How to Outsource DevOps the Right Way for Developing Software

Last updated on July 17th, 2023

Since Agile Methodology came out and became popular, the official way to make software products is to use a smooth, continuous workflow. Teams that make software need to be ready for short sprints and quick releases, which can happen every two weeks or even daily.

Because of this, software development teams need a new strategy and new team roles. This is where outsourcing DevOps comes in.

36% of people who participated in a Statista survey said that DevOps is the best way to build software.

DevOps is one of the best ways to deal with these problems and ensure that software is consistently delivered and integrated (CI/CD). But because DevOps projects are so complicated, putting together a DevOps team from scratch is challenging and can hurt software quality.

Also, Forrester said in 2020 that the business value of DevOps would become a more important metric than velocity. Now, we’re seeing that more and more businesses want to automate their processes and move to the cloud. Companies that want to outsource DevOps services will be even more interested in this because there aren’t enough people with the right skills.

Table of Contents

What does outsourcing DevOps try to do?

The main goal of a DevOps culture is to break down barriers between professionals working at different stages of the software development life cycle (SDLC). On the other hand, DevOps has a lot of other good points.

DevOps methods can help organizations put out better software faster and more often. They also make it easier to work together and talk to each other, change things in small batches, use feedback loops, and keep learning and improving.

What does “Outsource DevOps” mean?

Because there aren’t enough tech workers in the US, UK, and Western Europe, there is a massive demand for outsourced DevOps services. It might be hard to find skilled DevOps engineers quickly. Because of this, many companies use the DevOps as a Service (DaaS) method. DevOps experts can help you set up the processes from scratch (like building a CI/CD pipeline for the future product) or evaluate your current processes, suggest ways to improve them, and help you make all the necessary changes.

Outsourcing services for DevOps can be changed to fit your needs and the needs of your project. And they often talk about:

Cloud services (including adoption, migration, and infrastructure);
Continuous Integration and the Delivery Pipeline;
Security audits and building plans;
Getting the processes to work best and automating them, etc.

How to Stay Out of Trouble When Outsourcing DevOps?

DevOps is an essential part of making apps for a constantly changing market. This is why it’s so crucial for businesses to start outsourcing DevOps in a better way. You can give your development and operations tasks to a managed DevOps services provider by following these steps:

1. Not figuring out what parts of your business you can improve if you hire DevOps services

Finding the right company to meet your specific business KPIs will be easier if you know what key areas need improvement:

Scalability: DevOps outsourcing can help you most when you have an environment that needs to be watched and helped immediately to grow.
Cost audit: DevOps can help you get the most out of the money you spend on cloud-based services by letting you choose the best services for your business.
24/7 support: It’s not the best idea to use developers for on-call support of an application. DevOps can help you to make the process automated so that engineers can focus on their jobs.
Migration: DevOps can make up about 30% of the work during the transition period from a traditional data center to the cloud or from one cloud to another.
Big Data: If your software stores and processes a lot of data, you should invest in the optimization of DevOps data flow and how it is handled.

2. Not evaluating the risks

To avoid possible risks, it’s essential to think about these things:

Legal issues: There may be legal restrictions on how a third party can access PII so that DevOps outsourcing vendors will need specific certifications, or they won’t be able to support specific environments (real-data environment, a.k.a – production).
Vision for architecture: For DevOps outsourcing to work well, there needs to be a high-level vision of the architecture and a plan for how to get there. Don’t forget that choosing a platform like AWS or Azure is a commitment that comes with specific rules.
Integration: When you outsource DevOps, you have to share a lot of information and work closely with the development teams, which can take more time.

3. Not checking a DevOps outsourcing vendor’s technical skills

A reputable company that offers DevOps outsourcing services should have been doing so for a long time.

Cloud

Your vendor should know how to work with public and private clouds and all the operations accompanying them.

CI/CD

If a potential tech partner knows a lot about CI/CD tools, they can help you set up a promising CI/CD pipeline, which will help your business.

Cut down on lead time, which is the time between starting a piece of work and putting it into use;
Improve the quality of the services or apps that are delivered.
Containerization

Containers have replaced traditional virtual machines as the standard for IT infrastructure (VMs). If it’s used right, this tool can help businesses:

Cut down on work by letting DevOps teams focus on the most critical tasks.
Make better use of hardware.
Faster server provisioning.
Make backup systems that are reliable by automating the backup of data that happens every minute.
Ensure resource efficiency.
Cut down on the costs of running and managing IT.
Code as Infrastructure

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a different way to manage computing resources than what has been done in the past. What value do you get from Mac? Among others:

Infrastructure is better understood and written down.
Knowledge of infrastructure maintenance
Connecting the infrastructure of different environments
DevSecOps

DevSecOps is a way to ensure that both applications and infrastructure are safe. The following tests can be done with DevSecOps tools:

Security Testing for Static Applications (SAST)
Testing the security of dynamic applications (DAST)
Interactive Testing of Application Security (IAST)
Analysis of Software Components (SCA)
Analysis of Static Code
Checking for weaknesses
Monitoring & Logging

Effective monitoring systems give businesses helpful information that lets them see what’s going on with every part of the application. Monitoring increases availability by reducing the number of essential metrics measured in time. There are several types of tracking in general:

Infrastructure monitoring
Monitoring the network
Keeping an eye on applications

And while the tech stack for each project can be different, here are some examples of popular tools that are often used.

Release management

Managing the software’s development, testing, deployment, and support is part of the release management process. The goals and long-term strategic planning include the tactical steps to help reach those goals.

Here are some good things about this method:

Gives the development process a clear path from the first changes to production.
Lets users make workflows that lead to structured releases.
Enables parallel development.
Improves the way developers work without adding any extra work.
Lets release cycles go faster

4. Not checking the experts’ tech stack

You might need DevOps experts who are good at different things. It depends a lot on what your business needs, what your project needs, and what your KPIs are. But make sure that the engineers you hire have experience in the core mentioned above areas and have worked with the tools that will be used on your project or have worked with them before.

5. Not choosing a vendor with a track record of success to outsource DevOps projects

A reliable company should have a history of completing projects successfully and a wide range of skills with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), technologies, and tools.

Find offers various DevOps outsourcing services, such as moving from on-premise to the cloud, from the cloud to the cloud, setting up infrastructure, and more.

The next step is to sign a contract and get started. After talking with the client, both sides make and sign an agreement. The agreement lists the work to be done, the terms, the roles and responsibilities of each party, plans for communication, and support contracts.

After both sides have made formal agreements, DevOps processes can begin. Many DevOps outsourced teams give each client an Account Manager to ensure they get good service and can talk to each other easily.

Why Should You Choose to Outsource DevOps?

Managers might think that in-house DevOps teams can work together more closely and finish projects more quickly. But that’s not going to happen because of many things.

First, if you hired a DevOps team in-house, you would have to set up a place to work and pay for their salaries, equipment, and other staffing needs separately. Since this team will start from scratch, it will have to build all the infrastructures and independently set up all the processes.

At the same time, a DevOps team involved in your internal workflow will likely be distracted by internal tasks. This makes them lose focus and slows down the project.

Also, since this team works in the same environment as the on-site team, they can be affected by the company’s tasks, working conditions, and methods. This makes it harder for them to adopt a DevOps approach fully.

Lastly, since everyone on the team is involved in the development process, it’s hard for them to keep an objective view, which hurts the quality.

On the other hand, businesses can benefit from outsourcing DevOps services to a reliable provider. An outsourced DevOps team with a lot of experience has worked on many projects. This makes them better able to deal with problems and situations they didn’t expect.

Looking for outsourcing DevOps services in USA?

By outsourcing DevOps services, you can tap into a pool of tech talent that is much larger than the one in your area. You can also speed up delivery and get better results. But the success of DevOps outsourcing depends on how knowledgeable, skilled, and experienced the company you choose to work with is. So, if you want to outsource DevOps services, look for a trustworthy vendor and use the tips above. They will help your outsourcing process go smoothly and without problems.

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