2018 was a great year within the DevOps community and below I share some thoughts on why I believe 2019 will be pretty exciting within the space.
Security will become the primary focus – DevSecOps
The CICD pipeline makes it possible to employ rapid changes daily to address customer needs and demands. The CI/CD pipeline can be automated as well, and hence Security has to be a design constraint these days. Thinking security right from the beginning requires security to be built into software instead of being bolted on, Security is no more an add-on.
Increase in the adoption of microservices architecture
DevOps and microservices lately are going hand in hand. Microservices are independent entities and hence doesn’t create any dependencies and break other systems when something goes wrong. Microservices architecture helps companies make deployments and add new features easily. Companies are expected to move to microservices architecture to increase their runtime and efficient delivery. Don’t just follow others because they adopted it, know yourself and understand the reasons to shift to microservices architecture.
There will be a shift of focus from CI pipelines to DevOps assembly lines
Pipelines show you a complete visualization of your app from source control to production. You can see everything in a single pane of glass. It not just about doing CI now, it is about CD (continuous delivery); organizations are investing their time and effort into understanding more about automating their complete software development process. In 2019, the shift is going to happen from just CI pipelines to DevOps assembly lines.
Testers are expected to learn to code, it is a must
Testers who know how to code and automate scripts to test various cases are in huge demand in DevOps. If you are a tester and in a dilemma over whether to learn to code or not, we recommend learning to code. Understanding different DevOps tools and automating scripts plays a vital role in software development today and this is going to dominate in 2019.
Testers are expected to perish if they don’t learn to code and write their own automated test scripts. Manual testing will become obsolete in 2019 and it consumes a lot of time. Automation in testing not only increases the efficiency but also ensures the features are delivered faster to the market.
Kubernetes is going to evolve further
Kubernetes has become the fastest growing container technology because of its offerings and ease to use. Kubernetes has built a great open source community around it. Around the world, many CIO’s and technologists have adopted to use Kubernetes, and it is expected to evolve in 2019.
More companies are expected to opt for enterprise versions
There are many companies that are still in a dilemma of whether to build or buy. But, we recommend you to do what you are best at and buy the tools as per your requirements. This not only helps you focus on your goals but also increases the productivity by entirely depending on the 3rd party platform. Many companies are now going for enterprise versions to get their own infrastructure and make sure security is in the best hands possible.
AI & ML will foster DevOps growth
AI and ML are perfect fits for a DevOps culture. They can process vast amounts of information and help perform menial tasks, freeing the IT staff to do more targeted work. They can learn patterns, anticipate problems and suggest solutions. If DevOps’ goal is to unify development and operations, AI and ML can smooth out some of the tensions that have divided the two disciplines in the past
In summary
This is my opinion on the popular trends in 2019!