under artificial stress to identify any usability issues before it hits the market. Though it may seem counterintuitive, stress testing can be helpful in identifying any potential problems with an application.
To effectively leverage the power of chaos engineering, software developers must approach the process with a thorough plan, treating it more like an experiment and less like a fault-finding process. This approach should include a hypothesis, well-defined testing objectives, and procedures. After pinpointing any potential vulnerabilities, it is crucial to take precautionary measures to safeguard against them.
Incorporating DevOps methodologies like continuous testing and improvement, in combination with chaos engineering principles, can minimize the likelihood of errors that may hinder progress, elongate development timelines, and waste resources. In the end, this enables businesses to launch applications that exceed their customer’s expectations, resulting in higher customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue.
Cloud-native Infrastructure
Cloud-native infrastructure Our software, built for the cloud environment, offers hardware and software capabilities optimized for scalability, security, and minimal hardware maintenance requirements. It helps businesses achieve the DevOps ideal, boosting efficiency and improving productivity.
As businesses continue to adopt cloud-based software, cloud-native development is becoming an increasingly attractive choice. This can save engineers time and money as they are no longer required to purchase and maintain expensive on-premises hardware for creating software designed for the cloud. Furthermore, cloud-native development offers the benefit of allowing teams to collaborate and work remotely on projects. This feature is particularly advantageous in the current climate, where hybrid and remote working is gaining more popularity.
Cloud-native development presents numerous advantages, such as increased pace of iteration and updates, and continuous monitoring and improvement of quality. By embracing constantly-evolving technology, instead of relying on static solutions of the past, cloud-native software provides users with a greater number of interaction opportunities.
Containerization
Containerization refers to the contemporary method of packaging software along with its associated components, like frameworks, libraries, tools, settings, and more. A container is produced from a container file, which is subsequently transformed into a container image and executed by a runtime engine. This leads to software that necessitates fewer system resources and is simpler to deploy in different contexts.
With the evolution of cloud computing, container usage is gaining more popularity. Prior to the advent of cloud computing, software had to be installed and run locally on individual computers, each running its own operating system. Because of the differing incompatibilities between operating systems and software, developers now aim to make their applications adaptable to as many environments as possible before release. However, this necessitates a significant amount of time and work.
Containers allow software to be built with platform-specific elements required for proper functioning. Containerization delivers several benefits, such as decreased boot times for users and reduced cycles for developers to install and launch new features. Containers provide visibility into the operating system, the application, and other system elements.
DevSecOps
As newer technologies continue to advance, so do the opportunities for malicious hackers to disrupt them. This poses a significant financial risk, causing software developers to prioritize security more than anything else. Additionally, cyber-attacks can cause severe harm to a company’s reputation, leading to the loss of customer trust and ultimately resulting in financial and reputational setbacks.
As the demand for secure software grows, more engineers are integrating security into their DevOps workflow. Called DevSecOps, this approach emphasizes incorporating security measures during the project’s early stages, as opposed to waiting until the end. Therefore, security is ingrained throughout the program from the beginning. Furthermore, the DevSecOps methodology necessitates involving testing experts to help identify and fix security issues in the code during the development phase.
Businesses can gain numerous benefits from implementing DevSecOps, such as improved security, increased visibility, and guaranteed governance. Moreover, by incorporating security into the development process from the outset, costs associated with development can be minimized.
Kubernetes
Described on the project’s website, Kubernetes is an open-source, portable, adaptable platform used for managing containerized workloads and services. Its ecosystem is rapidly expanding and extensive. Kubernetes and its associated services, tools, and support are commonly available. In the past, when software ran on on-premises hardware, competing for resources among applications was frequently an issue. Kubernetes provides a solution to this problem.
As a temporary fix, multiple virtual machines (VMs) were deployed on a single physical server, allowing us to execute numerous applications at once. This approach allowed us to segregate applications, ensuring that they had sufficient resources and remained secure. We expect that VMs will eventually be supplanted by containers. Like VMs, containers have their own resources and can function independently of the underlying infrastructure.
Kubernetes is an advantageous tool employed to manage containers within which programs are located. In the event of a container failure, Kubernetes can detect the issue and initiate the launch of an alternative container to continue processing data from the host machine. This automated service delivers a more convenient way to handle processes than relying on human intervention. The Kubernetes website outlines the system’s features, including service discovery and load balancing, storage orchestration, automated rollouts and rollbacks, automatic bin packing, self-healing, and secret and configuration management.
The Advantages of Low-Code Approaches for Software Design
With low-code, various tools are available to construct applications without manually writing every line of code. Low-code methods, like drag-and-drop components, can quicken the development cycle and reduce time to market a product. This can offer advantages to businesses in a competitive environment and relieve some of the burden placed on overworked engineers.
In addition, “citizen developers” or individuals with less formal education can now create the applications they require using a visual interface and drag-and-drop tools. As an illustration, Human Resources Managers could benefit from the ability to analyze data from two distinct sources. Using low-code technologies to create applications, engineers can concentrate on more challenging tasks. This approach can assist many employees in various roles within a company, as depicted in the video below.
The usage of low-code methods by less experienced developers will not obviate the need for certified programmers. However, it will have a significant impact on DevOps. Existing overworked development and IT teams will experience a reduction in their workload and a greater involvement in the business. Additionally, with other professionals taking charge of certain application development, the potential for increased creativity and innovation may be realized. As a result of the reassignment of responsibilities, fresh job opportunities may emerge.
Low-code development has largely replaced no-code development, which shared a similar idea but was rigid and limited developers’ ability to create truly unique programs. Over time, this approach will impact every aspect of the development lifecycle: requirements gathering, requirements analysis, coding, testing, deployment, and documentation.
Modular Software Design for Microservices Architecture
Monolithic applications can be arduous and time-consuming to develop and maintain as their complexity increases alongside the number of features they provide, leading to potential issues that could have ripple effects across the service. To alleviate this, an alternative to constructing large, single applications should be explored, such as an architecture based on microservices.
Microservices architecture is a form of service-oriented architecture (SOA) that splits large programs into autonomous modules. The advantage of this is that developers can edit features by working with the appropriate unit or application programming interface (API). Engineers can also diagnose individual elements and add new features without having to completely overhaul the program. This software development approach is now widely recognized as the standard method.
The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) offers enhanced flexibility and better management. By permitting distinct groups to work on smaller software components, the SDLC can be shortened, enabling businesses to test and deploy apps and updates more rapidly, enabling them to remain competitive in the market.
Observability
Effective development relies on engineers having dependable systems. Observability refers to the ability to observe, diagnose, and fix issues, thus reducing system downtime. Observability plays a critical role in the DevOps lifecycle, particularly with regards to continuous monitoring. Businesses that employ this procedure can potentially save significant amounts of money by minimizing the duration of time their systems are offline.
Observability differs from monitoring in that it enables engineers to achieve a greater understanding of the state of an application. By way of the observability process, raw data is transformed into valuable information, enabling DevOps teams to monitor the application in real-time and take requisite actions.
Observability must encompass metrics to assess both the present state of the system and its evolution over time, in addition to a running log with a timestamp to enable administrators to track events and their correlation. Data observability involves the process of documenting, collecting, and analyzing data concerning a system’s behavior. This can be achieved by development teams utilizing methods such as agile development and CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery).
The Emergence of Serverless Computing
Serverless computing offers businesses an efficient method of handling their operations by hosting server functions in a cloud-native environment managed by a third-party provider. This can decrease the complexity and expense associated with hardware upgrades, additions, and replacements, as well as provide scalability for applications.
Red Hat, a provider of open-source software, has claimed that with serverless architecture, applications are only launched when needed. This public cloud service automatically allocates resources to running app code when triggered by an event. Serverless architecture removes the burden of scalability and server provisioning from developers, freeing them from laborious tasks.
Despite utilizing physical servers, serverless computing removes them from the development process, enabling engineers to concentrate on other aspects such as pipeline design and product creation. Furthermore, transferring expenditures from capital to operational expenses and gaining greater control over the operational budget are additional advantages of serverless computing for developers and the organizations they are part of.
Serverless architecture has the potential to streamline the entire software development life cycle, from coding to releasing to testing, while also offering additional advantages such as improved speed, dependability, and cost-effectiveness. This can aid in reducing time to market while enabling engineers to concentrate on high-priority tasks with greater efficiency.
A Perfect Combination
DevOps-driven organizations may appreciate having staff with technical competency, but they place a greater emphasis on thorough preparation. For instance, the notion of “citizen coders” may seem appealing at first, but effective management is necessary to ensure that the apps created are compatible with the broader business infrastructure. Moreover, training is required for citizen developers, even if they don’t necessitate an engineering degree to commence.
The first step of this project is to evaluate its feasibility regarding the capabilities and expertise of the team members involved. It’s prudent to appraise the extent of citizen development already in place within the organization since some employees may already be engaged in such activities. It’s also helpful to determine the necessity for application development and the degree to which citizens would be involved in such a program if implemented.
By considering the provided information, teams can better formulate objectives for the program that will serve as the initiative’s foundation. The second step will involve identifying and exploring possible learning environments for low-code development classes. To make the most efficient use of their resources, businesses that are embracing new technology should also devise a governance strategy, which details how the new processes will be implemented and enforced. Eventually, the team will have to initiate training for members and assign them to their first projects.
This example demonstrates the intricacy and exertion needed to introduce a new process or technology to an organization. Companies should avoid hurrying into the adoption of a new technology or practice merely because it’s presently trendy or widely prevalent.
