Many organizations are trying to coordinate application development with IT operations, but whether they're involved in "devops" may be a matter of opinion. The buzz word sparks a host of notions and viewpoints, but it remains unclear exactly what it means or how it is supposed to work, writes Neil McAllister at InfoWorld.

In one camp are those who see devops as "nothing but a blatant land grab by overambitious developers looking to horn in on traditional IT functions," McAllister writes. Disgruntled programmers seek a way around operations procedures so they can deliver software on their own terms, they argue. In the other camp are those who view devops as a way for the operations folks to play a larger role in application development. The idea being that this side wants developers to be responsible for software's ease of use and maintenance.

A number of high profile web businesses, including Dropbox, Facebook and SmugMug, recently have credited devops as a factor in their success. Other companies talk about using "devops-like principles," and although it remains murky what those principles are, it hasn't stopped vendors from trying to use the buzz to their advantage, McAllister warns.

"Once a buzzword gains enough mental capital, in rush the vendors, eager to convince confused and worried purchasing managers that the answer to the latest IT paper tiger is something that can be bought in a box," he writes. "A number of vendors already claim to be shipping devops solutions, including FluidOps, Puppet Labs, and Urbancode, among others. EMC VMware claims to have developed an entire suite for the task."

While there are real issues underlying the devops buzz, the solutions don't appear to address the complex organizational challenges that create them, in McAllister's view. "The trouble is, for something that aims to bring disparate groups closer together, there doesn't seem to be anything particularly unifying about devops," he writes. "And once you start talking about who's on the right side or the wrong side of the devops debate within your organization, all you're doing is taking sides--you're not solving any problems."

Each organization's process challenges are unique, and a buzz word doesn't make it any easier for the IT operations staff and application developers to see eye to eye.

"In the short term, I expect devops will make a lot of hay for pundits, speakers, conference organizers, and vendors looking to cash in on the trend," McAllister writes. "In the long term, those who are inspired by the devops ideas would be better served to put down the flags, get off the soapboxes, and work within their organizations to effect meaningful change. Unfortunately, this kind of change happens only one step at a time."

For more:
- see Neil McAllister's post at InfoWorld

Related Articles:
McDonald's lofts app development into the cloud
Thinking about security from the beginning