Blockchain in DevOps - A Powerful Combination for Business Agility & Transparency

Get to know how blockchain technology could be harnessed to streamline DevOps for your organization. 

Incredible technologies and endless opportunities - are what makes the digital world full of surprises! 

The power of one technology could be used to streamline software development infrastructure. Have you ever thought about the intersection of blockchain and DevOps? 

In this blog post, we’ll look at how blockchain’s intrinsic traits could be employed in DevOps to make software development processes more smooth and efficient.

Blockchain - An Immutable & Traceable Distributed Ledger

Blockchain is a distributed account ledger to process and store data in a secure way. Initially, it was designed to enable cryptocurrencies and peer-to-peer networking. Now, it is used by major industries and companies to streamline business operations. In simple terms, a blockchain is a decentralized database that maintains an expanding list of encrypted transaction records in the form of blocks. 

Blockchain is based on three core concepts:

Public key cryptographyPeer-to-peer networkDecentralized consensus 

In blockchain solutions, there is no central point of control. No individual, group, or third party controls the operations of the blockchain, saving time and resources. Distributed consensus builds a high level of confidence and verifies the transactions. Absolute transparency of blockchain contributes to improved integrity of business transactions and framework. Once blocks become part of a chain, they cannot be modified or removed. 

Key Features of Blockchain

The popularity of blockchain can be idealized from the following features. Let’s have a look.

Blockchain technology is immutable. It is an unalterable and transparent networkIt is a decentralized and distributed ledger where each participant has complete information about the networkThere is no central governing authority to make decisions. A group of nodes maintains the network. Therefore, the network is less prone to errorIt offers a high level of security with advanced cryptography techniquesNo cost of the transactionAll activities on the blockchain are highly synchronized and updated in real-timeTransactions are traceable as they are stored with a timestamp in the blockBlockchain technology solutions are scalable. Any new node can be added and a copy of the ledger is replicated in itSmart contracts are used to embed instructions in nodes and automate certain operations in the blockchain

In this blog post, we’ll look at how blockchain business development could be combined with other methodological modules to provide enhanced reliability and feasibility to the organization.

DevOps - Continuous Software Delivery & IT Support

DevOps is a combination of ‘dev’ which means software development and ‘ops’ that corresponds to the operations. It is a holistic approach focusing on cross-departmental practices of automation and integration. The ultimate purpose of any software project is to deliver the end product according to client requirements and ensure trust, timely delivery, and reduced costs at the same time. 

We know different software development methodologies that are effective to produce the desired outcomes. DevOps approach to SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) highlights increased collaboration and trust among parties. In any agile methodology, whether it be incremental or cyclic, the end goal is timely software development. DevOps team consists of the development, security, quality, and operations professionals. Software developers, system architects, IT engineers, UX designers, security engineers, and DevOps specialists are some major roles in the DevOps team.

Characteristics of DevOps Model:

Unlike traditional software development frameworks that deliver huge releases at a time, DevOps always work for small milestones. This structure focuses on manageable and quality delivery and allows thorough operations testing, security testing, and rectification of possible risks. 

Concisely, below are some characteristics of the DevOps model

Automation of development and software operationsContinuous collaboration between development, IT operations, and integration teamsAgile development processes (cyclic or incremental) to meet small milestones Increased use of virtual and cloud environments Advanced tools to automate development and testing operationsProcess control and management by defining roles, responsibilities, and permissions Compliance with industry standards, regulations, terminologies, and processesRisk assessment and error prevention in all sub-processesAutomated testing procedures Customer experience audits on a regular basisElimination of manual process management and monitoringDirections of delivery artifacts i.e. functional and non-functional requirements, use-cases, roles, design, development, testing, and deployment.Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) by developers to resolve errors and deploy functionalities in production environments

DevOps architecture was traditionally based on the waterfall model. However, now control requirements have extended to audibility when it comes to deploying authorized changes in production systems. The need mandates the integration of advanced technologies with DevOps to address upcoming industrial challenges and trends.

DevOps and Blockchain - A Power Duo 

Do you know? The global blockchain market is expected to grow from $7.18 billion in 2022 to $163.83 billion by 2029. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are taking advantage of blockchain development solutions to streamline organizational processes. Similarly, blockchain has unveiled potential use cases when combined with DevOps.

DevOps fast-track the operational infrastructure of an organization. Its agile property streamlines the daily processes. Blockchain technology could be a great mix with DevOps to make software delivery chains more efficient and transparent. The traits of blockchain and DevOps combine to provide the following benefits.

All activities in the SDLC are automatically recorded over the blockchainSmart contracts are developed to execute each transaction, manage and monitor all the network participantsAll activities can be verified and processedTracking of module change activity, module ownership, and accessDeployment of code into production using transactionsAutomated security testing of pipelines Investigation of issues and errors in the system and real-time updates through smart contractsThe ledger keeps an immutable record of the history of all previous activities and approvals

Blockchain in DevOps makes software delivery more efficient, reliable, and transparent. The data flow is easily trackable. There is a high level of visibility in all operations throughout the delivery process. 

 

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