The DevOps lifecycle has optimized development processes from start to end and engaged several organizations in quality development that have effectively resulted in faster delivery of the application. This lifecycle mainly consists of 7 stages.
Continuous Development
Continuous development is the first stage of the DevOps lifecycle, and it involves the planning and coding of software. In this stage, the complete development process gets broken down into smaller development cycles.
This process makes it easier for both the development and operations team to accelerate their respective processes. The phase is critical in determining the vision for the entire development cycle and enabling developers to completely understand expectations from a project.
While this goes on, the DevOps team starts visualizing the goal. There will not be any requirement of DevOps tools for planning. However, various version control tools are used to maintain the code.
The process of this code maintenance can define as source code maintenance. Some of the most popular tools for source code maintenance are JIRA, Git, and SVN. Apart from this, there are many other tools used for packaging the codes into executable files and forwarded to the next stage in the lifecycle.
Continuous Integration
Continuous integration involves implementing different steps related to the test execution process. Clients also provide relevant information to be incorporated and for adding new features. In this stage, many of the changes happen in the source code.
This stage of the DevOps lifecycle is also a hub for resolving frequent variations on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. As the team makes changes to the code frequently, it becomes easier to resolve them in minimal time. The continuous integration phase generates continuous new code functionalities with the existing source code.
And with continuous development, the updated code is seamlessly integrated within the entire system. One of the most used continuous integration tools is Jenkins.
Continuous Testing
Continuous testing refers to the testing phase of the DevOps lifecycle. Herein, the developed code is checked for bugs and defects that could have forced their way into the code. This is where QA plays a significant role in checking the usability of the desired software
The successful completion of the DevOps QA process determines if the software meets client requirements. Automation tools like JUnit, Selenium, and TestNG are used for continuous testing. They help testers analyze multiple codebases at the same time.
This ensures there are zero flaws in the functionality of the software. It also helps QA teams carry out automation testing seamlessly with the help of tools like Selenium. Automation testing plays a critical role in saving time and effort.
Continuous Deployment
Continuous deployment is the stage where teams aim to achieve easy product deployment without affecting application performance. It is important to ensure that the code is deployed precisely on all the available servers during this phase.
The continuous deployment process eliminates the need for scheduled releases while accelerating the feedback mechanism process. It also enables DevOps teams to address issues more quickly and with greater accuracy.
In this process, tools like Vagrant help teams achieve consistency across testing, development, staging, and production environments. This process also deals with bringing virtualization to the level of an operating system.
Continuous deployment benefits your organization greatly provided you have a reliable automated testing environment in place.
This process also involves configuration and maintenance of the functional requirement of the app. Popular DevOps tools that are used for configuration management include Ansible and Puppet.
Continuous Monitoring
Continuous monitoring is the stage of DevOps where it becomes very important to know where a product stands. This phase processes important information about the developed application.
Continuous monitoring allows developers to identify general patterns in the application where extra effort is required. This process is normally an operational stage and the objective here is to enhance the overall performance of the software application.
This process helps maintain the availability and security of DevOps services. Issues related to the network are automatically fixed during this stage. Some of the tools that are used for continuous monitoring are Splunk, Sensu, and ELK Stack.
Proactive checking improves the reliability and productivity of the system and reduces maintenance costs. The important benefit here is that major issues are directly reported to the development team to be corrected in the early stages.
Continuous Feedback
Continuous feedback is important to ascertain in order to analyze the final outcome of the application. It also sets the tone for improving the current version and releasing a new version based on the stakeholders’ opinions.
The overall process of app development can be improved by analyzing the results from various software operations. Feedback is significant here as all the data is validated based on system functionality and performance.
Continuous Operations
The final stage in the DevOps lifecycle is short and easy to grasp. Continuity is a core aspect of DevOps operations as it helps automate release processes. It allows developers to detect issues quickly and to build better versions of software products.
Operating without interruptions is key to eliminating diversions and other extra steps that hinder development. While development cycles in continuous operations can be short, organizations are allowed to advertise constantly and accelerate the overall market time.
DevOps Services at 91Social:
91Social is one of the top DevOps services providers in the market currently. We focus a great deal on ensuring our clients are generating better efficiency and profitability in their operations.
We have an excellent DevOps team at our disposal that is equipped with the trending tools and technologies to deliver effective services. 91Social strives to ensure businesses are reaping the benefits that DevOps technology offers.
