DevOps as a Service

Yes, one of the main advantages of working with GlobalDots is that we have relationships with multiple vendors per solution category, so our customers can switch between vendors if they would like to. Moreover, we will proactively offer better vendors if we see the value for the customers in terms of features, capabilities or price.

The people working at GlobalDots live and breath technology. We have relationships with all the cool startups and always seeking new vendors with innovative tech to offer to our customer base. We research and explore emerging technologies on a weekly and daily basis, we filter out the noise and focus only on the promising solutions we vetted that will bring the most value to our customers.

Our solutions architects, engineers and DevOps experts have hands-on experience with the solutions we resell and integrate. Our engineers work with you to resolve any issue to your satisfaction, and never leave you hanging. If needed, we’ll be the ones to engage directly with the vendor, so you don’t have to.

DevOps as a Service (DaaS) is a delivery model where a third-party team manages the tools, processes, and infrastructure needed to run DevOps effectively. It allows organizations to adopt DevOps practices—like automation, CI/CD, observability, and infrastructure as code—without building everything from scratch or hiring in-house experts. The external team integrates with your workflows, systems, and repositories to support fast, reliable, and secure software delivery.

In an era where software delivery speed can define a business’s success, DevOps provides a framework to accelerate development while keeping quality high. DevOps is a methodology that brings together software development and IT operations to boost collaboration and productivity. It centers on automating repetitive tasks and smoothing out the software delivery process.

• Automation: DevOps engineers automate repetitive tasks like building, testing, and deploying software. This cuts down on mistakes and makes everything faster. For example, when a developer writes new code, automation tools can test it and push it to production without someone manually stepping in.
• Infrastructure Management: They handle the systems that software runs on, often using “Infrastructure as Code” (IaC). This means they write scripts to set up servers, databases, or even entire cloud environments, ensuring everything is consistent and scalable.
• Monitoring and Troubleshooting: They keep an eye on how applications perform using monitoring tools. If something goes wrong—like a website crashing—they use logs to figure out why and fix it quickly.
• Collaboration: DevOps engineers work closely with developers and operations teams. They help developers make code that’s easy to deploy and ensure operations teams have the infrastructure they need. It’s all about teamwork and shared goals.

• Increase Collaboration: DevOps eliminates the traditional divide between development and operations teams. By promoting shared responsibility, it ensures both groups work together seamlessly to build, test, and deploy software.
• Automate Processes: Automation lies at the core of DevOps. It minimizes manual tasks—such as testing, deployment, and infrastructure management—reducing human error and freeing up time for creative work.
• Speed Up Delivery: Through practices like continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), DevOps accelerates software releases. This allows updates and new features to reach users faster, keeping businesses agile and competitive.
• Improve Quality: DevOps enhances software reliability by automating testing and monitoring. It identifies issues early in the process, lowering the chances of bugs or failures in production.
• Enhance Scalability: With tools like Infrastructure as Code (IaC), DevOps simplifies scaling applications to meet demand. This flexibility is particularly valuable in cloud environments where resources can be adjusted dynamically.
• Boost Security: DevOps incorporates security into the development process (often referred to as DevSecOps). By embedding security checks early and throughout the pipeline, it ensures safer software without slowing down delivery.

In short, the purpose of DevOps is to streamline the journey from code to production, enabling teams to deliver high-quality software quickly and efficiently while minimizing risks and inefficiencies.

1. Continuous Integration (CI)

• What it is: Continuous Integration is the practice of automatically building and testing code whenever a developer commits changes to a shared repository. This ensures that new code integrates seamlessly with the existing codebase.
• Why it matters: CI catches bugs early, reduces integration problems, and speeds up development cycles by encouraging frequent, small updates rather than large, risky merges.
• Example: A developer pushes code to a Git repository, triggering an automated build and test process using tools like Jenkins or GitLab CI/CD. If the tests pass, the code is ready for the next stage.

2. Continuous Delivery (CD)

• What it is: Continuous Delivery extends CI by automatically deploying code changes to production or staging environments after passing tests. It keeps the software in a deployable state at all times.
• Why it matters: CD allows teams to release updates quickly and reliably, minimizing manual deployment errors and enabling rapid delivery of features or fixes to users.
• Example: After passing CI tests, code is automatically deployed to a staging environment for validation. Once approved, it can be released to production with minimal manual effort.

3. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

• What it is: Infrastructure as Code treats infrastructure setup and configuration as code, allowing teams to manage servers, networks, and other resources through scripts or configuration files.
• Why it matters: IaC eliminates manual infrastructure setup, ensuring consistency across environments (e.g., development, testing, production). It simplifies scaling and reduces human error.
• Example: Using tools like Terraform or Ansible, a DevOps engineer writes code to provision cloud resources (e.g., AWS EC2 instances) automatically, aligning infrastructure with application needs.

1. Collaboration

DevOps emphasizes teamwork between development and operations teams, breaking down traditional barriers or “silos.” By fostering shared responsibility and open communication, both teams align their efforts toward common goals—building, testing, and deploying software effectively.

• Why it matters: Collaboration reduces miscommunication, speeds up problem resolution, and ensures that software meets business needs.

2. Automation

Automation is a cornerstone of DevOps, focusing on eliminating manual, repetitive tasks such as testing, deployment, and infrastructure management. Automated processes minimize human error and accelerate workflows.

• Why it matters: Automation ensures consistency, boosts reliability, and allows teams to focus on creative and strategic work rather than routine tasks.

3. Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)

CI/CD is a practice where code changes are frequently integrated, tested, and deployed. Continuous Integration (CI) involves regularly merging and testing code to catch issues early, while Continuous Delivery (CD) ensures the software is always ready for deployment.

• Why it matters: CI/CD shortens feedback cycles, reduces integration problems, and enables rapid, reliable software releases.

4. Monitoring and Feedback

Continuous monitoring of applications and infrastructure allows teams to detect issues early, optimize performance, and adapt to user needs. Feedback loops ensure that insights from operations inform future development efforts.

• Why it matters: Monitoring enhances system reliability, improves user satisfaction, and drives ongoing improvement.

5. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

IaC involves managing infrastructure (e.g., servers, networks) through code rather than manual configuration. This approach ensures consistency across environments and simplifies scaling.

Why it matters: IaC reduces errors, accelerates setup, and makes infrastructure changes repeatable and trackable.

What DevOps Is

DevOps is a set of practices and a cultural philosophy that brings together software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to deliver high-quality software faster and more reliably. It’s about improving how teams work together and streamlining the process of building, deploying, and maintaining applications. Here’s what makes up DevOps:

• Collaboration and Communication: DevOps breaks down barriers between developers and operations teams. Instead of working in isolation, these groups collaborate throughout the software lifecycle, aligning their goals—like releasing updates quickly and keeping systems stable.
• Automation: By automating repetitive tasks such as testing, deployment, and server setup, DevOps reduces errors and speeds up workflows. Tools like Jenkins or GitLab CI/CD are often used to make this happen.
• Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD): Developers frequently integrate their code changes into a shared repository, where automated tests verify them. This leads to continuous delivery, meaning software is always ready to be deployed—sometimes multiple times a day.
• Monitoring and Feedback: Teams keep a close eye on applications and infrastructure using monitoring tools. This helps them spot problems early, improve performance, and use real-world feedback to guide future updates.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Instead of manually configuring servers, DevOps treats infrastructure like code. Tools like Terraform let teams define and manage resources consistently, making scaling easier.

In short, DevOps is about creating a culture of shared responsibility, using automation to work smarter, and delivering software that meets user needs quickly and reliably.

What DevOps Is Not

Despite its popularity, DevOps is often mischaracterized. Here’s what it’s not to clear up the confusion:

• Not Just a Tool or Technology: DevOps isn’t defined by tools like Docker or Kubernetes. While these tools help, DevOps is a broader methodology. Using an automation tool doesn’t automatically mean you’re “doing DevOps”—it’s about how you use it to foster teamwork and efficiency.
• Not a Job Title or Role: You might see “DevOps Engineer” on a job board, but DevOps isn’t a single person’s responsibility. It’s a team effort, not a standalone position or department. Everyone—developers, operations staff, and beyond—plays a part.
• Not a Magic Fix: DevOps won’t instantly solve every problem. It’s not a plug-and-play solution; it takes time, effort, and a willingness to change how teams operate. Without addressing issues like poor communication, it won’t work.
• Not a Substitute for Good Practices: Speeding up delivery doesn’t mean skipping the basics. DevOps builds on solid development habits—like writing clean code and thorough testing—not replacing them.
• Not About Eliminating Operations: DevOps doesn’t push all operations tasks onto developers or make ops teams obsolete. Instead, it encourages both sides to work together, with operations providing the tools and support developers need.

DevOps engineers are essential in modern software development, ensuring seamless integration between development and operations teams. Their primary responsibilities include:

• Automation: They set up and maintain Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to automate testing, building, and deployment processes, reducing manual errors and speeding up releases.
• Infrastructure Management: Using tools like Terraform or Ansible, they manage infrastructure as code (IaC), ensuring environments are consistent, scalable, and easily replicable.
• Monitoring and Troubleshooting: DevOps professionals implement monitoring solutions (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana) to detect issues early and troubleshoot problems in production, enhancing system reliability.
• Collaboration: They work closely with developers to understand application needs and with operations teams to ensure smooth deployments, promoting shared responsibility.
• Security: By integrating security practices into the development lifecycle (often called DevSecOps), they help build secure applications from the start.

In short, DevOps professionals act as the glue between teams, enabling faster software delivery while maintaining high quality and reliability.

• Attend stand-up meetings to discuss progress, roadblocks, and priorities with development and operations teams.
• Monitor system performance and application health using tools like Prometheus or Grafana to ensure everything runs smoothly.
• Review and merge code changes in version control systems like Git, ensuring updates integrate seamlessly.
• Update and maintain automation scripts for CI/CD pipelines to improve efficiency and reliability.
• Respond to incidents or alerts from monitoring systems, troubleshooting and resolving issues quickly.
• Plan and implement improvements to development and deployment processes, such as adopting new tools or refining workflows.

DevOps is fundamentally a methodology and cultural approach rather than a set of distinct “types.” However, within the DevOps domain, there are specialized roles that focus on different aspects of the software development lifecycle. Some common roles include:

• DevOps Engineer: Focuses on implementing DevOps practices like automation, CI/CD, and infrastructure management.
• Site Reliability Engineer (SRE): Prioritizes system reliability, performance, and scalability, often using software engineering to solve operational challenges.
• Release Manager: Oversees the release process, ensuring software updates are deployed smoothly and on schedule.

No, DevOps is not only for the cloud. DevOps is a methodology focused on improving collaboration, automation, and efficiency in software development and IT operations, and it can be applied to any environment—whether on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid of both.

In ServiceNow, DevOps is a framework that combines cultural principles, collaboration, and automation tools to align software development and IT operations teams. Its core purpose is to streamline and enhance the software development lifecycle by reducing friction between these groups, enabling faster and more reliable delivery of software updates. ServiceNow DevOps is tailored for enterprise-scale environments, offering a structured approach to integrate development and operations seamlessly.

Key features of DevOps in ServiceNow include:

• Collaboration and Connectivity: It integrates development teams with the ServiceNow platform while allowing them to continue using their preferred tools. This connectivity fosters collaboration by linking operations and development workflows, improving visibility and traceability across existing toolchains.
• Automation: ServiceNow automates essential processes like change creation and approvals, speeding up the delivery of innovations to meet business demands efficiently.
• Visibility: By consolidating data from DevOps toolchains, it provides a unified view of application and infrastructure changes, helping teams monitor progress and address issues promptly.
• Scalability: Designed for large organizations, ServiceNow DevOps simplifies and scales DevOps practices, minimizing risks associated with rapid software releases.

DevOps as a Service (DaaS) is a delivery model that provides a suite of integrated tools and services to support collaboration between software development and operations teams. Typically cloud-based or managed by third-party providers, DaaS solutions cover the full software development lifecycle—from planning and coding to testing, deployment, and monitoring—allowing teams to focus on creating software rather than managing infrastructure.

Here are some prominent examples of DevOps as a Service:

• Cloud Provider Services:
  • AWS DevOps Tools: Amazon Web Services offers tools like AWS CodePipeline for continuous delivery, AWS CodeBuild for continuous integration, and AWS CodeDeploy for automated deployments. These services enable teams to build and manage DevOps pipelines in the cloud.
  • Microsoft Azure DevOps: Azure provides a robust suite, including Azure Boards for planning, Azure Pipelines for continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), and Azure Repos for version control, offering an all-in-one DevOps solution.
  • Google Cloud DevOps: Google Cloud includes tools such as Cloud Build for CI/CD and Cloud Deploy for deployment management, helping teams automate and optimize their workflows.

Azure Monitor is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering from Microsoft Azure. It provides a managed platform for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing telemetry data from applications and infrastructure. Users configure and customize it to meet their monitoring needs, but Microsoft handles the underlying infrastructure, making it a PaaS solution rather than a fully hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) product.

An example of Platform as a Service (PaaS) is Google App Engine. It provides a platform for developers to build, deploy, and scale applications without managing the underlying servers, operating systems, or runtime environments. Google handles the infrastructure, letting teams focus on coding and deployment.

The main difference between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and PaaS lies in the level of control and management:

• IaaS (e.g., AWS EC2) delivers raw computing resources like virtual machines, storage, and networks. Users manage the operating systems, software, and applications themselves.
• PaaS (e.g., Google App Engine) builds on IaaS by adding a managed platform, including runtime environments and tools, so users focus on development while the provider handles infrastructure and system maintenance.

In short, IaaS offers more flexibility but requires more management, while PaaS simplifies development by abstracting infrastructure details.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is considered a service. It delivers fully managed software applications over the internet, accessible via subscription. Users don’t own the software as a product; instead, they pay for access to it, with the provider handling maintenance, updates, and infrastructure (e.g., Gmail or Salesforce).

No, PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS are not the same. PaaS provides a platform for developers to build, deploy, and manage custom applications, while SaaS delivers ready-to-use software applications to end users. They serve different purposes within cloud computing.

• PaaS: A cloud model offering a development platform, including tools, runtime environments, and infrastructure (e.g., Google App Engine). Users build and customize applications, while the provider manages the underlying systems.
• SaaS: A cloud model providing fully functional software applications over the internet (e.g., Microsoft 365). Users access the software as-is, with no need to manage development or infrastructure.

Key Difference: PaaS is for creating applications; SaaS is for using pre-built applications.