Cloud DevOps has changed the software development industry by making it possible to deliver high-quality products faster.
But did you know that it’s not as easy as you think? There are some challenges that you should know. Organizations face different technical and cultural issues in successful DevOps implementation.
According to an Atlassian survey, 75% of businesses face DevOps challenges during implementation, with culture and procedure being the primary adoption challenges.
That’s why we will talk about the top challenges of DevOps and give tips on overcoming them.
Even though DevOps has modified the software-making process, businesses can still struggle to overcome some challenges.
Here are the main challenges along with their solutions:
1. Migrating From Legacy Applications To Microservices
One of the main challenges in DevOps implementation is transitioning from legacy applications to microservices.
Microservices architecture breaks up large applications into smaller, independent services that can be built, deployed, and maintained separately.
This approach has several good points, but it also brings a lot of new problems, like increased complexity, security risks, and the need for new skills and tools.
Solution
Organizations should switch from legacy applications to microservices in stages to resolve these problems. This method involves figuring out which applications and services are the most important, breaking them into smaller services, and moving them slowly to a microservices architecture.
Organizations should also put money into training and educating their workers to ensure they have the skills and knowledge needed to work with microservices.
2. Too Much Focus On Tools
One of the most common DevOps challenges is that too much attention is paid to tools.
Many companies think DevOps is all about tools and don’t understand how important culture, collaboration, and communication are. This method can lead to using too many tools, which can be counterproductive and make the DevOps environment complex to understand.
Solution
To solve this problem, organizations should focus on building a DevOps culture that emphasizes working together and talking to each other.
They should also strategically choose tools, judging each one by how well it works with other tools, helping people work together and talk to each other, and automating tasks.
It is vital to use as few tools as possible and to avoid using tools that perform the same task.
3. Resistance to Change
Organizations also face a technical challenges in DevOps when people don’t want to change.
Transitioning to DevOps requires a significant culture change, which some employees may find hard to accept. Resistance to change can look like not being interested in new tools or processes, not accepting to work with other teams, or not wanting to learn new skills.
Solution
Companies should build a continuous learning and improvement culture to develop a DevOps mindset in the employees.
This facilitates the widespread adoption of DevOps principles as individuals acclimate to them and recognize their diverse roles in shaping the development process.
They should assemble a DevOps responsibilities list to help them work more efficiently and improve the quality of their work. During the DevOps transformation, including employees in decision-making and letting them have their say is also important.
4. Dev and Ops Toolsets Conflicts
DevOps must integrate development and operations tools, which can be problematic due to differences in the tools and how they are used. Developers and operations teams often use different tools.
These distinct DevOps practices can create problems and cause deployments to take longer than expected.
Solution
Businesses must ensure that the tools they select align with the company’s main objectives. Tools like GitLab and Jenkins, often compared under the GitLab CI/CD vs Jenkins category, should be chosen based on how well they help development and operations teams collaborate and streamline processes.
5. Implementing a Test Automation Strategy
One of the main DevOps automation challenges is the prioritization of CI/CD rollouts over test automation. Continuous testing is crucial for successful DevOps implementation, yet it is often overlooked.
Test automation can help companies improve the quality of their software and speed up the process of making it.
Solution
To cover challenges faced in automation testing, organizations should start by figuring out which test cases are the most important and must be automated.
By understanding the test technique and how to implement it, companies can speed up the input cycles and get their products to market more quickly.
6. Problems with Standards and Metrics
One of the disadvantages of DevOps is that many businesses these days keep track of seemingly unlimited data.
The more information we have, the better we can comprehend the product; however, gathering even the most basic information can take a long time and be a hassle.
Solution
One approach would be to collect the DORA metrics and make them available to various groups.
This intentional and collaborative strategy can enable these teams to adopt engineering practices that will ultimately aid in spreading and establishing a DevOps mindset throughout the organization.
7. Getting Started With Continuous Learning
DevOps depends on people learning all the time. The process of making software is constantly changing, so organizations have to keep up with new tools, methods, and technologies. But for organizations, getting started with continuous learning can be one of the biggest DevOps issues.
Solution
Companies should invest in training and improving employees’ skills to deal with this problem. They should encourage employees to take online courses, attend conferences, and participate in training programs.
Creating a continuous learning and improvement culture is also important, where employees are encouraged to learn DevOps structure and cloud computing and share their knowledge and expertise with their coworkers.
8. Team Ownership For Deployments And Releases
A key DevOps adoption challenge arises when teams lack full ownership of product deployment and release cycles. Misalignments between deployment and release teams can cause confusion and delays.
This is likely due to misunderstandings between the releasing and deployment teams.
- Deployment is the process of installing software in any environment, including development, testing, and production.
- Releasing the product means making it available to the end user. This is essential for adequately implementing the “you build, you run it” cross-functional team concept.
Solution
One good strategy for the team is to start collaborating closely with any operations personnel and taking on joint responsibility for logistics, deliveries, and duties to split the workload evenly.
This enables developers, for instance, to comprehend the difficulties ops teams encounter when delivering and deploying code in production.
How Folio3 Helps Businesses to Overcome DevOps Challenges
Folio3 is a well-known and experienced DevOps service provider. Our professionals have a good grasp of DevOps challenges and solutions. We use the latest tools and techniques to deliver customized and effective DevOps consulting solutions to clients, making us a preferred choice in the industry.
Some of the important DevOps services provided by Folio3 include:
- Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipeline setup and management
- Infrastructure automation
- Cloud-based infrastructure setup and management
- DevOps managed services
- Application monitoring
- Security and compliance management
- Containerization and orchestration
- Collaboration and communication tools management
Struggling with DevOps Implementation?
Our DevOps experts help you streamline processes and overcome obstacles, ensuring faster and more reliable delivery.
Conclusion
When adopting DevOps, it’s natural to run into a few snags and problems. However, teams can overcome these challenges of DevOps by maintaining their dedication to the DevOps vision and values and promoting a culture of collaboration and continuous development.
In addition, you can hire DevOps and Cloud computing experts who know about DevOps challenges and solutions.
Frequently Asked Question
Q1. What Challenges And Major Risks Come With DevOps Implementation?
Adopting DevOps comes with challenges and risks, such as cultural resistance to change, lack of skills and knowledge, complicated toolchains, system vulnerabilities, and communication gaps between teams. If these DevOps challenges aren’t dealt with expertise, they can cause project delays, cost overruns, and less efficiency.
Q2. Which Challenges Are Solved By Adopting DevOps?
Organizations can implement DevOps to solve problems like slower software delivery, poor collaboration, manual processes, and teams working in separate silos. DevOps adoption speeds up high-quality software delivery, improves teamwork, and makes the software development process more efficient overall.
Q3. What Are The 5 Pillars Of DevOps?
The 5 main pillars of DevOps are culture, automation, measurement, sharing, and feedback. These pillars are the most critical parts of the DevOps methodology. They support the continuous delivery, deployment, and improvement of software products through close collaboration between development and operations teams.
