What is DevOps Automation? 5 Best Practices for Improved Scalability

When you search for DevOps on Google, you'll encounter numerous questions about what it entails, where to learn it, how to master it, and its earning potential.

So, why all the interest? Is it because DevOps automation streamlines repetitive tasks and enhances collaboration between development and operations teams? Or does it offer even more advantages?

A recent report indicates that 81% of companies aim to enhance their automation efforts, highlighting a significant trend in IT. Let’s explore why businesses are adopting this modern approach.

What Is DevOps Automation?

DevOps automation employs technologies and tools to automate routine, repeatable tasks within the software development and operations lifecycle. DevOps, short for development operations, eliminates barriers between traditionally siloed teams, fostering a unified approach where all teams collaborate to build, rectify, revise, and release software applications more swiftly.

Automation is critical in DevOps testing as it reduces the need for manual code checks, streamlines the testing process, and accelerates code deployment. A prime example is Netflix, whose adoption of DevOps led to a 1000x increase in monthly streaming growth.

Benefits of DevOps Automation

1. Consistency: Automated processes ensure consistency and predictability, unlike manual tasks that are prone to human error.
2. Speed: Automated tasks such as code integration and application deployment occur much faster, eliminating the wait for human intervention and executing operations almost instantaneously.
3. Scalability: Manual labor is impractical for large-scale processes. Automation enables consistent and rapid code delivery across multiple applications and environments, including multiple clouds or operating systems.

Can DevOps Processes Be Automated?

Implementing DevOps automation can vary in difficulty depending on business objectives, desired outcomes, and organizational maturity. Regardless of whether the IT environment is on-premises, in a public cloud, or a hybrid cloud, the following DevOps processes are ripe for automation:

1. Automated CI/CD Pipelines: Essential for agile DevOps teams, automating CI/CD ensures quality, secure code and meets key business release demands. Continuous deployment, where every successful change is automatically deployed to production, is also beneficial.
2. Automated Testing: End-to-end automated testing detects errors, defects, and bugs at the CI/CD pipeline stage, ensuring frequent high-quality software updates.
3. Automated Application Monitoring: Application and log monitoring provide detailed insights into performance and issues, supporting rapid MTTR and uninterrupted 24/7 service.
4. Automated Network Provisioning: Ensures computing capacity is available when and where needed, supporting application deployment in containers like Kubernetes.

5 Best Practices for DevOps Automation

1. Foster Collaboration Between Humans and Automation: While not every step can be automated, maximizing automation reduces the need for human intervention in routine tasks.
2. Practice Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD): Automating CI/CD processes allows developers to detect issues early and deliver software more frequently.
3. Automate Testing: Ensures thorough testing and validation of every code change before it progresses through development, QA, and production environments.
4. Standardize Workflows and Processes: Consistent workflows, technologies, and metrics across the organization are crucial, though flexibility should be maintained for unique team needs.
5. Monitor and Enhance: Observability is key in DevOps automation. Monitoring metrics and logs helps identify areas for improvement, streamline procedures, and proactively address issues.

Bottom Line

DevOps automation relieves teams from repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on critical stages of the product lifecycle. By leveraging automation tools and practices, organizations can streamline processes, improve collaboration, and enhance software delivery efficiency. From continuous integration and delivery to automated testing and security, DevOps automation enables teams to work smarter, not harder.