Will DevOps Continue to Need the ‘Ops’?

DevOps–at it’s core–is about getting developers and operations to work together more seamlessly for more effective and efficient app development. However, DevOps is also about automation and many of the aspects that fall under “operations” can be automated, which makes it seem like eventually DevOps could work the “Ops” side of that equation out of a job.

DevOps is a portmanteau of “developers” and “operations.” The concept of DevOps is about shifting IT culture in a way that enables developers and operations to work together more seamlessly. As more and more elements of DevOps become automated and leverage microservices such as container platforms, though, the operations side of that equation plays a diminished role.

Microservices and Automating Ops

What you’re left with essentially is developers with the processes and tools to automate the infrastructure back end. Technologies such as containers and services such as AWS Lambda simplify greatly the process of programmatically generating, modifying and maintaining the underlying infrastructure.

AWS Lambda seems to be a step toward removing the Ops from DevOps. It creates a system for use and runs code via APIs. The instance is spun up, the code is run and the instance is spun back down. AWS Lambda can decrease provisioning time and enable developers to be even more efficient than working with traditional virtual machines in partnership with operations.

Container technologies such as Docker allow applications to be broken down into very granular elements—many of which can be leveraged repeatedly. The ability to reuse containerized functions across different apps and to drive that process through APIs enable substantially greater automation.

With each step forward in the evolution of DevOps, organizations find new bottlenecks or roadblocks, and then look for or develop solutions to address them. In this API-based, automated future, the APIs themselves become a challenge. Organizations have to find ways to effectively manage and update a rapidly growing library of APIs.

Ops Will Live On

If you work in operations, or aspire to someday work in operations, don’t fret: Operations still will exist on some level.

See the full post on DevOps.com: Will Microservices Make the ‘Ops’ in ‘DevOps’ Obsolete?