Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can help the humans in DevOps break free from focusing on simple activities. One aspect of DevOps is automating routine and repeatable actions, and AI and ML can perform these activities with enhanced efficiency to improve the performance of teams and business. There are algorithms that can perform many operations and procedures, allowing those in DevOps to execute their part effectively. This article discusses how DevOps engineers can use AI and ML to their benefit.
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Driving DevOps Evolution
Businesses are under a lot of pressure to meet customers’ ever-changing demands, and many embrace DevOps to improve their performance to some extent. However, it can be difficult for many companies to use AI and ML because of the complexity involved. To recognize any benefit with AI and DevOps, a creative mindset may be required.
The adoption curve of AI/ML may be relatively slow. Only 27 percent of CIOs surveyed by ServiceNow for its report, “The Global Point of View,” have hired employed who have skills in machine learning. But the fact is, DevOps experts may have a lot to gain by adopting even the most basic features of AI and ML. The same survey found that around 85 percent of C-level executives believe AI/ML can offer substantial value in terms of accuracy and rapidity of decision-making, which will lead to improved profitability for the company.
Tracking and organization in a DevOps environment requires effort because of the complexity involved in the distributed application, which traditionally made things difficult for the team to manage and resolve customer issues. Before the evolution of AI and ML, DevOps team members could spend hundreds of hours and a large amount of resources to identify one point within an exabyte of information. To solve such problems, the future of DevOps is AI-driven, helping to manage the immense capacity of data and computation in day-to-day operations. AI has the potential to become the primary tool for assessing, computing and decision-making procedures in DevOps.
AI’s Influence on DevOps
AI can change how DevOps teams develop, deliver, deploy and organize applications to improve the performance and perform the business operations of DevOps. There are three common ways through which AI may influence DevOps:
Enhanced Data Accessibility
The lack of unregulated accessibility to data is a critical concern for DevOps teams, which AI can address by releasing data from its formal storage—necessary for big data implementations. AI can collect data from multiple sources and prepare it for reliable and robust evaluation.
Greater Implementation Efficacy
AI contributes to self-governed systems, which allows teams to transition from a rules-based human management system. This helps address the complexity of assessing human agents to improve efficacy.
Effective Resources Use
AI gives much required competence to automate routine and repeatable tasks, which minimizes the complexity of managing resources to some extent.
How Can Companies Apply AI and ML to Optimize DevOps?
Organizations can apply AI and ML to greatly optimize their DevOps environment. For one, AI can help in managing complex data pipelines and create models that can feed data into app the app development process. By 2020, it’s expected AI and ML will take the lead in digital transformation, overtaking IoT.
However, implementing AI and ML for DevOps also presents a number of challenges for organizations of all sizes. To benefit from AI and ML technologies, a customized DevOps stack is required.
Open source projects such as the Fabric for Deep Learning (FfDL) and Model Asset eXchange (MAX) can lower the barrier of entry for companies, helping to implement machine learning and making the DevOps process more efficient.
Application of AI and ML can result in true ROI for a company by optimizing DevOps operations, making IT operations more responsive. They can improve efficiency as well as productivity of the team and play an important role in filling the gap between humans and big data.
Conclusion
A company that wants to automate the DevOps have to decide whether to buy or build a custom AI/ML layer. However, the first step is to establish a strong DevOps infrastructure. Once the foundation is created, AI/ML can be applied for increased efficiency. AI/ML can help DevOps teams focus on creativity and innovation by eliminating inefficiencies across the operational life cycle, enabling teams to manage the amount, speed and variability of data. This, in turn, can result in automated enhancement and an increase in DevOps team’s efficiency.
— Subramonian
