DevOps.com

  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Features
    • Most Read
    • News
    • News Releases
  • Topics
    • AI
    • Continuous Delivery
    • Continuous Testing
    • Cloud
    • Culture
    • DataOps
    • DevSecOps
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • Leadership Suite
    • DevOps Practice
    • ROELBOB
    • DevOps Toolbox
    • IT as Code
  • Videos/Podcasts
    • Techstrong.tv Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv Video Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv - Twitch
    • DevOps Unbound
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming
    • On-Demand Webinars
  • Library
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • On-Demand Events
  • Sponsored Content
  • Related Sites
    • Techstrong Group
    • Container Journal
    • Security Boulevard
    • Techstrong Research
    • DevOps Chat
    • DevOps Dozen
    • DevOps TV
    • Techstrong TV
    • Techstrong.tv Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv Video Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv - Twitch
  • Media Kit
  • About
  • Sponsor
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Continuous Testing
  • DataOps
  • DevSecOps
  • DevOps Onramp
  • Platform Engineering
  • Low-Code/No-Code
  • IT as Code
  • More
    • Application Performance Management/Monitoring
    • Culture
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • ROELBOB

Home » Blogs » Does the Future of DevOps Lie in NoOps?

Does the Future of DevOps Lie in NoOps?

Avatar photoBy: Michael Schmidt on April 28, 2016 6 Comments

Why DevOps is more a bi-directional rather than a simple top-down approach

Recent Posts By Michael Schmidt
  • 5 Prerequisites for a Successful DevOps Initiative
  • Release Automation: Bigger than DevOps
  • DevOps and Continuous Delivery: Not the Same
Avatar photo More from Michael Schmidt
Related Posts
  • Does the Future of DevOps Lie in NoOps?
  • Is NoOps the Future of Cloud Networking?
  • DevOps Principles, Implementations and Culture
    Related Categories
  • Blogs
  • Enterprise DevOps
    Related Topics
  • agile
  • automation
  • COBIT
  • developers
  • development
  • devops
  • itil
  • noops
  • operations
  • OpsDev
Show more
Show less

DevOps is one of those buzzwords that nearly everyone wants to discuss these days. However, it often is interpreted as an extension of Development’s influence to the detriment of Operations teams.

TechStrong Con 2023Sponsorships Available

So much has changed in the past few years that it is conceivable we will see another major shakeup: Could Operations teams disappear altogether? Or to put it another way, is “NoOps” the future of IT? While DevOps promotes faster delivery of new digital services and a blurring of the lines between Dev and Ops, in reality, is Dev consuming Ops entirely?

Before DevOps was called DevOps, the two disciplines were growing further apart. Agility has been driven by Developers since the turn of the century, with the famous Manifesto for Agile Development. Meanwhile, Operations formalized repositories of good practices into frameworks such as ITIL or COBIT, which were implemented by most large companies in the mid-90s. Those two approaches seem to oppose, as DevOps advocates the acceleration and multiplication of changes and ITIL tends to monitor and control them.

NoOps, or the End of Operations?

If you believe everything you read, then Operations is a dying art. But in practice, Development does not want to be involved with infrastructure, while few organizations would trust developers to manage their data centers, whether physical, virtual or cloud. So breathe easy: DevOps does not mean the end of Operations teams.

On the contrary, Operations remains essential throughout the DevOps approach. Production infrastructure is a complex and delicate stack of technologies, often with a discreet mix of modern architecture and historical applications. It often is impossible for Development to replicate these types of environments. And that is why an application successfully tested in a qualification environment often does not work properly in production. However, it is crucial to validate new developments in a representative replica of the production environment.

So is DevOps doomed to constant failure because of lack of continuity between qualification platforms and production systems? Well, this is probably the case if we merely consider DevOps as a simple top-down approach from Development to Operations. Focusing on producing changes at a higher frequency only shifts and grows a bottleneck that sits in production, without producing the added value expected by the company. As a consequence, DevOps must also be seen as a bottom-up process. In other words, if we consider DevOps, we must also take very serious look at “OpsDev” (OK, it doesn’t flow off the tongue, but you see my point!).

DevOps or OpsDev?

For a successful DevOps approach in practice, Development must position itself as a consumer of turnkey infrastructure environments. Operations then adopts an OpsDev approach and provides infrastructure on demand for all steps of continuous integration, from compilation to qualification, through unit testing.

If DevOps is a radical change in how Development works, OpsDev would also revolutionizing common Operations practices. It comes with more agile “declarative” infrastructures (described and built from source code), an even more sophisticated level of automation and the ability to provide self-service infrastructure for developers.

The adoption of DevOps does not mean that Operations will disappear or will be replaced by Development, but rather the emergence of bi-directional agility that needs to be supported by more sophisticated automation. In fact, DevOps implies OpsDev rather than NoOps. Finally, whatever you consider your release process under the ITIL or DevOps angle, isn’t the end goal exactly the same: delivering zero-default service to customers?

Filed Under: Blogs, Enterprise DevOps Tagged With: agile, automation, COBIT, developers, development, devops, itil, noops, operations, OpsDev

« How to Get a Career in QA
DevOps Days London: The Human Factor »

Techstrong TV – Live

Click full-screen to enable volume control
Watch latest episodes and shows

Upcoming Webinars

Evolution of Transactional Databases
Monday, January 30, 2023 - 3:00 pm EST
Moving Beyond SBOMs to Secure the Software Supply Chain
Tuesday, January 31, 2023 - 11:00 am EST
Achieving Complete Visibility in IT Operations, Analytics, and Security
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 - 11:00 am EST

Sponsored Content

The Google Cloud DevOps Awards: Apply Now!

January 10, 2023 | Brenna Washington

Codenotary Extends Dynamic SBOM Reach to Serverless Computing Platforms

December 9, 2022 | Mike Vizard

Why a Low-Code Platform Should Have Pro-Code Capabilities

March 24, 2021 | Andrew Manby

AWS Well-Architected Framework Elevates Agility

December 17, 2020 | JT Giri

Practical Approaches to Long-Term Cloud-Native Security

December 5, 2019 | Chris Tozzi

Latest from DevOps.com

Stream Big, Think Bigger: Analyze Streaming Data at Scale
January 27, 2023 | Julia Brouillette
What’s Ahead for the Future of Data Streaming?
January 27, 2023 | Danica Fine
The Strategic Product Backlog: Lead, Follow, Watch and Explore
January 26, 2023 | Chad Sands
Atlassian Extends Automation Framework’s Reach
January 26, 2023 | Mike Vizard
Software Supply Chain Security Debt is Increasing: Here’s How To Pay It Off
January 26, 2023 | Bill Doerrfeld

TSTV Podcast

On-Demand Webinars

DevOps.com Webinar ReplaysDevOps.com Webinar Replays

GET THE TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK

Most Read on DevOps.com

What DevOps Needs to Know About ChatGPT
January 24, 2023 | John Willis
Microsoft Outage Outrage: Was it BGP or DNS?
January 25, 2023 | Richi Jennings
Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities
January 23, 2023 | Mike Vizard
Optimizing Cloud Costs for DevOps With AI-Assisted Orchestra...
January 24, 2023 | Marc Hornbeek
A DevSecOps Process for Node.js Projects
January 23, 2023 | Gilad David Maayan
  • Home
  • About DevOps.com
  • Meet our Authors
  • Write for DevOps.com
  • Media Kit
  • Sponsor Info
  • Copyright
  • TOS
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Techstrong Group, Inc.

© 2023 ·Techstrong Group, Inc.All rights reserved.