In the previous article, we defined ‘digital’ as a business model that’s built on IT. This means that automation and DevOps are no longer just relevant to application developers in the IT department – they need to be embraced at every level within the organisation.

Over the last year, there’s been a great deal of interest in new DevOps companies such as Puppet, Chef, and Terraform. With good reason. But, these new players’ technologies shouldn’t be dismissed as something of interest just to developers; we believe automation has to be at the very foundation of all IT systems and processes.

Optimise your entire operation for competitive advantage

If your business is still operating in a traditional, ‘analogue style’ and the only part of the organisation that’s embraced DevOps is IT operations, you’ll get a ‘disconnect’ because you’ve optimised part of the system, not the whole. Automation across the entire IT landscape ─ including development, provisioning, and operations for both on-premise and cloud-based systems ─ will provide the agility and the cost benchmarks required to be competitive.

To become a true digital business, your entire operation needs to function like a well-oiled DevOps practice – one that involves continuous delivery, automated testing, and constant, iterative updates and improvements. You have to view infrastructure and systems as code that can be programmably automated.

We believe that if automation and DevOps become part of your business’s mindset and culture, they’ll become a source of competitive advantage.