Adopting a full, end-to-end DevOps platform eases strain on IT, and that is particularly important in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Since there’s generally only a handful of IT professionals – at most – working in an SMB, they’re often trying to keep their heads above water. They’re constantly in motion, moving between keeping often less than top-of-the-line systems running, acting as the user help desk, and ensuring company data is safe. They’re not only wearing multiple hats, they’re putting out one fire after another.
Working under that kind of constant pressure leaves little time and focus for developing and deploying new software, which most every SMB needs to entice new customers, build the brand, and bring in revenue. Relieving that stress and enabling these tiny IT teams to succeed in creating great software products is about survival. And IT survival is about adopting a DevOps platform.
Relying on a full DevOps platform empowers IT professionals and enables them to eliminate wasted time and energy so they can focus on being a business driver. There are many parts of an end-to-end DevOps platform that lead to increased efficiency and decreased pressure on the IT team:
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Automate processes – from testing to performance management and monitoring – to enable IT to be hands off with repetitive and often time-consuming tasks and eliminate the potential for human error that can use up a lot of time and money.
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More quickly and efficiently turn a vision into software.
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Foster collaboration with people across departments to brainstorm design ideas and more efficiently make iterative deployments.
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Produce more stable and secure software that won’t need last-minute fixes or code re-writes.
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Focus on delivering software instead of managing toolchains.
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Stop switching back and forth between multiple tool interfaces, passwords, and ways of working.
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Gain an overarching view of the entire development and deployment lifecycle.
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Keep track of and easily access best practices to use in new projects by taking advantage of continuous documentation in the platform.
Like anyone, IT professionals don’t perform best when they’re in a constant reactive state. Sure, many SMBs have started to use various DevOps tools to relieve the stress on IT, but if they haven’t adopted a single platform, then they’re simply creating more expense and more work for their already overburdened IT staff. That’s because by cobbling together a mishmash of disparate tools, they’re inadvertently creating an unwieldy toolchain that slows down deployment and the business it fuels.
Moving to a full DevOps platform means shedding that costly and complex toolchain, speeding the transition of business vision into working software, and cutting the workload weighing down IT.
And relieving that workload also is about keeping employees happy and less stressed. The greatest resource a company has is its people. This is even more true for small companies where the pain of employee dissatisfaction and departure is felt even more acutely. Managers also don’t want projects waylaid because the people driving them are leaving. To stop that from happening, it’s critical to help people get their work done efficiently and more easily, which also reduces their stress and makes them happier.
An end-to-end platform isn’t just another tool. It’s a whole new way of working that can diminish the often chaotic environment that can surround IT. An SMB’s IT people will still wear many different hats but developing and deploying new software and iterations will be easier, more efficient, and less taxing.
