DevOps adoption lagging, MSPs can step in

Source – channelnomics.com

DevOps adoption is still at a crawl, pointing to space for MSPs to step in and provide high-value service, according to research solution provider 2nd Watch released this week.

A survey of over 1,000 IT managers and directors in companies with at least 1,000 workers by Seattle, WA-based MSP 2nd Watch this week points to the vast majority of organizations not gearing up for DevOps practices.

DevOps, as 2nd Watch defines it, is the practice of operations and development engineers working together within a common service lifecycle, from application design through development and into production and support. It includes, but is not limited to, tools and methodologies that development and operations teams use.

Contrastingly, the survey found that 78 percent of participants have separate teams managing infrastructure/operations and application development. 2nd Watch noted that some were using infrastructure-as-code tools, automation or CI/CD pipelines, but said these techniques alone do not define DevOps.

When asked how their infrastructure is deployed and managed, almost 60 percent pointed to using infrastructure-as-code tools, like Kubernetes, Terraform and configuration management.

Meanwhile, 38 percent reported managing infrastructure manually, which, 2nd Watch said, “means not only are they not practicing DevOps, they aren’t managing infrastructure in a way that will ever be compatible with DevOps”.

In a statement, Jeff Aden, EVP at 2nd Watch, said the results point to the 80/20 rule being applicable to the market, with just over 20 percent of respondents truly leveraging DevOps.

In an interview with Channelnomics, the executive pointed to the opportunity for MSPs to step in and drive adoption, while also adding to the value they offer customers, but noted many MSPs would have to work to be able to offer these capabilities.

“It is a big opportunity for MSPs to provide a higher level of service and a value-add for clients. However, many traditional MSPs are not equipped or structured to provide these services to clients who are moving to the cloud because of old operating models and lack of skills,” Aden said.

“In the old world, MSPs would have subject matter experts, like networking, databases, storage, compute, et cetera and teams that operate in silos. In the new world, DevOps requires an understanding across technology stack and teams that are highly integrated.”

On a positive note, 2nd Watch’s survey points to nearly 75 percent of organizations doing some form of consistent testing when writing tests for testing code. This approach would be beneficial to a DevOps practice, 2nd Watch noted.

The research also finds that 70 percent are using some form of an automated pipeline for application code deployment and management. 2nd Watch said this is a good sign for companies wanting to embrace DevOps, while the other 30 percent will have to build out automation around testing, building and deploying code.