NoOps Is Coming, It’s Already Here… and That’s a Very Good Thing
Let’s start with the basics: “NoOps” is short for “No Operations,” and the concept refers to your IT department.
The idea behind NoOps is to move your IT operations to a point of automation that requires a minimum of human intervention. The upside: faster operations and fewer errors—without the need for a dedicated operations team.
As intimidating as this may sound, there are two important points to bear in mind: first, NoOps is coming and we can’t stop it. Second, in many ways, NoOps is already here! And these are good things—we promise. Let’s explore what we mean.
NoOps Is Coming
The move to NoOps is coming—and it’s unstoppable. This may sound harsh, but on the contrary, it’s an evolution that should be welcomed.
Let’s face it: many operations teams are overwhelmed by constant software maintenance. And with so many new technologies out there, they don’t have the time or wherewithal to focus on what the “next best thing” is. The result? They often fall behind the latest developments and fail to leverage cloud tools that are already widely available and which would make their jobs easier.
Shifting to NoOps allows your team to do what it does best: innovate, create, and focus on serving users or customers—instead of acting as a sort of “proxy” software company. Not only does this improve IT team morale and boost recruitment, but it also allows your company to focus efforts and resources on fulfilling its actual mission.
NoOps Is Already Here
Take a break from all that software maintenance for a moment and take a look around. What you see might surprise you: NoOps is probably already happening all around you—in small doses.
Today’s apps are being written with plug-and-play in mind, with developers placing automation and flexibility at the forefront. This gives your modern apps more modular code that can be run anywhere—even the cloud. Secondly, as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) continues to evolve, organizations now find themselves able to outsource their computing services to a third-party provider. All of a sudden, thanks to PaaS, your code can be plug-and-play and automated.
Some of your older apps will need to be rewritten for NoOps, true enough. But the newer generation is at least halfway there. And that’s the best way to think about NoOps: look at what’s already moving in that direction, and work with it. You don’t have to get to 100% NoOps immediately—or ever. The question is always what can be done now, and at what speed.
NoOps Is the Next Generation of Cloud Migration
In a broader sense, NoOps is simply a continuation of the move to the cloud, a process that has been underway for over a decade. And that constitutes the clearest proof that it works, with organizations virtualizing servers and other functions, reducing costs substantially. And as automated remediation comes to the fore, automating the process of problem resolution, NoOps is set to grow exponentially.
NoOps has other advantages as well: it moves your organization from reactive to proactive, reduces total cost of operations (TCO) in very specific ways, and allows you to recruit and retain the best talent. To find out more about these and other advantages of NoOps, read our free e-book The Future Is NoOps: 5 Reasons to Embrace – Not Fear – This New Model.
