Making sense of the DevOps puzzle in APJ

Source: CA Technologies infographic. Top reasons why DevOps is adopted in APJ.

More than two-thirds (69%) of organisations in the Asia Pacific and Japan region (APJ) have implemented DevOps*, according to a new global study** commissioned by CA Technologies, and 15% of these DevOps practitioners have already reached advanced levels of adoption.

Assembling the DevOps Jigsaw found that advanced DevOps adopters were more likely to report that their digital initiatives contributed to competitiveness, customer retention and top- and bottom-line results. Across the globe, organisations with DevOps maturity are twice as likely to have seen a positive impact on revenue growth and 2.4 times more likely to have experienced higher profit growth. In APJ, compared to those who have not implemented DevOps, advanced DevOps adopters were:

· Three times more likely to have seen progress on market share

· More likely to have seen improvements in customer profitability (2.3 times as likely), customer retention (2.2 times as likely), and new income streams (2.2 times as likely)

· Twice as likely to have seen enhanced customer acquisition

“DevOps adoption across APJ is growing fast. It is already on par with Europe and getting very close to the Americas,” said Ashok Vasan, VP, Application Delivery, Asia Pacific & Japan, CA Technologies. “However, companies could do more to advance their level of adoption. To fully harness the potential of DevOps, organisations need to skill-up IT and ensure that the necessary enablers are in place to support collaboration and continuous innovation. For example, CA’s DevOps solutions and agile methodology enable businesses to develop swiftly, test automatically and release rapidly, driving competitive advantage in an app-centric business landscape.”

The nine pieces in the DevOps jigsaw.

To maximise DevOps effectiveness, there are nine key factors, say respondents in the study.

Strategy

Even though DevOps is seen as a key component to driving business agility and keeping up with customer demands, only a little over half (52%) of the respondents who have implemented DevOps in APJ have a well-defined DevOps strategy and objectives.

Risk management

With 44% of DevOps practitioners in the region still working on security and compliance, most DevOps activities are still not well supported from an enabling platform and risk management perspective.

Awareness of business goals

While 87% of APJ respondents considered business stakeholder education to be important, and 85% recognised the importance of ensuring adequate knowledge of business priorities within IT, only 31% of adopters in APJ have completed these steps.

Working together

Successfully fostering teamwork remains a significant barrier to DevOps success. Respondents in APJ found the breaking down of cultural barriers between Dev and Ops teams to be the most challenging task, with a mere quarter (26%) having achieved cultural harmony within IT.

Besides the above factors, cross functional IT processes, relevant IT knowledge and skills, right infrastructure and tooling, and right suppliers and support are the other four pieces required to assemble an outstanding DevOps practice.

Assembling all of the pieces of the DevOps jigsaw puzzle undeniably requires time, effort and careful planning, but the results are worth it. With overall DevOps adoption already on an upward trend in APJ, and practitioners eager to improve, organisations are certainly making steady progress and the future of DevOps in the region looks to be a promising one.

Interested?

Read the research paper: Assembling the DevOps Jigsaw
View the infographic: Do You Have All the Pieces of the DevOps Jigsaw in Place? (PDF)

*Note that DevOps adoption rates may skew higher due to self-selection bias in the sample. For full survey methodology details, see the report Assembling the DevOps Jigsaw.

**The global online survey of 1,442 senior IT and business executives was sponsored by CA Technologies and conducted by industry analyst firm Freeform Dynamics in July 2015. It was augmented by in-depth telephone interviews with key industry executives.