Today, I’d like to discuss DevOps in Azure and tell you why you should consider using DevOps when you start moving to Azure. What DevOps is, can be hard to define. Everyone seems to know what it is, but no one can seem to define it in a simple way. Microsoft’s definition is: DevOps brings together people, processes, and technology, automating software delivery to provide continuous value to your users.

People seem to agree that it’s about people, processes and products being merged together. But coming from a background of app dev, as well as database and server work, I think it’s about removing the barrier between our development and operations teams, so they can actively work together. This often means cross-over individuals who understand both sides of those worlds and can bring them together.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as to why this is important in Azure:

Infrastructure can now be code.

Why does infrastructure as code matter? Well, as an infrastructure guy, I need to understand things like JSON and ARM templates and why they are important. DevOps simplifies my management process. If you go through the Microsoft infrastructure exam for Azure, you’ll quickly find that they support all types of interaction about the infrastructure code, like PowerShell, CLI, JSON or REST, so whatever makes sense in your environment, as well as the tools around it.

The ability to build tests and deploy apps with automation.

You can containerize your applications and deploy them using several different tools within Azure, such as Docker. When you move to the cloud, it’s important to consider how you can take advantage of that and how to consider that in your environment.

Also, from a coding standpoint, you have the ability to use Git Hub in the cloud as you look at global development teams and the ability to disperse across the country and to work effectively together.

Check out Azure Data Week coming in October 2018

With DevOps in Azure, you’re going to build in your operational needs; make sure you’re doing logging and that you have all the telemetry and metrics you need to continually improve your product.

You’ll be able to do this faster and in small increments. The end game in DevOps is that you’re able to deploy updates to apps and deploy new features for the users and the business, without the huge impacts we see in many of today’s environments.