A robust understanding of DevOps can help developers and organizations improve on the efficiency and quality of Android application development. However, the DevOps space isn’t static. There are always new trends and techniques that demand IT and operations staff constantly reevaluate their internal processes and procedures to align with these changes.
2020 is already upon us but it isn’t too late to look at the challenges DevOps for Android is likely to run into in the coming months.
1. Accommodating Multi-Cloud Environments
Cloud computing has gradually become the norm in development. The increasingly sophisticated tools that are used to separate deployment and development mean that having a DevOps pipeline is more crucial than it has ever been. Since DevOps acts as the liaison between your IT operations and IT development arms, it will only continue to grow in prominence.
Nevertheless, an increasing number of applications will be built around multi-cloud environments and this will only make the role of DevOps teams more challenging. DevOps must respond to the new technologies that manage these platforms and adapt the software they build to ensure it works. It calls for a deeper understanding of the features available on these multi-cloud environments and clearly articulating them to developers so they can optimize the Android application accordingly.
2. Implementation Automation
The structure of DevOps projects mean developers can continuously deliver the content needed to users irrespective of the changes to their users’ needs. This however also implies that DevOps projects are never truly done. It’s the reason we can expect more automation taking root in DevOps.
But automation isn’t a magic bullet that automatically resolve all DevOps implementation problems. DevOps automation in some shape or form has been around for years. The issue in the past has been that an over-reliance on the waterfall model due to a misunderstanding of DevOps has seen some organizations over-automate DevOps. This has led to unintentionally inefficient project oversight and the poor communication between teams.
2020 will see a boom in DevOps automation tools that seek to eliminate the problems of past automation while allowing room for manual intervention. This will prevent the process from being overly rigid and therefore counterproductive.
3. Combination of DevOps and Agile
Many developers see DevOps and agile as not only incompatible but in direct conflict to one another. They consider that one must make a choice between the two. In reality though, the two methodologies can complement one another and create a more comprehensive development environment.
It’s this realization that should see DevOps be increasingly perceived as a methodology that can work side by side with agile (even if it’s just for the short to medium term) and not just cleanly replacing it.
Whereas agile development is praised for its ability to break down a project into modular and compartmentalized components, the ambiguity and scale of larger organizations can precipitate poor communication and missed deadlines. A DevOps project could retain the internal structure of an agile development team but include an operations liaison person who facilitates inter-team communication thus ensuring a more seamless transition.
4. Seamless Security
While DevOps does help ensure security considerations are accommodated throughout the software development lifecycle, security hasn’t really been at the epicenter of DevOps conversations so far. Expect that to change in 2020 as DevOps teams explore ways to not only ensure security of the Android app but also security compliance within the development environment.
Teams will start treating application security as code while ensuring security is unequivocally the responsibility of every team member from the start to the end of the project. It’s not just limiting access at the application and platform level but also ensuring that unauthorized access is blocked at the service level. Log management tools such as Loggly will be invaluable in this regard.
Stay ahead of your competition by not just keeping an eye on these Android DevOps challenges in 2020 but preparing for them.
