26 Jul How to Gain the Flexibility a Dynamic DevOps Environment Needs
Kirby Wadsworth
Kirby has more than two decades of marketing leadership in both publicly traded large enterprises and emerging startups. As a founder and early venture executive with several successful exits, Kirby helped pioneer the cloud storage, continuous data protection, and file virtualization industries.
Dynamic DevOps teams pride themselves on their agility to keep up with customer and market demands. However, there are a few bottlenecks like slow data delivery and lack of communication that hold back deployments and create a longer time to market. Development teams need flexible and extensible tools that accelerate, streamline, and simplify deployment pipelines.
When it comes to fostering a dynamic DevOps environment, enterprises need to consider adopting technologies such as cloud services, containers, and microservices for maximum agility and flexibility. Tools like the ionir Data Services Platform for Kubernetes helps developers execute the purpose of DevOps: increasing the speed, experimentation, and collaboration among cross-functional teams to accelerate deployment releases. In this article, we’re taking a look at the three things a dynamic DevOps environment needs to gain flexibility.
1. Speeding Up the Deployment Pipeline
DevOps practices are not just about going faster, but delivering value quicker. Cutting corners and rushing projects will only cause greater inefficiencies and poor product quality. Instead, a CI/CD pipeline can be accelerated with the proper tools to decrease time-to-market while boosting product quality. A common misconception is that CI/CD tools that quicken the pipeline, replace employees. In reality, the purpose of CI/CD tools is to perform administrative and redundant tasks so employees can focus on tasks that call for specified skills and critical thinking.
For example, containers make enabling CI/CD much easier. How so? Containers are flexible, lightweight, endlessly scalable, and can run on any environment. Moreover, containers use a microservices model which enables developers to quickly move code across containers and Kubernetes clusters instead of moving code among various static virtual machines in different environments. Thus, developers have quicker access to data without wasting hours waiting for data delivery.
Likewise, ionir offers the flexibility and speed that a dynamic DevOps environment needs. For instance, the data services platform speeds up DevOps deployments and ensures developer efficiency by eliminating data bottlenecks. In fact, the platform cuts data delivery time from hours to just seconds and can eliminate 99% of wasted wait time. With quick mobility of data, developers can move any volume of data in 40 seconds or less, enabling developers to quickly access and monitor data when and where they need it.
2. Automating and Orchestrating Data Operations
The next way to achieve flexibility in a dynamic DevOps environment is to adopt automation and orchestration technologies. Automation and orchestration can speed up the CI/CD pipeline and enable DevOps teams to ensure a faster time to market. Essentially, the best way to achieve continuous delivery is to automate code deployment to the production, development, and testing environments. Keep in mind, continuous delivery is not just about producing new features all the time. Truthfully, CD ensures that automated workflows have the ability to quickly and safely repair production, even in the middle of the night when every employee is sleeping.
This movement of data requires flexible portability where data can be transported to and across clouds and clusters. Tools like the ionir Data Services Platform for Kubernetes enable frictionless data mobility and automatically orchestrate data operations. For example, with ionir, developers can instantly access new data after destructive testing or instantly produce copies of near-production data on remote worker nodes.
Essentially, the platform makes Kubernetes data just as portable as applications, providing greater flexibility to better meet business requirements. Moreover, regardless of capacity or distance, any persistent volume can be copied across clusters or across the world in 40 seconds or less. Thus, applications at the new location have instant access to a fully-functional read/write capable copy of the volume.
3. Collaborating Between Development and Operations Teams
Often, people are under the impression that by implementing CI/CD, your organization is automatically practicing a DevOps strategy. However, this is not the case. DevOps is a cultural change that tears down long-held boundaries and reallocates control, people, and skills. It’s important for a DevOps environment to embrace these cultural changes and reinvent the way development, operations, and other teams work together. Essentially, CI/CD enables this culture change with the right software and tools.
A great DevOps strategy is one that enables all teams (development, operations, security, quality assurance) with the flexibility to collaborate throughout the deployment pipeline. Primarily, by using Kubernetes containers, teams can develop, test, and deploy applications in isolated closed environments without interfering with other parts of the delivery.
Furthermore, the ionir Data Services Platform for Kubernetes simplifies development and delivery pipelines by helping development, operations, security, and QA teams collaborate and ensure that the pipeline runs smoothly. Developers want to deliver solutions more efficiently and at a quicker pace. Meanwhile, operations professionals have insights on new product features but can’t implement them without help. Therefore, DevOps strategies ensure the operations team will control the tech stack while developers are enabled to distribute and monitor data and code whenever and wherever needed.
Additionally, as more organizations shift security tests and practices left in the development pipeline, DevOps teams need the flexibility to collaborate with security teams to maintain security throughout the pipeline. With data mobility of time, ionir Data Services Platform for Kubernetes ensures a quick and easy roll out of the newest data volume in order to protect and maintain the application’s health and safety.
Final Thoughts
If the purpose of DevOps is to break down traditional walls between developers and operations teams to drive efficiencies in a CI/CD pipeline, ionir is the catalyst that helps speed up deployment releases and provides data flexibility.
To determine your organization’s strategic needs and possible areas for improvement in DevOps agility and flexibility, download our checklist New Solutions to Simplify & Accelerate Your CI/CD Pipeline: How Prepared Are You to Capitalize?.
See how the ionir Data Services Platform for Kubernetes unlocks flexible efficiencies in your dynamic DevOps environment — start your free trial today.
