The pace of software releases has only accelerated, and DevOps is why things have sped up. Now, AI and machine learning also are beginning to play a task during this acceleration of code releases.
That’s the word from GitLab’s latest survey of 4,300 developers and managers, which finds some enterprises are releasing code ten times faster than in previous surveys. Most respondents, 84%, say they’re releasing code faster than before, and 57% said code is being released twice as fast, from 35% a year ago. On the brink of one in five, 19% say their code goes out the door ten times faster.
Tellingly, 75% use AI/ML or bots to check and review their code before release, up from 41% only one year ago. Another 25% say they now have full test automation, up from 13%.
About 21% of survey respondents say the pace of releases has accelerated with the addition of ASCII text file management to their DevOps practice (up from 15% last year), the survey’s authors add. Another 18% added CI, and 13% added CD. In addition, nearly 12% say adding a DevOps platform has sped up the method, while just over 10% have added automated testing.
Developers’ roles are shifting toward the operations side. Also, the survey shows. Developers are taking over test and ops tasks, especially around cloud, infrastructure and security. A minimum of 38% of developers said they now define or create the infrastructure their app runs on. About 13% monitor and answer that infrastructure. a minimum of 26% of developers said they instrument the code they’ve written for production monitoring — up from just 18% last year.
Fully 43% of our survey respondents are doing DevOps for between three and five years — “that’s the sweet spot where they’ve known success and are well-seasoned,” the survey’s authors mean. additionally, they add, “this was also the year where practitioners skipped incremental improvements and reached for the large guns: SCM, CI/CD, test automation, and a DevOps platform.”
Industry leaders concur that DevOps has significantly boosted enterprise software delivery to new levels but caution that it still tends to be seen as an IT activity versus a broader enterprise initiative. “Just like all agile framework, DevOps requires buy-in,” says Emma Gautrey, manager of development operations at Aptum. “If the event and operational teams are becoming along working consonant, that’s terrific, but it cannot amount to much if the culture stops at the metaphorical IT basement door. Without the backing of the entire business, continuous improvement will be confined to the interior workings of one group.”
DevOps may be a commitment to quick development/deployment cycles, “enhanced by, among other things, an enhanced technical toolset — ASCII text file management, CI/CD, orchestration,” says Matthew Tiani, executive vice-chairman at iTech AG. But it takes quite toolsets, he adds. Successful DevOps also incorporates “a compatible development methodology like agile and scrum and a corporate commitment to foster and encourage collaboration between development and operational staff.”
Then organizations aspects of DevOps tend to be harder, Tiani adds. “Wider adoption of DevOps within the IT services space is common because the IT process improvement goal is more intimately tied to the general organizational goals. Larger, skilled companies may find it hard to implement policies and procedures where a posh organizational structure impedes or discourages collaboration. to effectively implement a DevOps program, a corporation must be willing to form the financial and human investments necessary for maintaining a quick-release schedule.”
What’s missing from many current DevOps efforts is “the understanding and shared ownership of committing to DevOps,” says Gautrey. “Speaking to the broader community, there’s often a way that the tools are the key, which once in situ a state of enlightenment is achieved. That sentiment is small different from the first days of the web, where people would create their website once and think, ‘that’s it, I even have a web presence.'”
That’s where the organization as an entire must be engaged, and this involves fruition “with build pipelines that turn red the instant an automatic test fails, and behavioral-driven development demonstrating the intentions of the software,” says Gautrey. “With DevOps, there’s a danger in losing interaction with individuals over the pursuit of tools and processes. Nothing is more tempting than to use a blanket ruling over situations because it makes the automation processes consistent and thus easier to manage. However, responding to vary means quite how quickly you’ll change ten servers directly. So customer collaboration is vital .”
