DevOps is all the rage right now in the software development industry. Being one of the most productive and effective development practices, DevOps is already implemented in various top tech firms and many more are considering it.
Although the results are all rosy, the road is very thorny. So, before you decide to hop on this trend, you must know how treacherous the road is. It is important to know what kind of roadblocks or barriers you might face along the way.
We are going to discuss the most common yet important DevOps challenges that companies face and how to resolve them.
Top DevOps Challenges
1. Overpowering the DevOps Psyche
In the software industry, companies can gain a competitive edge through innovation. Therefore they offer innovative features and functionalities with their software applications.
Now, the responsibility of making these innovations falls on the shoulders of development as well as operations teams. And that is the first challenge you will face while adapting DevOps.
The very purpose of both teams contradicts each other. That ought to cause friction which might result in increased expenses, delivering handovers, and prolonged feedback loops.
Solution:
The vision is to make both departments work together. A DevOps engineer is tasked with the responsibility of integrating the development and operations teams all the while reducing the extra workload of the company.
Once you understand where the development teams’ work ends and where the operation teams’ work begins, you will have solved this challenge.
2. Continuous Delivery
Let's say you have thoroughly analyzed the DevOps practices. You understand all the dos and don’ts and you also have arranged for all the resources like CI tooling and delivered channels your employees would need for implementing DevOps practices.
Even after all of these, one thing could go wrong and that is failing to make your team aware of what it takes to make a swift and continuous delivery.
Solution:
To overcome this issue, every company must have a good understanding of how continuous delivery works.
Continuous delivery means carrying out a defined set of work without hindering the workflow. It is up to you to clearly explain to your team your ideal notion of continuous delivery. If your team is working towards common goals without any misconception then only their efforts would be fruitful.
3. Transitioning from Monolithic Architecture to Microservices Infrastructure
One of the biggest challenges you could face with DevOps is migrating from traditional and monolithic frameworks to microservices. It is not just a drastic change, it's a huge step towards innovation.
Solution:
Although DevOps practices look fun, you have to continuously innovate and frankly, that can be tedious work.
To resolve this issue, you need to have a working knowledge of the foundation, continuous delivery practices, and configuration management to adapt the amplified functional responsibility from microservices which is mandatory to solve this DevOps challenge.
4. Over-training
The best thing about DevOps is that it comes with innovative features. Although they are easy to work with, your team has to go through a proper training process first for their effective implementation.
The more the new tools arrive in the market, the more your team will be spending time in training instead of doing the actual work. And if you do not train your employees on the new innovative tools then your company might just get left behind.
Moreover, you have to teach your employees to handle all the new tools while adhering to the existing design and security measures.
Solution:
Training for every shiny new tool with advanced features in the market can be, well, challenging. What you can do is have a structure in place that allows you and your DevOps teams to pick a suitable tool for the project.
So, instead of fixating on the innovative tools from the market, you have to shift your focus on fulfilling your project requirements. For that, pick suitable tools and if necessary train your team on just those tools during the project.
5. Adherence
Adhering to the DevOps practices is a difficult task. For everyone in the company from stakeholders to your team members, the transition should be seamless and efficient.
Solution:
To ensure that everyone on your team adheres to DevOps implementation, you have to make them aware of the benefits of DevOps and how handling various aspects of DevOps like microservices would help them learn skills and technologies that are the future of software development. You have to show them that along with stakeholders, DevOps is also beneficial for developers.
6. Coordination between both teams
When two teams work in collaboration, conflicts are bound to happen. You have to find a way to make sure that both development and operations teams work in sync.
Solution:
Clear communication is the key to successful collaboration. And for that, a proper communication channel must be established.
The goals of the respective teams must be conveyed clearly and for that, necessary tools must be allocated too. That ought to take the extra workload off their shoulders and work in sync effortlessly.
7. Embracing new trends
Previously we talked about how employees would waste their time if they tried to learn all the tools available in the market. However, there is another challenge even if you just want to train them for the necessary tools of the project, you will find that a few people will be reluctant to come out of their comfort zone to embrace the new tools and technologies.
Solution:
As we discussed the solution for the first challenge, similarly, continuous learning and adapting new skills will help professionals grow their expertise and stay relevant to the rapidly changing IT industry and its market demands.
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