DataOps & DevOps

According to research and advisory firm 451 Research, companies around the world are planning significant investments in the DataOps space. These and other key findings emerge from a new study, "DataOps Lays the Foundations for Agility, Security and Transformational Change," which looks at digital transformation strategies for 2019.

In the survey, 86 percent of respondents said they would increase their investments in DataOps strategies and platforms within the next twelve months. 92 percent expect DataOps technology to have a sustained positive impact on their company's business success.

DevOps describes a coordinated approach and set of methodologies that unites disparate resources from business, development, testing, deployment and operations into a team that develops, operates and modernizes solutions together and with each other.

"DevOps is not so much about new tools, but rather about a new look at established ways of doing things and about new processes. DevOps clearly requires a change in IT culture."

says Matthias Zacher, Manager Research and Consulting at IDC and project leader of the DevOps study.

"This is a major challenge, especially for IT organizations with their often rigid and structured approaches."

Old process structures and procedural instructions, as well as outdated organizational structures and workflows, slow down the demands of business departments for agility, speed and flexibility in software provision.

This entails considerable risks for competitiveness. The reasons are manifold: For one thing, many organizations still have inadequate knowledge of what DevOps actually is and what DevOps can do. So there is simply a lack of know-how.

Numerous companies have understood the concept, but shy away from the far-reaching changes that DevOps entails for the application development-testing-deployment-operation process chain.

Matt Aslett, Research Vice President, Data, AI and Analytics at 451 Research, describes the other side of X-Ops: DataOps as "the coordination of people, processes and technologies to drive agile and automated approaches to enterprise data management to achieve business goals.

The goal is to facilitate access to enterprise data to meet the needs of stakeholders involved in the data supply chain of developers, data scientists, business analysts, DevOps experts, etc., and support a wide range of use cases."

The 451 study shows that the executives surveyed are relying on DataOps strategies to overcome these challenges and stay ahead of the competition.

The results show that global organizations expect DataOps to help solve compliance and regulatory challenges, accelerate critical digital transformation initiatives, and increase their competitive advantage in today's digital economy.

"Making data secure and accessible at the same time is proving to be the biggest hurdle in the digital age"

Ashvin Parma, vice president at Capgemini, said.

"We agree that many companies across a wide range of industries can overcome data-related challenges with a DataOps approach, at a pace that is competitive."

The X-Ops advantage of DevOps comes into play especially when IT and business have clearly defined their goals. When asked about their motivation, 46 percent said they wanted to increase developer productivity.

For 43 percent, the focus is on high quality and consistency in software development, and for 41 percent, faster deployment of applications. However, these plans can only be implemented if developers and administrators pull together.

The fact that this does not always work without friction is often due to a lack of understanding of the requirements and working methods of the other IT area. IT is not an end in itself, but part of the value chain of companies.

And this is exactly where DevOps comes in. Stronger communication and collaboration helps to understand the concerns of the other party and to formulate common goals.

From IDC's point of view, the business units should also always be involved, because they are ultimately the internal customers of IT and thus part of the value chain and in turn contribute to business success with business innovations and agility.

In the 451 surveys, compliance and security emerged as particular areas of focus, with nearly three-quarters of respondents citing these as the most important benefits of DataOps.

Attendees expect that new DataOps technologies can bridge the gap between the pressure to innovate on the one hand and the requirements imposed by the GDPR, CCPA or other data protection regulations on the other.

Aslett and his team conclude that DataOps must be an integral part of a modern data strategy. If companies want to create business value through the development and delivery of data-driven applications or decision making, more agile and automated approaches to database provisioning and data management are needed.

"Every company today is a data company. The ability to keep up with ever-changing customer demands is key to surviving in the marketplace"

Chris Cook, CEO of Delphix, explains.

"We're seeing increasing demand for DataOps platforms from some of the world's largest companies to ensure data is delivered quickly and securely to drive continued innovation and success in the digital economy."

As DataOps matures, companies will be able to reap additional benefits. These come from the ability of their development teams to avoid frictional losses in data transfer and achieve the agility for innovation demanded by the digital economy.

With modern software-defined infrastructures, PaaS, hybrid solutions, deployment and distribution tools such as cloud and containers, as well as tools for DevOps, developers, testers and administrators have a complex set of technology that must be integrated into the processes as part of a holistic approach.

The DevOps toolkit includes collaboration, requirements, source code management, built, CI/CD, testing, delivery and orchestration, deployment, operations, and security.

The stated goal of DevOps is higher automation. However, less than a quarter of respondents currently have process automation that covers more than 50 percent of the build, test and deploy pipeline processes.

As a result, most companies have currently only automated partial processes. IDC recommends closing the gaps in process automation step by step, because only holistic DevOps processes lead to the desired success.

DataOps and DevOps require a departure from previous approaches. In this context, X-Ops technologies should never be understood as an end in themselves, but rather as a response to the fundamentally changing technological and business environment.

Change management toward DevOps should therefore be evolution rather than revolution, according to IDC recommendations. A radical change in thinking is required, in the sense that all those involved in the process are equally responsible for success or failure. The potential of X-Ops is enormous and can only be leveraged by all stakeholders working together.