Impact of DevOps Outsourcing and How to Overcome its Challenges
DevOps is breaking down the divisive wall between the development and operations teams. It introduces seamless communication, collaboration, and integration between the units, making the company fully capable of delivering products as per customer requirements and within timelines.
Hence, it comes as no surprise that as per the Global DevOps Platform Market Report, the market for DevOps shall witness a sustained growth at a rate of 20 percent for the forecast year from 2016 to 2020.
However, the time and money involved in hiring a DevOps team can discourage companies from choosing the DevOps automation path. In this situation, outsourcing a DevOps team can come to your rescue. Let’s take a look at how DevOps outsourcing will change the game for this industry.
Need for DevOps
In a nutshell, the importance of DevOps can be highlighted through the following – enhanced productivity with faster delivery.
DevOps gives companies a competitive advantage that helps with automation, reliability, and continuous deployment. A company that implements DevOps automation can enjoy the following benefits:
Faster product delivery
Fewer security-related issues
Higher developmental flexibility in dealing with various components, applications, or services
The reduced change failure rate
Better metrics reporting, which can be shared throughout the business with the help of DevOps automation
Difference Between In-house and Outsourced DevOps Teams
Now that you understand the clear advantages of adopting DevOps let’s take a look at the key differences between DevOps outsourcing and insourcing.
Advantages of in-house DevOps
Having an in-house DevOps team can grant you the following advantages:
Absolute control over product development
Addition of specialists is a controlled cost.
Ability to establish an infrastructure without the need to adjust according to your client’s requirements and partners’ toolsets
Limitations of in-house DevOps
While the idea of having an in-house DevOps team may be attractive, it does have the following drawbacks:
Workplace setups and staffing requirements can be costly.
The time taken to set up the infrastructure and define processes can cause inordinate delays.
The internal tasks can be distracting to the internal team, which costs the company in terms of time, resources, and efficiency.
As on-site experts deal with similar types of tasks and working conditions, they are unable to expand their skills and bring fresh ideas to the table
Following an established train of thought can make it harder to seek raw quality in the projects
Benefits of DevOps Outsourcing
DevOps outsourcing can grant you the following advantages:
Rather than building talent from scratch, DevOps outsourcing allows for recruiting already existing talent.
Considering that the outsourcing team has worked with various projects, they can effectively handle diverse problems or unforeseen situations due to their past experience and exposure.
It allows for quick and continuous deployment without the need for any additional resources.
It has a lower risk of employee attrition and staff turnover.
Outsourcing DevOps team can allow your business to scale up or scale down without any administrative cost implications
As the outsourced DevOps team is dedicated to providing high-quality services, they will work with the single-minded goal to achieve the results.
The outsourced DevOps team is focused on achieving targeted results, which are backed by agreements and contracts.
Main Considerations of DevOps Outsourcing
DevOps outsourcing is a viable option for achieving increased profitability and quicker time to market goals. An outsourced DevOps team will mold itself around your requirements and customize its services for your business. However, do keep the following factors in mind when opting for DevOps-as-a-Service:
While an outsourced team does enable DevOps automation and continuous deployment, the costs involved can increase with complicated deployments.
The vendor supplying the DevOps team could go out of business, leaving behind a talent vacuum.
The outsourced DevOps team needs to be integrated with the existing working relationships, and the processes need to be created from scratch.
A business also needs to realize that merely outsourcing the DevOps team may not prove useful in all settings. Hence, one needs to analyze the business requirements and the talent paucity to understand whether you should grow the DevOps team or hire it.
The Big Picture
DevOps outsourcing can introduce problem-centric solutions to your company, bound to improve your deliverability and efficiency. This solution works even for companies that have not internally embraced DevOps as of yet. Once your company and the outsourced DevOps team can align the agreements and commercials, the work cultures will be subsumed and blended to bring cohesive structure to the organization.
Finally, remember to hire the services of a proven company that possesses a demonstrable experience, rather than settling for a company that merely promises to deliver.