With the whole world being thrust into remote work due to the COVID-19 global health pandemic, it is no wonder that DevOps can be of a great assistance. But wait… wat’s DevOps?

What is DevOps?

DevOps — the combination of the teams of software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) — is an engineering culture of collaboration, ownership, and learning with the purpose of accelerating the software development lifecycle.

Technically speaking, Azure DevOps is effectively a rebranding of Microsoft’s Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) which is the online version of Team Foundation Server. 

If you’re reading this and thinking, “My company is not a dev shop, so why would we be looking at Azure DevOps?” the answer is in the name, DevOps. The advent of DevOps and the concept of infrastructure-as-code has broken down the wall between development and operations and, with it, the adoption of operations by new tools.

With a goal to shorten the overall development lifecycle and quickly provide a constant stream of improved software releases with fewer errors, DevOps has become the go-to methodology in IT today.

Who Uses DevOps?

While DevOps is designed for developers and operations engineers, this methodology applies to anyone in tech, and beyond. Whether you’re a manager, a PM, an engineer, a business owner, or a marketing specialist, you can apply pieces of DevOps to improve your workflow.

5 Reasons To Consider Azure DevOps For Your Organization

Azure DevOps provides an unmatched cloud-based service that integrates seamlessly into your business to simplify your internal DevOps processes. Now let’s have a look at the benefits that DevOps offer which you don’t already have:

1- Collaboration

Sharing is at the heart of Azure DevOps. Being able to host and manage code centrally is key to any organizational goal which involves optimization. Even if the only code your team has is a collection of PowerShell or VB scripts that you use to provision accounts or manage servers, storing that code in Azure DevOps will provide a central location from which to manage that code. Versioning code is an important dimension to code management and whether you want to use Team Foundation Version control or GIT, Azure DevOps has you covered.

2- Work Items

Even if you don’t have any code to manage, you can coordinate the management of your systems with work Items. Work items represent some “thing”– whether that’s a server, or project risk or system bug is up to you– but the power comes when you create the work items in the context of a process template. Using a process template, you can model your work items around an Agile Framework (which works well for software development) or the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), which works well for systems administration. No matter how you arrange them, work items can help your team divide your complex systems into manageable workloads.

3- Continuous Integration and Delivery

For software driven organization, Azure DevOps provides a robust platform on which you can deploy your solutions in a pipeline allowing for continuous integration and deployment. Whether you are deploying a solution hosted in Azure or even a solution hosted in AWS, the Azure DevOps CICD pipeline can take your solution from development to delivery.
With an extensive marketplace for plugins and integrations, infrastructure-as-code can also be incorporated into the pipeline such that the ambitious systems administrator can automate far-reaching changes to their environments from a single location.

4- Open Platform

Azure DevOps provides extensive integration with industry and community tools. It is far from the closed-off single vendor solution that was the early version of TFS. As noted above, there is a marketplace which makes hundreds of extensions available, so if Azure Develops doesn’t do something out of the box, odds are a tool exists in the market which does.
In this area of openness, Microsoft has been a clear leader in promoting cooperation even with competitors, which is evident in the marketplace where you can find integration extensions ranging from AWS to Slack to ServiceNow. All of this integration is done with the customer in mind as Azure DevOps seeks to be one of many possible tools in your bag for managing your code development needs.

5- Powerful Tools For Seamless Growth

Azure DevOps offers your business the opportunity for unmatched growth all in one convenient solution. Azure DevOps can help you through any tough situation with a streamlined workflow approach and multiple project tools. It’s never too late to transfer over, but you may still not be convinced. What actually makes it the perfect solution?

If you are a growing company, or even if you have hit the enterprise level, there is always room for more growth. The bigger you get, the more you need to streamline your systems for the sake of future growth. Each rung on the ladder to growth is wider than the last, requiring more effort and planning on your end to see a greater degree of success. Azure DevOps can step in and make things much smoother with an application lifecycle improvement that will get you up and running faster than you ever could have imagined, enhancing culture for your company, and plenty of tools and assets to make it happen.

Take Your Services To The Next Level With Azure DevOps!

Azure DevOps Services offer more than just technical prowess for businesses. The tools on DevOps enhance your services, taking them to the next level. There are a few different aspects of your business that can be changed through your Azure DevOps implementation:

• Plan:

Connect your team and prepare for projects with ease utilizing the DevOps tools at your disposal. Azure Boards keeps everyone organized with a streamlined task and workflow management system that you can customize to your needs. Analyze and optimize your data with Power BI, and create a clear schedule with optimized communication and clarity through Azure Repos. Preparation is no longer an extensive ordeal.

• Develop:

Creating software and systems has never been easier as DevOps enables you to automate your project testing with Azure Pipelines, a cloud-based environment that enables you to build, test, and develop software the way you want.

• Deliver:

Deploying your software or product is important, and Azure DevOps can help you accurately test and deploy it. Azure Resource Manager lets you start up multiple cloud environments to test on while Azure Pipelines lets you create multiple pipelines to these created environments. Get your product out there and in the right hands right away.

• Operate:

Implement monitoring, alerts, and analysis with Azure DevOps for all your deployed software and projects. Azure Monitor helps pull and analyze data, Azure Automation manages your cloud environment and tools, Azure Blueprints makes sure that everything in your project is within compliance regulations, and Azure Security Center keeps everything protected, eliminating threats before they impact you.

Exponential growth, ease of access, and rapid project creation and delivery starts and ends with Azure DevOps Services. The services it offers are more than just technical; they are transcendent.

How do I get started With Azure DevOps?

Your company can make the next big step into the future through Microsoft Azure DevOps Services, but it can be daunting to begin the transition process. However, you don’t have to stress over any of this, because Ctelecoms can help lead you to a more successful tomorrow.

As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Ctelecoms understands the different elements of Azure DevOps and which option would be the best for your business. If you need a recommendation or are looking to make a change now, we can step in and help you figure out the details to make the switch that much easier. All you need to do is get in touch with our experts.