In Time Tec's Take On DevOps

DevOps allows companies to rapidly develop and deliver high-quality applications to end-users. Currently, there are no DevOps training programs in universities or code camps. To be a DevOps engineer, someone has to take interest in it and learn it themselves.

Our DevOps engineers automate development testing to speed up time to use that ensures our partners applications and systems are ready to use more quickly and without errors.

Our team fits seamlessly into existing development to test code and offer improved experiences for the end user. Our end-goal is to speed up deployment and ensure that code is clean and scalable.

Before taking on a client for DevOps, we look at the size of the development team, how their application is hosted, the size of the customer base, the tools that they use to do development, the tools they use to help monitor the system, and the overall infrastructure that they have. We also interview the business people and technical people to gain insights about their pain points. We determine what areas are causing them the most inefficiency, and what they are worried about in terms of the reliability of their system.

Our approach to take on a DevOps client starts by looking at the business need, such that we can provide value in terms of getting code through the development process as efficiently as possible. We analyze the places where there are the biggest gaps and then determine how we can be the most cost effective in closing those gaps. Fortunately, In Time Tec does not approach the DevOps partnership with a consulting, pre-programmed plan to share with the client. We know that we first have to understand the environment and challenges that our partner is facing. We look at the places where they have the most pain and we apply our engineering talent to understand what we can do to help.

After we have completed a deep-dive analysis in terms of what is needed, we make recommendations in terms of where the highest leverage will be. Our engineers have the talent to go in and work on the scripting, the infrastructure, or whatever it is that is required to make that process more efficient. Over time, we can continue to increase the value of that pipeline.

There are several different aspects associated with DevOps. There is the preparation and execution, and then there is the up time and being able to handle the traffic. DevOps isn’t only getting the code through, but also making sure that the systems are up and running properly. Once the DevOps code is developed, it must be maintained. We refer to this as “keeping the lights on” and making sure that all of the systems are running at optimal efficiency. We want to make sure that there is no down time. This also includes being proactive at certain times when higher demand is expected (i.e. Black Friday) and make sure that when our partners customer to their site that the site is able to handle the traffic and scale up to those higher demands.

After we take someone on as a DevOps client, we begin tracking KPI’s. On the operations side we track the uptime of their website as well as how many minutes or hours that it is down. We track service outages, performance slow downs, how well it manages load, and if there is any security vulnerability.

On the development side, we track developer productivity, such as how fast are the builds, how quickly does code get into production, and how many defects are found at each stage of the pipeline and code quality. Production level defects is a key KPI, as we always want to make sure that no defects make it past the production stage.

At In Time Tec, we have teams that can take care of both development and operations. We can work on the development of the processes by looking at what the business needs are that we need to work with the team to invest in these processes such that the development is smooth. On the operations side, we have people who can look at it 24/7 and make sure that everything is in place, so that if any of the monitors start turning yellow or red, we are on top of it. We dive into what the basic cause is and then we start analyzing and fixing problems. We have clients that have large e-commerce businesses that rely on us to make sure that their websites are online and able to accept orders. If the system goes down for half an hour there is the potential to lose thousands of dollars. We are here to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Anybody that has a cloud-based business, can never be done in terms of the operational side of things. Even on the development side, the whole pipeline always needs to be maintained. Learn more about offering your customers improved experiences by speeding up deployment and ensuring your code is clean and scalable.