DevOps spurs automation that better response to the ever-changing needs of financial services customers
When you hear the term DevOps, it’s most often attributed to cutting-edge companies or massive cloud providers like Amazon or Google. Rarely do you hear financial services companies being praised for their work in this arena?
The reality, however, is that financial companies have come quite far in terms of leveraging the power of DevOps technology – using it to ensure their systems and infrastructure are properly positioned to meet the needs of customers and compliance standards.
What is DevOps?
If you’re new to DevOps, it’s important to understand the concept before we dive into the variety of ways that financial organizations are utilizing it.
DevOps is a combination of processes and philosophies that are focused on helping an organization deliver software faster than organizations that are still employing traditional development and infrastructure management procedures. Organizations that utilize DevOps are able to better and more quickly meet their deployment needs – as well as those of their customers.
How the DevOps process works
Prior to the introduction of DevOps, most companies had completely separate development and operations teams. DevOps allows these two departments to be integrated into a single team in which engineers and operations members work together to develop software, quality control it, and ultimately deploy it.
How financial organizations are leveraging the power of DevOps
While financial services companies were once looked at as virtual dinosaurs in terms of adopting new technology, this is now far from the case. Financial organizations must adhere to strict regulatory standards, which makes the implementation of DevOps processes to create compliant software much more important.
Below are just a few of the ways that financial companies can benefit from DevOps:
Break down silos
Financial organizations are by their nature extremely distributed. You often have different branches located around the country, if not around the world, as well as different departments located in different geographical locations.
Historically, employees within each of these silos worked hard on their duties but often didn’t have much exposure to other areas of the company. This prevented visibility across an entire organization, which can create a scenario where various departments or locations are working on misaligned goals – including routine operations as well as the specific development of new products and services.
With DevOps, organizations can adopt a variety of tools and processes that are infinitely scalable across distributed geographical locations. This helps to break down silos between departments and locations – and ensures that everyone is always up to speed on where a feature or a software version stands in the development pipeline.
Automation allows for faster software release windows
One of the most important components of DevOps is the use of automation. Thanks to a variety of cloud-based tools that help to automate everything from testing to deployment, organizations can not only improve efficiencies but also improve the speed with which they can test and release software. Automation allows organizations to rely on tools rather than individuals to perform key, repeatable processes within the development pipeline.
DevOps is a culture
For DevOps to work across an organization, key decision makers need to all be fully supportive of the seismic shift from traditional software development practices. Transitioning to DevOps is a journey, not a sprint – and it’s critical that leaders within an organization look at the long-term benefits of migrating to this architecture … especially if there are any bumps in the road along the way.
Ready to transform your financial services company with DevOps?
If you’ve heard of the benefits of DevOps but aren’t sure how it can help your financial services organization, reach out to the DevOps experts at CloudHesive. We have a team of thought leaders who can help you better understand how to leverage it – helping your organization develop new tools while still meeting any regulatory or compliance requirements. Call us today at 800-860-2040 or reach out through our online contact form.
