The Rise and Rise of DevOps Adoption

Thriving in the fast-changing world of technology means staying abreast of the latest trends and advancements. In recent years, one such trend—DevOps— has surged in popularity and usage. DevOps has become one of the most sought-after cultures to be adopted by organizations, with DevOps engineering roles among the IT industry’s highest in demand.

What led to the rise of DevOps? Why are organizations prioritizing DevOps adoption? Let’s take a step back and review what the term refers to, its benefits, and what we can learn from its impact on organizations and tech professionals shifting to the DevOps approach.

Demystifying DevOps

What is DevOps? Allow me to explain how the term received its name. The Development (Dev) team writes the code and performs extensive testing. The Operations (Ops) team builds the platform and manages the product’s infrastructure. As the software development lifecycle gets complex over time, it becomes difficult to assign responsibilities. The result is delayed rollouts and shortcomings in the feature’s quality.

That is exactly what DevOps fixes.

DevOps combines the Development and Operations team into a single cohesive unit. (See Figure 1.)

DevOps aims to improve the collaboration between the two teams. When development and operations work together, the result is a lessened delivery time for a feature to make its way from ‘whiteboard’ to ‘production.’

Benefits of DevOps adoption

DevOps offers a wide range of benefits to organizations, as well. Here are several reasons they choose to adopt DevOps:

1. Helps organizations move faster with feature rollouts maintaining product quality.
2. Defines the role and responsibilities of everyone involved, thus streamlining the delivery process.
3. Promotes transition to a more automated and integrated system management approach.
4. Provides reduced deployment frequency, lesser failure of new releases, and shorter time between patch fixes.  

Statistics on DevOps adoption

Recent surveys and studies complement the steady increase in the adoption of DevOps in organizations. In a Global Market Insights study, the DevOps market size exceeded US$7 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 20% from 2022 to 2028 to a value of over US$30 billion.*

Predictive analysis reveals Asia-Pacific’s DevOps market size is set to experience massive growth of around 25% by 2028. And with the staggering growth of the DevOps market, organizations are actively hiring engineers skilled in DevOps technologies.

Presently, there are over 17,000 DevOps engineer roles advertised on Indeed in the United States alone, with an average salary range of $96,600-$122,000.

Extensive research by Atlassian showed that once DevOps impacted their organization, 78% of the total respondents had to learn a new skill, 61% say it helped them produce higher quality deliverables and 49% say they see a faster time to market.

Organizations experience a multitude of positive impacts post-DevOps adoption, as shown in Figure 2. As DevOps practices continue to gain traction, businesses need to ensure it fits into their objectives and adds value to deliveries. As such, 83% of IT decision-makers report their organization is implementing DevOps practices.

The transition has its challenges, however. Only 18% of organization’s and teams have adopted a DevOps approach. Meanwhile, 78% consider themselves to be evolved to a middle level and 4% to a low level.**

Atlassian’s trend survey showed 84% of respondents have faced barriers to their DevOps implementation. As illustrated in Figure 3, the most common hurdles are a lack of skills in employees, legacy infrastructure and adjusting corporate culture. 

Outlook for DevOps in the  Future

While the transition to DevOps is rewarding for organizations, it comes with challenges. Management needs to carefully plan DevOps’ integration in the development lifecycle. Ideally, organizations should promote learnings on DevOps technologies to their employees and encourage them to take DevOps training and certifications to hone their skills in the area.

The Cisco Certified DevNet Expert certification recognizes NetDevOps leaders with the expertise to leverage automation methodologies, technologies and practices to improve networking—securely and at scale. If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend the blog, “Cisco DevNet Expert: Your career-changing certification” by Par Merat, VP Cisco Learning & Certifications.

As we move further into future, DevOps will continue to evolve along with its rising compatriots; Cloud, Edge and IoT. Coming up, I’ll take a deep dive into DevOps and touch base with the technologies associated and provide a complete learning roadmap. Stay tuned! 

How has the adoption of DevOps impacted your organization? Have you faced challenges such as learning barriers or skills shortages? Please share your experience with me in the comments below. If you are an IT professional, I invite you to join me in the DevNet Certifications Community, where we can continue the conversation about how you can upskill into this highly sought-after field. 

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* DevOps Market Size By Component (Solution [Management DevOps {Continuous Business Planning, Testing & Development, DevOps Analytics}, Delivery DevOps {Continuous Integration, Software Delivery Management}, Operation DevOps {Continuous Deployment, Monitoring & Performance Management}], Service [Professional Service, Managed Service]), By Deployment Model (On-premise, Cloud [Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud]), By Enterprise Size (Large Enterprises, SMEs), By Application (BFSI, IT & Telecom, Healthcare, Retail, Government, Manufacturing, Media & Entertainment), COVID-19 Impact Analysis, Regional Outlook, Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2022 – 2028, Global Market Insights, March 2022

** DevOps Stats And Facts – All The Numbers You Might Ever Need On DevOps In 2022, K&C, May 27, 2022

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