Title: Critical Phases of Devops Lifecycle
1Critical Phases Of DevOps Lifecycle
DevOps is a shorthand term that combines
development and operations. It entails
performing the various tasks of application
development in a specific order. DevOps is a
broad term for a combination of software
development and IT operations. The DevOps
approach adopts continuous innovation, agility,
and scalability to build, test, consume, and
develop software products. It fosters an
environment of experimentation, feedback, and
constant learning to reinvent products,
services, and processes. It is the approach
rehearsed by the development team and operational
engineers from the beginning to the final stage
of the product. However, to implement DevOps, a
thorough understanding of the various stages of
the DevOps lifecycle is required. To deliver
faster results, developers must understand all
phases of the DevOps lifecycle. If they are not,
the development process can become complicated
and time-consuming. Understanding DevOps is not
done without understanding the DevOps lifecycle
phases. The DevOps lifecycle is a collection of
automated development processes or workflows
that occur within an iterative development
lifecycle. It takes a continuous approach, so
its lifecycle is represented by an infinity loop.
The DevOps lifecycle optimizes development
processes from beginning to end and engages the
organization in continuous development, resulting
in faster delivery.
2- The following is a detailed breakdown and study
of each component of the DevOps lifecycle- - Continuous Development
- Continuous Integration
- Continuous Testing
- Continuous Feedback
- Continuous Monitoring
- Continuous Deployment
- Continuous Operations
- Continuous Development
- The foremost phase of the DevOps lifecycle
involves planning and software - development. Understanding the projects vision
and envisioning software based on - those perceptions is part of the planning
process. Planning does not necessitate the use
of any practical tools, but maintaining the code
requires using various devices. Creating the
source code for an application begins with
selecting a programming language. JavaScript,
C/C, and Python are popular programming
languages in DevOps. - Continuous Integration
- After development, the continuous integration
process begins automatically. It consists of
several steps, such as planning tests for the
next phase and understanding the code to produce
the desired outcome specified in the initial
project documentation. Continuous integration is
a seamless process in DevOps that efficiently
leads to the next phase. The continuous
integration of this new code into the existing
source code aids in reflecting the changes that
end users will encounter with the updated code.
As a result, Jenkins is widely used as a
dependable DevOps tool for obtaining updated
source code and constructing builds in.exe
format. These transitions are seamless, and the
updated code is packaged and sent to the next
phase, either the production or testing server. - Continuous Testing
- In DevOps, the testing process examines the
actual use of an application. Beta testers
produce results while ensuring that the
application can be used in a live environment.
The testing process provides more information
about various aspects of an application, then
sent to the development process to improve the
application. Some developers perform continuous
testing before the continuous integration phase.
This phase in the DevOps lifecycle can be
repositioned around the continuous integration
phase based on changes to the application code.
The developed software is constantly tested for
bugs here. Docker containers are used to
simulate a test environment. Developers save time
and effort by using automated testing instead of
manual testing.
3Continuous Monitoring Monitoring is a phase that
involves all operational aspects of the DevOps
process, in which important information about
software usage is recorded and carefully
processed to identify trends and problem areas.
Typically, monitoring is built into the software
applications operational capabilities. When in a
continuous use position, it may appear in the
form of documentation files or may generate
large- scale data about the application
parameters. This phase resolves system errors
such as servers not being reachable, low memory,
etc. In addition, it ensures the services
security and availability. Continuous
Feedback The two critical phases that ensure
consistent improvements in the application code
are continuous testing and continuous
integration. Continuous feedback is a unique
phase in which these improvements are evaluated.
Developers can predict how these changes will
affect the final product. Most importantly,
customers who tested these applications can
share their experiences during this phase. In
most cases, this stage of the DevOps lifecycle
marks a watershed moment in the application
development process. The feedback is quickly
assessed, and developers get to work on the new
changes. Soon after, there is a positive
response in customer feedback, paving the way for
new versions of the software application. Continu
ous Deployment The deployment process is carried
out so that any changes made to the code should
not affect the operation of a high-traffic
website. The new code is continuously deployed,
and configuration management tools are critical
in executing tasks frequently and quickly. Chef,
Puppet, Ansible, and SaltStack are some popular
tools used during this phase. Traditionally, the
phase of continuous deployment comes before the
phase of continuous monitoring. However,
developers ensure that this phase is always
active in the DevOps lifecycle, particularly
after the application goes live and begins
receiving a high traffic volume. Containerization
tools are also crucial during the deployment
phase. Vagrant and Docker are two popular tools
for this purpose. These tools aid in maintaining
consistency across the development, staging,
testing, and production environments. They also
help in the soft scaling up and scaling down of
instances. Continuous Operations The final phase
of the DevOps lifecycle is the shortest and least
complicated. The goal of continuous operation is
to automate the release of the application and
subsequent updates. As a result, continuous
operations have shorter development cycles,
allowing developers to continually accelerate the
applications time-to- market. In addition, all
DevOps operations are based on continuity with
complete automation of the release process,
allowing the organization to accelerate the
overall time to market continuously.
4Conclusion DevOps is primarily used to develop
applications for e-commerce websites, cloud-
native applications, and other large distributed
platforms. DevOps describes an agile
relationship between development and operations.
The DevOps lifecycle is defined as phases that
include continuous software development,
integration, testing, deployment, and
monitoring. A competent DevOps lifecycle is
required to build superior quality software
through the system.