Technology penetration is transforming every sector globally, and the government is no exception.
Many governments are already using DevOps solutions to meet changing needs and as part of smart governance. However, they have yet to reach their full potential.
The US Government is now facing a similar scenario, awaiting more in depth technology up gradation to serve public needs during the COVID19 crisis.
Federal agencies are seeing this demand given two critical factors: security challenges arising out of remote working culture and a breakeven point for their existing tech infrastructure due to overloaded traffic.
DevOps And DevSecOps Come As Savior!
With more users connecting to the virtual environment during the COVID19 crisis, government networks need continuous patches and security updates to function effectively.
‘DevOps’ and its security addition ‘DevSecOps’ can be the immediate solution for government agencies.
The Air Force could achieve stability through DevOps agile practices by releasing at least 10 to 30 daily updates. Other government agencies are also looking for scalable technologies and tools to support their missions.
Together, DevOps CI/CD mechanism and DevSecOps together ensure higher productivity, seamless delivery, and service continuity in a secure environment. DevOps tools help achieve continuity in security, operations, and maintenance in a distributed workforce environment.
Around this scenario in the COVID 19 crisis, the government must opt for external solutions in a ready state rather than waiting to build its systems, which would consume time. Many government agencies are also eyeing at IT modernization as part of their capacity building and laying down new budgets.
So, there is a good demand for DevSecOps and DevOps services and solutions providers to win government contracts.
4 Ways DevOps Help Federal Agencies in US
1) High Scalability and Performance
Implementing agile methodology has augmented the technology and technical capabilities of many firms. DevOps’ collaborative approach improves process scalability by continuously gathering requirements and aligning development activities, while speeding up development.
By addressing DevOps gaps and applying DevOps principles, deployment speed into production improved, delivering new performance levels.
2) Address Technical Debts
Faulty IT architecture and development code cause unnecessary costs. Many federal agencies are feeling this pressure of accumulated technical debts as they move to adopt new technology. Unaddressed technical debt makes your IT unpredictable and puts pressure on future IT investments.
DevOps helps design scalable systems to accommodate changing demands and, through continuous integration, improves response time in the event of an unexpected issue. These activities are backed by a CI/CD process and automated testing.
3) Reduced Time to Delivery
With continuous improvement in place, there are fewer chances for errors. If they exist at all, they are addressed at the same point, avoiding iterations. Dev teams focusing on the development process and Ops teams working on reliability in parallel make the DevOps a streamlined approach to reducing delivery time.
4) Quality Delivery
As Dev teams continue to focus on development, Ops teams remain focused on ensuring the pipeline’s effectiveness and stability. With these responsibilities streamlined and adhered to from the beginning of the process, there is little scope for defective code or failures. This only leads to quality delivery.
There are many other ways that DevOps can benefit federal agencies. However, for successful DevOps implementation, four challenges need to be considered.
4 Challenges Behind DevOps Implementation
1) Openness to Risks
The most common hurdle to DevOps implementation in the federal sector is a lack of openness to risk. Given their commitments and partner network, federal agencies prefer DevOps adoption only after in depth examination.
So, the increased DevOps adoption in the federal sector depends solely on quantifiable, measurable factors.
2) Governance
The first and foremost requirement of DevOps is a change in organizational culture. Given this factor, DevOps adoption in the government sector requires changes in governance structure and integrated Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) frameworks.
3) Contracts and Incentives
Team integration is the core aspect of DevOps success. But this could pose a federal structure challenge, in which incentives are defined separately for Dev and Ops teams. Moreover, these two teams are often chosen from different partner organizations, which undermines the core aspect of collaboration in the overall process.
4) Immediate Vs. Long Term Priorities
Project duration and consistent efforts are two challenging factors in the government sector. Federal agencies face constant challenges in deciding about the focus on long term and short term projects. In case of projects that involve high technical debts, the decisions over recovering legacy projects or invest in new ones consume more time.
In Conclusion
Readiness to face these challenges for DevOps adoption will deliver a productive path for federal agencies. Right expertise support can help you alleviate primary challenges and lay down a perfect roadmap for successful DevOps adoption.
Have Questions About DevOps? Let’s Talk
Additional Resources: