AWS was the first to offer Infrastructure as Code (IaC) via AWS CloudFormation as a part of AWS DevOps. It enables developers and systems administrators to easily create and manage a collection of related AWS resources. They can provision and update them in an orderly and predictable way. Developers can use AWS CloudFormation’s sample templates or create their own templates. The concept of IaC is as old as the practice of DevOps. There are many experts who argue that DevOps wouldn’t be possible without the use of IaC.

  The cloud-native approach to software development has brought a paradigm shift to how applications scale and self-manage themselves, as the demand surge.

73% of organizations have at least one application, or a portion of their computing infrastructure already in the cloud – 17% plan to do so within the next 12 months. - 2018 Cloud Computing Survey (IDG)

Over the years, organizations have been implementing Agile methodologies to speed up the software development cycle. While Agile was initially embraced for development process, it has progressively expanded into other downstream areas, i.e. IT and Operations. It has helped team to streamline the development process, receive timely feedback for improvements, has ensured that the entire process picks a pace for on time product delivery.

In the uber-competitive business world, unplanned downtime and issues with production environment can be detrimental. It can put customer trust, revenue, and productivity to halt, which is un-affordable for businesses of any size.

 DevOps represents a shift in IT culture. With adoption of agile and lean practices, the software development approach ensures rapid IT service delivery.

Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice, wherein isolated updates to a code base by developers are immediately tested and reported. CI aims at early detection of bugs in code or defects in software functionality. The entire process works in conjugation with automated testing tools that ascertains Continuous Testing (CT) and Continuous Deployment (CD) of the software.

  Optimally utilizing the cloud platform with the right service mix and combination of cloud Service provider will not only result in big savings but also augment overall performance of the application.

  DevOps is a business-driven approach that utilizes agile methodology, automation, and collaboration for seamless product development. Often considered as a ‘disciplined agile practice’, DevOps emphasizes upon integration of development and operations team for delivering better, frequent product cycles.

The collaboration of Agile and DevOps has invoked doors for an innovative and rapid software development model. While DevOps is often considered as an extension to Agile, one stream of development that hasn’t seen much growth is Software Testing.