DevOps – Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

The topic of DevOps has rapidly gained popularity in recent years. It has now become an integral part of software development and deployment.
Fundamentally, the DevOps approach is about combining software development with IT operations. This improves the collaboration, efficiency and speed of software provision. DevOps has revolutionized software development. There is an emerging trend that this methodology will change fields of work in the coming years. It is therefore very exciting to find out how DevOps can and will develop in the near future. So what will it look like in five years’ time? I have looked at the five most important topics (from my point of view) and worked them out. DevOps can support innovation in these areas in the future.

Focus on security

In the coming years, the focus on application security will intensify. In the past, the security of IT systems often took a back seat in development processes. Today, however, in view of various global developments, it is more important than ever to pay attention to security in the IT cosmos. With the increase in cyber threats and data breaches, DevSecOps is evolving into a new approach. Security is being integrated into the entire development cycle. DevOps is therefore very likely to place an even greater emphasis on security over the next five years. Security aspects will be integrated into the development process right from the start. An existing example of this is the established application SSC Fortify, which can be easily integrated into existing pipelines. However, more recent products such as Secure Code Warrior are also dedicated to this area. They use the gamification approach to lighten up the topic of security.

Use of AI and machine learning – more, faster, higher!

DevOps is another area that benefits from the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These technologies are already being used successfully in individual DevOps projects to test or monitor systems. AI and machine learning will prevail in this area, but also in many other sectors in the long term. These technologies will enable DevOps teams to automate more processes faster and with greater accuracy in the future. This will increase the speed of testing, deployment and monitoring. Well-known examples in the field of development include GitHub Copilot. This speeds up the writing of new code considerably. However, the ChatGPT model published by OpenAI is also able to write program code independently. The software can write unit tests independently as long as the functions to be tested are made available to it. For a little more background, please refer to our podcast on testing.

Expansion of cloud-native technologies

The rise of cloud-native technologies has been one of the most important developments in the software industry in recent years. DevOps has played a crucial role in this. As these two topics are strongly interlinked and mutually beneficial, the use of cloud-native technologies will continue to increase in the coming years. In particular to support the development, provision and monitoring of applications in the cloud. A key point in this area is the increased acceptance of cloud solutions. In the public sector in particular, a shift away from the previous “no cloud” attitude, which was very prevalent in many areas, is to be expected. In addition to many other aspects in which the two subject areas benefit from each other, one example is the temporary availability of computing power. In this combination, the agile provision of new solutions can take place at any time and still be carried out cost-effectively, as high computing capacities do not have to be retained.

Introduction of no-code/low-code development

No-code/low-code development is an approach to software development that allows users to create applications without having to write code themselves. This approach is understandably becoming increasingly popular. One reason for this is the high demand for IT specialists, which has persisted for a long time and cannot be fully met. Another reason will be that users will no longer have to deal with writing code. By switching to no-code/low-code development, employees who are not development-savvy can also be involved in the development process. DevOps is expected to play a crucial role in the adoption of no-code/low-code development by providing automation and integration tools to support this approach. Furthermore, additional applications that are already established in the DevOps area can help to ensure that the quality of the code is maintained at the same time. One example of this is SonarQube, which uses static analysis to improve technical quality.

Integration of business processes

Last but not least, a stronger integration of DevOps in business processes is expected. The further DevOps develops, the more companies will begin to connect other areas with the benefits of DevOps. For example, areas such as sales, marketing and customer support can benefit from the methods tried and tested in the area of software development and provision. In future, the focus will be on collaboration and automation in all areas of the company.
Hopefully, the points listed above have shown that DevOps can continue to evolve over the next five years. However, there will still be no one-size-fits-all solution in the future – just as there is none today. Rather, each team and each organization must work out the best procedure for itself.
In conclusion, DevOps has already changed the software development industry significantly and will continue to evolve over the next five years. There will most likely be a greater focus on security, the expansion of cloud-native technologies, the introduction of no-code/low-code development, as well as AI and machine learning. There is also likely to be greater integration of DevOps practices into other business processes. Especially for companies that want to remain competitive in the rapidly changing technology landscape, it is important to know and utilize the principles and practices of DevOps. This will improve collaboration, streamline processes and accelerate the delivery of high-quality software and other services.