In the beginning, there was “Dev” and there was “Ops.” Now, the term “DevOps” has taken its place in the tech lexicon, and the combination symbolizes how developers and IT operations have blended into one unit block.

What propelled DevOps to the forefront of organizational focus was a desire to drive both productivity and software growth. Rather than serve as an obstacle to success, operations teams have sought ways to facilitate the developers’ agile mantra. Now the challenge will be to marry development with the business side to achieve full alignment.

“We’ve seen how DevOps practices have minimized or even eliminated finger pointing between ‘Dev’ and ‘Ops’ teams,” said Dave Vellante, chief analyst at SiliconANGLE Media’s sister market research firm Wikibon and host of SiliconANGLE’s livestreaming video studio theCUBE. “People are now taking the next step and aligning software development with product development. This is critical, as in the coming decade, virtually every company will have a software element to its product roadmap.”

During its coverage of the DevOps Virtual Forum on November 18, theCUBE will focus on emerging trends in the DevOps world. The event will include interviews with top executives from Broadcom Inc., Forrester Research Inc. and British Telecom Group PLC, with a focus on new capabilities in agile management, how organizations are pushing the envelope through the integration of product development and DevOps, and the use of cutting-edge automation tools to maximize value and efficiency. (* Disclosure below.)

Physical to ‘spiritual’ colocation

The end of February will mark a milestone that no one could have foreseen. It will be the approximate one-year anniversary of when a global pandemic transformed businesses around the globe, forcing entire organizations to work remotely.

This sudden forcing function has fueled virtual collaboration and a reorientation from a physical workspace to one where laptop cameras and video conference technology have become the tools of daily use. Enterprises have been forced to move on from physical spaces to “spiritual” colocation, a transition that was not always easy.

“You can’t do that without having an even higher attention to automation and DevOps practices that enable it, but there’s also an increased focus on enabling digital collaboration,” said Jeffrey Hammond, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, during a recent interview with theCUBE. “In 2020, every company is a remote development company.”

For developers, the transition may have its challenges, but two recent studies have found that the development community is thriving. The Harness “2020 State of Developer Satisfaction” report issued in August found that over half of responding developers were happier in their roles since COVID-19 disrupted the world and 94% were overwhelmingly satisfied with their companies’ investment in employee growth. 

A GitHub report issued in May documented that while development activity has not been without disruption, the activity of developer-generated pushes and pull requests has actually increased year-over-year. Developers appear to be keeping pace.

There remain key challenges for many organizations, particularly in the cultural alignment between DevOps and the product cycle. Does the development cycle match the product timetable? Not always.

In October, the BizOps Coalition released a Manifesto that outlined a framework to bridge the gap between tech investment in DevOps and business outcomes. By connecting software development with the goals of a business and leveraging critical tools such as AI, organizations hope to spark a cultural change that will eliminate wasted productivity and money.

“When we think about the major impediments for DevOps implementation, it’s all about culture,” said Serge Lucio, general manager of the Enterprise Software Division at Broadcom, during a recent interview with theCUBE. “It’s about who can do what and when and driving a bias toward action. There’s a great role that technology and AI can provide for a new level of collaboration.”

Livestream of the DevOps Virtual Forum

The DevOps Virtual Forum is a livestream event. You can register for free here to access the live event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of the DevOps Virtual Forum, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during the DevOps Virtual Forum

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during the DevOps Virtual Forum include Jeffrey Hammond, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester; Serge Lucio, general manager of the Enterprise Software Division at Broadcom; and Glyn Martin, head of QA transformation at BT.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the DevOps Virtual Forum. Neither Broadcom Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: Broadcom