Role of DevOps and Automation in the Software-Defined Network

This article by Ray Parker, Senior Marketing Consultant at Kualitatem a software testing firm discusses how DevOps and CI/CD approaches ensure better quality and faster time to market for software development, and its role in enabling a business to respond to current and evolving market needs in an agile way.

DevOps revolves around streamlining and automating the entire software development lifecycle. For many enterprises, a successful DevOps strategyOpens a new window consists of agile practices such as Continuous Integration (CI). When following a CI approach, a developer checks code inside a shared repository repeatedly. An automated build verifies each check-in, which allows teams to detect errors as early as possible. QA teamOpens a new window s implement automation frameworks and utilize CI/CD tools, such as Jenkins. Jenkins is a popular tool that is used to build, test, and deploy apps automatically whenever there are changes in the user requirements. This speeds up the release process.

Faster Releases and Frequent Software Delivery DevOps supports the collaboration between IT experts and developers to rapidly develop, test, and release software applicationsOpens a new window . The main aim here is to establish a culture where software delivery can occur frequently, with the help of automation wherever possible and test code to distribute across multiple servers.

Role of DevOps in a Network DevOps aims to allow teams to build better, and faster than ever before. This approach ensures that software development and operations teams work in collaboration with each other and remain on the same page. DevOpsOpens a new window is not merely a suite of tools that would just add some magic to a project. It is a cultural change that connects the Dev and Ops so that there are shorter and faster delivery cycles. It allows a business to respond to the current needs in an agile way to meet the changing and evolving business requirements. It follows a continuous approach to optimize workflow, architecture, and infrastructure to deliver high-quality software applications.

A network is responsible for providing the appropriate resources for DevOps apps and also plays a crucial part in securing and managing these apps. The agility and changing requirements of companies pose challenges to the capabilities of traditional networks. There are too many moving parts for manual networking, so network automation is important.

Learn More: The DevOps Checklist: 5 Steps of a Feature LaunchOpens a new window

Test Management Tools

QA teams, nowadays, consisting of developers, testers, QA managers, and other important stakeholders working on a project. KualiteeOpens a new window is a test management tool that supports both DevOps and automation. It offers integration with DevOps tools like Jenkins, GitLab, Bitbucket, etc. that boosts your DevOps process. Jenkins is a leading open-source automation server that supports building, deploying, and automating a project. And for automation Kualitee offers integration with Selenium.

It minimizes the human intervention and its automation capabilities ensure error probability, by simply using input-driven scripts in a Selenium supported environment. Testing teams use these tools to manage test case execution efficiently, and once they get positive test results, they push them into the post-production stage.

Leading IT companies adopt DevOps to accelerate application development and reduce costs. In DevOps technology, the development process requires rapid provisioning, scalable resources, and automated operations. The challenge is that the traditional ways of networking cannot meet the complexity of distribution apps including IoT devices.

Learn More: DevOps Trends 2020- 5 Best Predictions Of The YearOpens a new window

The Right Blend of DevOps and Automation

Most of the DevOps projects aim at automating as many manual processes as possible. There are a few hurdles when following the DevOps methodologyOpens a new window that cause slow deployment including the manual processes where the development team seeks some sort of approval from a QA manager or executive. These situations mean that an entire team does not have the sense of ownership of their product. This is contrary to the agile testing methodology that says all members of a cross-functional team are equally responsible for software quality. A DevOps model ensures that testing is done continuously, early, and often.

Conclusion

Since the DevOps approach is used to ensure speed and quality, QA testing is a crucial part of a DevOps pipeline. With the help of the right test management tool, agile teams work collaboratively in various areas of testing including automation testingOpens a new window and providing infrastructure to support automation for deployment. Modern QA teams can also integrate with other tools offering project management, issue tracking and automated tools to support DevOps and agile environments. The test management toolsOpens a new window allow today’s enterprises to keep pace with DevOps and automation demands, which ensures rapid and reliable software delivery.

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