What is DevOps?
DevOps is a set of practices, tools, and cultural philosophies that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). The goal is to shorten the software development lifecycle and provide continuous delivery with high quality.
Why DevOps?
Before DevOps, development and operations worked in silos:
- Developers wrote code.
- Operations deployed and maintained it.
- This led to delays, bugs, and "it works on my machine" problems.
DevOps breaks down these walls by promoting collaboration, automation, and shared responsibility.
Core DevOps Lifecycle Stages
- Plan
Teams define project goals, requirements, and backlog using tools like Jira or Azure Boards. - Develop
Code is written and committed using version control systems like Git. - Build
Code is compiled and dependencies are resolved automatically using CI tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions). - Test
Automated tests run to catch bugs early (unit tests, integration tests, etc.). - Release
Approved builds are deployed to production-like environments. - Deploy
Applications are released to users using automated pipelines (CI/CD). Tools: ArgoCD, GitLab CI, etc. - Operate
Infrastructure is managed using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform or Ansible. - Monitor
Apps and infrastructure are monitored for performance, uptime, and errors using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or Datadog.
Key DevOps Tools by Category
| Stage | Tools Examples |
|---|---|
| Source Control | Git, GitHub, GitLab |
| CI/CD | Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions |
| Containers | Docker, Podman |
| Orchestration | Kubernetes, Docker Swarm |
| IaC | Terraform, Ansible |
| Monitoring | Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack |
| Alerts | PagerDuty, Opsgenie |
Benefits of DevOps
- Faster Releases – Automated CI/CD speeds up delivery
- Better Quality – Early bug detection and fast feedback loops
- High Uptime – Monitoring + proactive fixes
- Scalability – Use of containers and Kubernetes
- Collaboration – Devs and Ops share responsibility
Summary
DevOps is not just a role or a tool—it's a culture that enables faster, safer, and more reliable software delivery through automation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.