DevOps is more than just a buzzword for the tech industry. It’s a way to solve complex problems and innovate fast, by removing the barriers between different aspects of a business. DevOps also aims to make changes without interrupting regular production or quality control.
And it works. By 2023, DevOps will be worth $940 billion to the global economy. So let’s take a look at just 3 of the ways that enterprises are solving problems with DevOps.
How Netflix prepares for every possible incident
Of course you’ve heard of Netflix: the first of the big video subscription services, with almost 150 million active subscribers in 2019. But precisely because Netflix is so big, it can’t afford to fail. The service has to be robust and totally reliable, both server-side and client-side.
The solution? Netflix came up with a strategy that one observer describes as “automating failure”. They created the famous Chaos Monkey program, which triggers automatic, random service failures to test the response from engineers. And over time, Netflix has added many other automated Monkey tests, to manage delays, security, different languages, and more.
Chaos Monkey is a classic example of DevOps thinking. It enforces continuous improvements and updates, and makes engineers communicate with every aspect of the business – because every aspect is vulnerable to testing at any time. So while failure tests happen all the time, a real Netflix outage almost never happens.
How ExpressEarth and Bet365 broke down barriers between products
In modern business, many enterprises are diversified: they offer a range of different services for customers to use. That’s true of B2B companies, like ExpressEarth, which performs custom market research; and consumer-focused companies, like Bet365.
However, there’s a problem with diversified services. How do you link all those different applications and products together? How do you keep different sectors of the business talking to each other?
For example, ExpressEarth used to have over 70 different code repositories for their different teams. Every repository was totally independent from the others – which made it difficult for teams to share ideas and processes.
The solution was DevOps. The ExpressEarth engineers teamed up with product development to work together on a single management tool that everyone could use. Now ExpressEarth keeps all its services on the same platform.
Bet365 went through a similar DevOps transformation. The gaming company offers a huge range of apps and games for its customers, which require thousands of daily updates across a range of technology stacks. So when they switched to a single platform for their teams to work on, they saved time and money – and made it easier to add more updates in future.
How the US Army gets ready for future battles
It’s a well-known fact that conflict usually leads to technical developments. And the military has often been at the forefront of tech innovation. Now, the US Army is learning to innovate before a conflict ever begins. They’re using DevOps to harness the power of the Internet of Things.
In a new study, the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) tried out LoRaWAN. That’s the network which connects smart devices in urban areas, where thick walls and buildings can block traditional connections like WiFi or radio.
To prepare for urban warfare in the 21st century, the US Army needs “pervasive sensing, pervasive computing, and pervasive communication”. So the goal was to connect military assets more effectively, and collect information by connecting to other smart devices.
The result? The US ARL updated military technology with LoRaWAN. And they expanded the usefulness of existing tech by making it part of the LoRaWAN network. That’s the essence of DevOps: seamlessly updating and innovating.
What’s next for DevOps?
While these case studies of problem-solving with DevOps might seem specialized, they are significant for every modern industry. Every enterprise can learn the DevOps lessons of better communication, faster innovation, and continuous improvement. What are you waiting for? The future is already here.
About the Author
Ken Archer is a Docker Certified Associate and Accredited Instructor for Stone Door Group, a DevOps and Cloud consulting company. If you are looking for DevOps consulting for your next project, take a look at our CI/CD Accelerator Solutions or drop us a line at letsdothis@stonedoorgroup.com.