The main purpose of this post is to share with you the main resources that will drive you through the journey of DevOps, but first, a quick intro to DevOps.

INTRO TO DEVOPS

What is DevOps?

DevOps (a clipped compound of “development” and “operations”) is a software development method that emphasizes the roles of both software developers and other information-technology (IT) professionals.

What we can basically describe in a diagram showing how QA, Developers and Operations are part of DevOps.

DevOps brings you the next real benefits:

Deliver better quality software faster and with better compliance

Drive continuous improvement and adjustments earlier and more economically

Increase transparency and collaboration

Control costs and utilize provisioned resources more effectively while minimizing security risks

Plug and play well with many of your existing DevOps investments, including open source

So, DevOps is more than a technology or a tool set. It’s a mindset that requires cultural evolution. It is people, process and the right tools to make your application lifecycle faster and more predictable.

DevOps quickly evolved Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and Agile methodologies to address the needs of the digital business including:

The critical importance of transparency, communication and collaboration between development and operations teams

The inclusion of the project’s business owner and other critical groups such as security (DevOpsSec), networking, compliance in the discussion

Practicing DevOps can help teams respond faster together to competitive pressures by replacing error prone manual processes with automation for improved traceability and repeatable workflows. Organisations can also manage environments more efficiently and enable cost savings with a combination of on-premises and cloud resources, as well as tightly integrated open source tooling.

Careful selection of the right toolset will minimize risk and facilitate much needed self-service of resources while at the same time reduce security risks across hybrid environments. Improvement of quality practices helps to identify defects early in the development cycle, which reduces the cost of fixing them.Rich data obtained through effective instrumentation provides insight into performance issues and user behaviour to guide future priorities and investments. A wide set of tools and services from Microsoft and others enable these (DevOps) practices on-premises and in the cloud.

DevOps should be considered a journey, not a destination. It should be implemented incrementally through appropriately scoped projects, from which to demonstrate success, learn, and evolve.

DevOps is not just about the tools and the tech. It’s also about the importance of transparency, communication and collaboration between development and operations teams, it’s about the inclusion of the project’s business owner and other critical groups such as security, networking, compliance in the discussion.
To learn more about the whole process, visit Microsoft Virtual Academy’s DevOps section.

DevOps is a journey, not a destination. Get yourself ready, and be on your way to success.

RESOURCES

So now that you know more about DevOps, what does Microsoft have to offer you?

Training: A bunch of very good online trainings provided by Microsoft Virtual Academy.

· Managing the Application Lifecycle with MSDN

· Dev/Test Scenarios in the DevOps World

· Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) for Startups

· Modern IT: DevOps to ITIL, Creating a Complete Lifecycle for Service Management

· Fundamentals of Application Lifecycle Management

· Application Performance Monitoring

· Assessing and Improving Your DevOps Capabilities

· Azure Resource Manager DevOps Jump Start

· DevOps – Visual Studio Release Management Jump Start

· Enabling DevOps Practices with Visual Studio Online Build

· Building Infrastructure in Azure using Azure Resource Manager

· Managing Your Systems on Microsoft Azure with Chef

· Open Source Database on Microsoft Azure

· Open Source for DevOps Practices

· Automating the Cloud with Azure Automation

· DevOps: An IT Pro Guide

Learn: Training resources to deliver continuous value faster

· DevOps as a Strategy for Business Agility (video)

· Open Source for DevOps Practices (video)

· Assessing and Improving Your DevOps Capabilities (video)

· Azure Resource Manage for DevOps

Try: Evals & Trials

· Sign-up for FREE Azure and Visual Studio trial

· System Center Evaluation

· Team Foundation Server 2012 and System Center 2012 Operations Manager Integration V-Lab

Books:

· Microsoft’s journey to Cloud Cadence (eBooK)

· Saugatuck: Why DevOps Matters (whitepaper)

· Forrester: Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Release Management report (whitepaper)

Videos:

· DevOps on Channel 9 (videos)

DevOps Assessment tool:

· http://devopsassessment.azurewebsites.net/

· DevOps Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/devops/

Virtual Machines:

· Visual Studio 2015 ALM Virtual Machine and HOLs

· Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 ALM Virtual Machine

· TFS2012 and System Center 2012 Operations Manager Integration Virtual Machine and Hands on Lab

· TechNet Virtual Lab

References:

Introduction to MS DevOps: http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/server-cloud/solutions/development-operations.aspx
Microsoft Virtual Academy DevOps: http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-topics/devops

I hope this resources are useful for you as they were for me.

Cheers!

Eduardo Ortega