Defining DevOps as a Service And IaC Orchestration In 2023

› Defining DevOps as a Service And IaC Orchestration In 2023

This post is intended for a beginner to intermediate-level audience (or any level of DevOps enthusiast!)

We’re a DevOps as a service company, so we see a lot of definitions of the terms we use every day, like IaC, orchestration, etc.

Technology definitions are like restaurants—everybody has their favorite one. But when we see a succinct definition, we like to share it. The technology information purveyors at TechTarget shared a good one for IaC in a recent article:

Infrastructure as code, or IaC, uses automated control scripts to configure, manage and monitor software infrastructure. The scripts are stored in a software code repository, like Git. Automated processes check out the scripts and execute them to create an entire application infrastructure efficiently without manual intervention.

We’re going to take that definition and build a DaaS foundation on it to help elucidate our clients, and soon-to-be clients, in the DevOps ecosystem. Obtw, at the risk of being captain obvious, when we use DaaS, we always mean DevOps as a Service, not Desktop as a Service.

Here’s what you’ll learn about the nature of DaaS, orchestration, and IaC:

What does DevOps as a Service look like in 2023? (Hint: it’s orchestrated)
What is DevOps Orchestration (125 words or less)?
How does all of this affect DaaS in 2023?

You probably noticed by the subheads that we like to keep our posts short and sweet. So let’s get started.

What does DevOps as a Service look like in 2023? (Hint: it’s orchestrated)

As DevOps as a Service evolves into GitOps or No Ops, or wherever it may end up (we’ll leave that to the Gartners of the world), one thing is certain—automation and process orchestration will continue to evolve and mature along the way.

In a previous post, we gave our definition of DaaS orchestration.

In a nutshell, DevOps as a Service should orchestrate numerous automated processes, services, infrastructures, workflows, and tools. The goal is to enable software development teams to deploy high-quality releases in the shortest amount of time.

That was less than a month ago, so it should still be valid! Our DaaS strategy is simple and to the point—If it’s not automated, it’s not DevOps.

With IaC, teams will have to make the cultural shift toward automation and orchestration as well as the technological shift. This means no manual changes to the environment or IaC, and all code and configuration changes need to run through the defined integration and deployment processes, with the repo as the single source of truth.

And Orchestration?

So what is DevOps orchestration (125 words or less)?

What exactly is orchestration in AWS? As the word implies, it’s the coordination and integration of automated tasks and processes.

Automation refers to creating individual machine-readable and executable tasks, like building an EC2 with a predefined amount of storage, CPU, and memory or deploying microservices, like Lambda, from IaC config files.

In contrast, orchestration encompasses the integration and execution of multiple automated tasks. These tasks might include creating the EC2, adding it to a network, deploying application code, adding it to an IAM user group with permissions, connecting it to a data source, etc.

Consider a typical example of DevOps and IaC orchestration, like pointing APIs to declarative configuration files in the repository to manage your dev infrastructure. If the IaC passes the automated CI tests, it’s fully integrated and deployable in your application development framework.

In a nutshell, DaaS orchestration is the seamless integration of individual automated tasks and processes to create, manage, automate, and monitor your development and deployment infrastructure—including compute, storage, network, applications, services, and users.

Our motto is:

“If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old (in five minutes or less), then you don’t understand it yourself.” – Albert Einstein

We know there are no six-year-olds reading this post, but we hope this helped.

How does all of this affect DaaS in 2023, and where can you go for more info?

That’s the easy part, you’re already here, now you just need to book a 30-minute call.

We’re here to help you get where you need to be tomorrow with DevOps orchestration today.

If you’ve been without a DevOps team for more than a month, your competition has established a competitive edge over you. And it will get harder to close that gap as more time passes.

We can provide temporary managed DevOps services while you look for an FTE if that’s your goal. The important thing is for you to take action today.

Do you have questions about DaaS? Book a 30-minute call.

Or just call us today at 303.949.6038.