The Next Wave: Emerging DevOps Trends to Transform the Industry

Over the years, it has been found that successful DevOps implementation can increase the new project intake efficiency by 50%. This is why DevOps has become the preferred project management approach for complex software development projects. Recognized widely for its potential to transform the development industry, DevOps has gained significance over the years, as organizations seek more efficient and effective development methodologies.

According to a recent study, the DevOps industry is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.7%, reaching a value of $200.1 billion from 2019 to 2026. This growth underscores the significant role that DevOps is poised to play in driving digital transformation across various industries.

Adopting DevOps entails embracing open communication, and transparency, improving the customer experience, enhancing quality, and meeting project deadlines. These benefits enable organizations to leverage the power of DevOps to facilitate more seamless, continuous communication, collaboration, and integration between development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) teams.

Furthermore, the ceaseless transformation, novel trends, and emerging best practices within the DevOps space make it an exciting area to watch both now and in the future.

In this blog, we share his latest DevOps trends shaping the future. Let us move on.

Top DevOps trends for 2023!

1. Continued uptake of cloud-native technologies
Cloud-native technologies, such as microservices, containerization, and serverless computing, are continuously getting adopted within DevOps environments. This is because these technologies facilitate the development, deployment, and management of applications more efficiently and effectively. Cloud-native technologies offer several benefits including:

• Improved scalability and reliability: Cloud-native technologies allow DevOps teams to build, deploy, and manage scalable and resilient applications with ease.
• Faster deployment and iteration: It enable teams to deploy and iterate applications quickly, enabling organizations to be more responsive to changing business needs and operate at a faster pace.
• Greater flexibility and agility: The technology provides DevOps teams with greater flexibility and agility, allowing them to use a diverse set of tools and platforms for building and deploying applications.

Overall, the adoption of cloud-native technologies is expected to continue as organizations seek to improve their operational efficiency and competitiveness in the digital age. Kubernetes and other similar orchestration platforms will continue to play a crucial role in this process, as they offer a consistent, cloud-based environment for building, deploying, and managing containerized infrastructure and applications. Increased adoption of cloud and development is leading to the new trend of ‘Multi Cloud’.

2. Multi-cloud infrastructure management with Infrastructure as Code
The practice of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) involves managing infrastructure using the same tools and processes used for managing code. This enables organizations to automate the provisioning and management of infrastructure, treating it as a first-class citizen. Multi-cloud infrastructure refers to the use of multiple cloud computing platforms within a single organization.

Multicloud support for IaC allows organizations to use IaC tools and practices to manage and automate the provisioning and configuration of resources across multiple cloud platforms. This includes deploying infrastructure resources such as virtual machines, networks, and storage, and managing their configuration.

Using IaC to manage a multi-cloud infrastructure enables organizations to achieve greater consistency and standardization across their environments, reduce the complexity of managing resources in multiple cloud platforms, and migrate workloads between cloud platforms more easily.

Multicloud support for IaC is a critical factor for organizations that want to optimize their use of multiple cloud platforms and streamline the management of their infrastructure. DevOps is making waves in the IT sector, with a rapidly growing impact that is independent of the future of IT firms. Adopted by businesses and teams worldwide, DevOps technologies and methods drive efficiency and produce high-quality outputs.

3. Evolution of automation and artificial intelligence
The continuous evolution of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to play a significant role in the advancement of DevOps. Automated tools and AI can help DevOps teams streamline repetitive tasks, boost productivity, and reduce the possibility of human errors. AI can also analyze data, recognize patterns, and facilitate better decision-making.

• Predictive analytics – It is a potential area where AI have a significant impact on DevOps. By analyzing historical performance data and deployment metrics, AI algorithms potentially identify patterns and predict future outcomes, enabling teams to optimize their processes and improve overall performance
• Incident management – It is another area where AI makes a difference. AI algorithms effortlessly analyze log data and identify potential issues before they occur

The integration of automation and AI in DevOps is likely to enhance process efficiency and application reliability, but organizations need to consider their potential impact and ensure they align with business goals and values. Implementing automation and AI should be part of a strategy that includes business process integration from the outset, the alignment of expectations and objectives, cost estimation, and associated risks and challenges. Implementing these technologies solely for the sake of it may not yield significant benefits, and instead, it could result in long-term issues stemming from their maintenance.

4. Increased Emphasis on Security and Compliance
As security and compliance continue to be critical considerations, organizations are expected to prioritize the integration of security and compliance best practices into their processes and tools.

The following are areas where security and compliance are expected to be of utmost importance in the coming years:

• Cloud Security – As more organizations adopt cloud-based infrastructure and services, DevOps teams will need to prioritize cloud security and compliance. This involves ensuring that cloud environments are configured securely, encrypting data both in transit and at rest, and controlling and monitoring access to cloud resources.
• Application Security – DevOps teams need to build secure applications and ensure that they are tested and deployed securely. This includes implementing secure coding practices, integrating security testing into the development process, and deploying applications using secure configurations.
• Compliance with Regulations and Standards – Teams need to ensure that their processes and tools comply with applicable regulations and industry standards such as GDPR, PCI DSS, etc. This requires implementing controls to protect sensitive data, configuring systems to meet compliance requirements, and demonstrating compliance through audits and assessments. Cloud providers may also take on some of this responsibility.

The focus on security and compliance in DevOps will always be a key consideration as organizations strive to protect their systems, data, and customers from cyber threats and adhere to relevant regulations and standards. This will result in an increased role for DevSecOps specialists in DevOps teams.

5. Improved Collaboration Between Development and Operations Teams
The DevOps movement is to enable development and operations teams to collaborate efficiently and effectively. Stakeholders of these teams will continue to look for an idea for tools to further improve communication and collaboration between these teams.

The following are crucial areas where collaboration between development and operations teams is expected to be of utmost importance in the coming years:

• Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD) – Development and operations teams will need to work closely to ensure that code changes are tested, deployed, and monitored efficiently, and that any issues are promptly identified and resolved.
• Incident Management – Development and operations teams will need to work hand in hand to identify and resolve issues that arise in production environments, as well as develop strategies to prevent similar issues from recurring in the future.
• Capacity Planning and Resource Management – Development and operations teams must collaborate to ensure systems have sufficient resources to meet demand and plan for future expansion.

The success of DevOps relies heavily on robust collaboration between development and operations teams.