In the current situation of the software development, there have been a lot of unessential efforts dumped into waste as the same functionality is built repeatedly, which results in the waste of time and tries. Open source is just the limited solution, but doesn’t have the capability to fully solve the problems of reliable code upgrades and cannot cope up the high-speed innovation. While in decentralized networks there are millions of independent nodes where new releases of software are coming into light. 2018 is the starting of blockchain and it is important how this technology will affect the developers in the upcoming years. Devops is also the same and is the new methodology which bridges the gap between developers and operations.
In the following paragraphs we will see what is DevOps and Blockchain, how will both affect developers, how can they compete with each other and a lot of other discussions.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is basically a software development strategy, it is not a tool, it is not a technology, and it is not a framework. It came just 2-3 years ago. It is a methodology and the aim of this methodology is to bridge the gap between the development team and the operations team and both work better together to have better collaboration and communication.
There are a lot of conflicts between the two teams for e.g. the software works in the developer’s laptop but doesn’t work in the test or production environment. Similarly, the Developers teams want agility whereas operations team wants the stability. There are many conflicts which are resolved with the help of DevOps. It builds trust and reduces the friction we see in the handoffs between dev and ops.
What is Blockchain?
The Blockchain is the latest technology in the field of communication. It has its own merits and demerits. But the advantages of blockchain overrule the disadvantages.
As the kid starts to learn the things on its own, it falls and then again rises, the same is with blockchain technology. It involves the entire internet. Let us understand in brief what a blockchain is and what are its advantages.
A blockchain is a continuous addition of blocks called smart contracts which are linked and uses a security feature called cryptography. It is “an open, Distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way”.Â
For using blockchain as a distributed Ledger, it uses a Peer-to-peer network collectively bonded to a protocol for the node-to-node communication and approving new blocks. Once a block is written and the data is fed to the block, it cannot be changed subsequently without alteration of all succeeding blocks.
In a simple way to understand it forms the basis of communication between two devices connected to the internet with much more secure transactions and of course it involves cryptography so it is much secure than any other communication.
Now it has various advantages like
1. Distributed database
2. Peer to peer communication
3. The intermediaries are eliminated
4. It has the power to transform the whole industry.
Communication occurs directly between peers instead of a central node i.e. now we don’t need a central node to coordinate as each node stores information to all other nodes.
BUSINESS IMPACT- it removes the needs of hierarchical institutions and opens up a new frontier in sharing a world economy.
IRREVERSIBILITY OF RECORDS- impossible to change transactions that once occur in the system is permanent. Authenticity and genuine property of products are maintained like diamonds etc
AGRICULTURE- now it is much easier to track a product from the farm to consumer, e.g., vegetables, fruits, dairy etc.
PHARMACEUTICALS- Presently 20% of the drugs supplied in the markets is fake. With the help of blockchain, it will be easier to distinguish between the original and the fake.
Yes, there are many other fields which are not discussed in this writing are also legally covered by the blockchain.
DevOps phases and tools
The first phase is planning, you get the requirement from the client and start planning the application. Once done you start writing the code. Now there are multiple developers who are writing the code for the particular application. So you need a system that manages the code. To manage the source code we have multiple tools like Git which is a decentralized tool which is preferred by most of the industry.
Then the built application is deployed on the test servers like J-unit, Gradle etc. After testing it is send to the deployed servers for release and there it is continuously monitored by tools like Nagios, Stack, Splunk, etc.
Upgrading Contracts
A Smart contract can be upgraded in the DevOps team and blockchain era in continuous integration. A traditional software-as-a-service (SaaS) company has full control over versions of software it publishes to its servers. In distributed blockchain-based networks, upgrade of smart contract code is unimportant and often is not even supported indigenously.
Distributed Ledger is in its early phase and every smart contract upgrade has to go through different procedures, it leads to the manual error in smart contracts which creates bugs and financial loses also occur. Blockchain-based codes have an advantage in that it adds transparency to the centralized systems. Use of blockchain here is not meant to rule over the DevOps team but to collaborate and work together with them.
How Blockchain supports Developers
Many developers don’t have the skill set to develop codes on the blockchain. Instead of developers making the same code, again and again, there is a need to use common tools which will help them to reduce their efforts and prevent them to reinvent the wheel every time.
In the emerging age of blockchain, DevOps still contributes to the application needed in getting software released. By adding blockchain operations, applications and tools to the development cycle of DevOps teams, DevOps will become higher than ever before in terms of productivity.
