The experts make their predictions on 2020’s DevOps trends

Source:-devopsonline.co.uk

2019 has been the year of pushing different words in-between the word DevOps (DevSecOps, for example), the year of integrating different types of tech into DevOps and the year of teams outside of IT seeing the value of this way of working. So, what will 2020 hold? The experts give their predictions:

Embedded video in connected devices will take security threats to another level
As IoT continues to grow, Malcolm Murphy, Technical Director, EMEA at Infoblox, believes that the place that it will have the most impact will be in video cameras.

“I strongly suspect that video cameras in IoT connected devices, such as video doorbells and embedded cameras in smart speakers, will be the next big threat to the network due to the richer information sets they hold. Since these devices are collecting more and more data, they are becoming increasingly interesting targets for hackers, so that data is at a higher risk of being compromised. Despite this risk, security is still not being prioritised by manufacturers in the design of smart products, so until this is addressed, we’ll continue to see breach levels rise.”

IT will find ways to keep citizen developers in line
Low-code is most certainly on the rise. Jennifer Gill, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Pegasystems predicts that it will soon be used to keep citizens in order.

“Low-code platforms have been touted for their ease of use so business professionals can develop their own applications. But without ITs involvement, applications can go rogue and cause governance, maintenance, and usability issues. To ensure citizen developers don’t go too far astray, IT departments will utilize low-code platforms with templates to keep business users within the guardrails of corporate governance. This way business users still have the power to create software but with best practices in mind.”

Automotive OEMs will pair with tech that will help with integration
John Phillips, MD of EMEA Zuora says that as MaaS becomes more popular, customers will need to become the focus.

“In 2020, we will see automotive OEMs use this knowledge and pair it with technology that will help them integrate their services with other suppliers both inside and outside of the auto supply chain in order to realise the full potential of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS).”

“The true winners in MaaS will place customer relationships at the centre of their businesses. By analysing rich customer data, providers have the opportunity to iterate their offerings and tailor their services to meet unique subscriber needs and ultimately build long-lasting relationships. At the end of the day, putting subscriber preferences and interests first will enable long-term scale.”

DevOps teams can establish a smarter, more agile culture through open standards
The Open Group predicts that IT and DevOps teams will play a fuller role in most types of business. They say:

“Looking ahead, DevOps teams should strive to be as agile as possible across changing scenarios related to the management of product delivery. Open standards, including information models such as the IT4IT Reference Architecture, can provide a framework for agile development, helping to enable the standardisation of components and interfaces, and allowing teams to seamlessly interchange information on product delivery and use without disrupting the entire value chain. This also ensures that teams are able to establish traceability and accountability, making sure that all artefacts and information consistently flow through the IT pipeline.”

“With the rapid re-orientation of many businesses to digital delivery of products and services, legacy IT management techniques are struggling to keep up. So this is why relying on open standards will be key for ensuring consistency and flexibility in DevOps – leading to improved business outcomes overall.”

A growing DevOps community
Mark Levy, director of strategy, software delivery, Micro Focus, looks at why DevOps collaboration between the business and IT will take centre -stage starting in 2020.

“In 2020, there will be a greater focus on connecting portfolio/product management with the other practices of DevOps. The business needs “fast feedback” as well. Fast feedback should not only be in the boundaries of Dev and Ops but encompass the entire value chain. With the backdrop of a cloudy economic climate, delivering something fast is only effective if it’s something of value. In 2020, DevOps starts to move up the value stream to provide better alignment with the business.”

DevOps will settle down
Contradicting the previous point, Edge Testing suggests that despite this year’s hype, DevOps will become the norm.

“The hysteria of stating that testers are no longer required due to the introduction of the DevOps methodology has been more or less put to bed. DevOps will go the same way as agile in that it will become a ‘so what’ topic. Agile is now a fully matured methodology with the majority of testers having some exposure which they can put on their CVs. DevOps will follow this route.”

“Although we will continue to see one new tool or another being launched weekly to bolt onto the DevOps tool suite, the main set of tools are maturing nicely and the skill sets to support these in the industry are growing.”

CISO will play a bigger role in DevOps
Malcolm Isaacs, head of ADM solutions marketing, Micro Focus, explores how the CISO will be part of the DevOps team, influencing a holistic approach to security within DevOps pipelines.

“Just as DevOps strives to deliver value quickly to the customer, it has the potential to unintentionally introduce security vulnerabilities quickly as well. This has spurred DevOps teams to embed security testing in the DevOps pipeline, increasing the sense of shared responsibility for security. Over the course of 2020, any remaining barriers between CISO staff and DevOps teams will be broken down, with CISO staff becoming full-fledged members of the DevOps team. Security will no longer be a bolt-on activity, and will become a standard component of any DevOps pipeline.”

Open Source will once again be in peril – from a new source
Perry Krug, Architect, Office of the CTO, Couchbase believes that Open Source will have to adapt to stay in the game.

“In 2020, vendors will have to realise that the Open Source game has changed. If they still want to meet their Open Source goals, clever licensing approaches will not be enough. They must instead see themselves as service providers, from management to support and other value-adds, in order to ensure that they can offer something that others cannot. The business model is to innovate — where cloud providers won’t — and to provide better and more differentiated service not just differentiated software.”

No-Ops will die
New Relic’s prediction is that firms need to shed No-Ops if they want to progress.

“Next year, more organisations will start to ditch the notion of “No-Ops” and recognise value in their Ops team members. Companies will always need Ops people, but as technology and automation processes mature, Ops professionals will be able to work on higher-quality problems. At New Relic, we have DevOps with SREs embedded in the product teams AND also have Site Reliability Champions who focus on removing friction for developers, long term scalability, and meeting with software architects to discuss reliability from the beginning of building a service or feature.”

Disruptors will take the driving seat
Those who take the initiative and think two steps ahead will be taking the lead, believes David Parry-Jones, VP EMEA, Twilio.

“With the advent of APIs and cloud-based communications platforms, customers can now be easily reached across a multitude of different channels according to their preference, and call-time vastly reduced through the application of AI, so in 2020 more organisations should begin to ask – why can’t we do this too? And can we really afford not to?”

“Customers are at the heart of business success, and in 2020 it’ll be vital that businesses apply the lessons we’ve learnt from disruptors more widely.”

Money will be made from trading info
Selling information to third-parties using the Data-as-a-Service approach will become a growing source of revenue for firms says Alberto Pan, Chief Technical Officer, Denodo .

“In the new year, since many big companies will now own high-value, unique data and services, the next logical step is reusing this infrastructure in order to offer them to third-parties. For instance, we are already seeing telecommunications companies selling customers geolocation data for a variety of purposes. This trend will be significantly accentuated during 2020 in all major industries.”

“From the investment standpoint, this will involve higher demand for the technologies involved in creating and exposing data as a service, like GraphQL, Data Virtualization and/or API management tools.”

IT will be the “cool kids” again
CEO Brian Kelly at CloudBolt suggests that DevOps will be at the top of its game.

“The IT community (not the obvious powerplayers) will determine the winners of the go-to tools for managing hybrid cloud infrastructures, as they seek extensible, easy-to-deploy, cloud-native solutions.”