To maximize cloud computing benefits while optimizing costs, a DevOps strategy is the best way ahead. We try to demonstrate why.
Cloud + DevOps stimulates software delivery.
When apps migrate to the cloud, it produces an excellent chance to modernize the hosting platform to benefit new cloud services. For example, you can use DevOps suggestions to minimize the complexity and labor associated with resources by automating everyday tasks. What’s more, on-demand scalability can streamline software delivery and deployment while significantly decreasing the costly over-provisioning traditional on-premise environments. Together, these advances deliver more exceeding time and force for modernization and value-adding work that heightens customer fulfillment.
In short, developers spend more time developing, and operations staff can work strategically, willingly than battling with widespread unplanned work, aka ‘firefighting’. Many businesses struggle to reach their strategic objectives because teams are too involved fighting fires. But a DevOps strategy to cloud migration allows you to exterminate many of these fires, once and for all.
Cloud + DevOps enhances operability.
Introducing DevOps policies adjacent to cloud adoption also suggests a more seamless and focused way to operational readiness. This is exceptionally important for businesses that have recently made the transition from start-up to scale-up.
Adopting proven best practices can fast-track progress here. The Well-Architected Frameworks published by AWS and Azure offer a practical starting point. The five pillars of Well-Architected — Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Cost-Optimisation, and Performance Efficiency — offer a wealth of expert guidance on how to build and operate your cloud effectively. Conducting a Well-Architected Review can help shape decisions and priorities related to DevOps-led processes. In this way, you can rearchitect systems in a targeted and systematic way, ‘baking in’ the operability that will support and sustain future growth.
Cloud + DevOps reduces the total cost of purchasing.
As cloud adoption continues to grow, cloud cost optimization is becoming a top advantage for CTOs. DevOps can help with this too.
As specified earlier, traditional on-premise server environments are usually over-provisioned to provide sufficient capacity for peak demand. Depending on your sector, traffic might nail annually (e.g., on Black Friday) or more regularly (e.g., weekend grocery shopping). It might also peak suddenly at other times due to variable factors outside your control.
The point is that you spend for this peak capacity all day, every day. Even if you turn off servers during the non-peak time to save power, you’re still paying for the rack space, network provisioning, and software licenses.
DevOps can turn this around by taking full benefit of the rapid elasticity offered by cloud computing. Automating essential parts of provisioning, application deployment, and orchestration means you only use (and pay for) the capacity you need when you need it. This reduces wasted spend and keeps the total cost of ownership down.
How do you merge cloud and DevOps?
When you’re building a cloud-native application from the ground up, you can embed DevOps principles from the outset.
However, existing applications can also be developed to benefit from DevOps’ ways of working.
This can either happen during migration to the cloud or following a lift and shift. Typically, it involves re-platforming, revising, or refactoring the application. It’s about improving and modernizing the infrastructure without going to the extent of rearchitecting or significant recoding. For many businesses, this is the quickest and most straightforward way to make targeted performance improvements in a new cloud environment.
