DevOps Outsourcing: Pros and Cons

DevOps outsourcing is an opportunity that most businesses today are striving for. For instance, Skype and GitHub have already chosen outsourcing models for their DevOps needs. When it comes to start-ups and small companies, DevOps outsourcing may be a solution for their limited budgets. However, the most important factor is that outsourcing creates an opportunity to cooperate with a variety of experts in this field.

In general, the team of DevOps specialists improves the productivity and efficiency of the processes related to software development. It is a so-called bridge between developers and operators that allows your team to focus on their main tasks. When the team works more efficiently, the reliability of software as well as the company's reputation increase too.

The distinctive features of most outsourcing DevOps teams are:

• Philosophy – They have their own rules, regulations, and mindset on collaboration, communication, and workflow;
  
  
• Tools – They come with a set of DevOps tools that will play a vital role in the implementation of your business's software;
  

• Practices – Due to the fact that the team of DevOps specialists already has a solid background, they will be able to understand what is needed for your specific environment much faster than your entire team would be able to.
  
  

Among the most popular services that DevOps teams may offer business owners are IT support, data center, Managed Service Provider (MSP), Cloud migration, and assistance in deployment and management of servers, networks, and applications.

You may be surprised to find out that in some cases dealing with outsourced DevOps is inevitable. The first case relates to the budget. Your financial plan may be too limited to create an in-house DevOps team. In addition, training and boosting your DevOps team development can be costly, and you will have to cover these expenses.

On the other hand, you should refer to DevOps outsourcing in the case that you do not have access to a stock of DevOps experts. It may take not years but months to create a really professional team.

Finally, if your team can't keep up with the pace of workflow, and you do not want your business to suffer from monetary and reputation losses, outsourcing is not only an option; it is a necessity.

To see whether the advantages of outsourcing outweigh its disadvantages, let's first discuss the pros and cons of DevOps outsourcing.

DevOps outsourcing may bring a lot of benefits to your company. In a nutshell, the pros of DevOps outsourcing are:

• Short development cycles — As DevOps outsource companies have a wide range of tools and a number of experts, they can implement their best practices to speed up the launch of the product and its next upgrades;
  
  
• Better security practices — They have solid security systems to protect your company's data;
  
  
• Cost efficiency — In most cases, outsourced DevOps bring fewer expenses than an in-house team;
  
  
• Limited downtime risks — Partnership with the outsourced DevOps team may lower the risks of downtime and process failures by 3 times and decrease the time spent on the recovery;
  
  
• High flexibility for technology integration — To increase the quality of the product, the DevOps team is flexible in terms of technology integration and uses different tools and resources.
  

With that in mind, you should also consider some cons of DevOps outsourcing:

1. Work culture shift — DevOps have their own set of practices that your team should follow and adapt to for maximum results.
   
   
2. Lack of business knowledge — You should have some software engineering expertise to be able to provide a DevOps outsourcing company with your product requirements.
   
   
3. Need for strong teamwork skills— Outsourcing companies have experts with different backgrounds, and your team should find a way to work together; if your employees possess excellent teamwork skills, you can expect effective collaboration.
   
   

It is always a challenge to start a new collaboration, which requires open communication and compromises. On the other hand, this collaboration may bring great results to your business; that is why you should consider the pros and cons of DevOps outsourcing to make a decision for your business.

Work culture shift — DevOps have their own set of practices that your team should follow and adapt to for maximum results.

Lack of business knowledge — You should have some software engineering expertise to be able to provide a DevOps outsourcing company with your product requirements.

Need for strong teamwork skills— Outsourcing companies have experts with different backgrounds, and your team should find a way to work together; if your employees possess excellent teamwork skills, you can expect effective collaboration.

DevOps consulting is not a new trend; it has been growing with DevOps outsourcing. DevOps consultants are experts who are hired to fix a particular issue. They are certified professionals who work in accordance with the principles of DevOps and guide DevOps engineers into the design, coding, implementation, and automation of the DevOps infrastructure.

DevOps consultants are most beneficial in cases where the company's problem is unknown to your team or when your team is uncertain about the risks and outcomes of their decisions.

Hiring an IT consultant, in general, is the best choice not only for large enterprises but small and medium-sized businesses too. Expert advice can be costly in rare situations when your business experiences unique challenges and has limited resources to handle them. The overall objective of DevOps consultants is to provide a company with solutions to any issue in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

Despite the fact that many companies refer to DevOps development consulting, there is still a bias against DevOps consultants. Business owners often worry about the safety of their data, wasting time, and high costs related to DevOps consulting.

While in some rare cases these fears may be justified, each business owner should consider the following factors. Not every IT specialist can become a consultant. That requires more specialized expertise and a track record of successful cases.

Additionally, consultants are hired to analyze, give advice, and guide; all the other work is carried out by DevOps engineers who should implement the previously discussed strategy. The DevOps engineers have access to your data, but not the consultant.

All in all, hiring a DevOps consultant may even save money for businesses when considering the time it would take to solve the issue on their own.

Hiring a DevOps team is not the easiest thing to do. As was previously mentioned, your team will need to have a certain level of software engineering expertise. Moreover, DevOps culture is an essential factor to take into account. An outsourced DevOps team comes with its settled culture and shared understanding of how developers and operations should cooperate, what each team should be responsible for, and finally, they realize that their main goal is customer satisfaction.

Your partnership with the outsourced DevOps team will require some time to establish a workflow, so you should not expect this to happen overnight, but rather a few weeks or months, depending on your type of business and the products you want to develop.

To get started, it will be easier for you to find the right partner, if you have:

• Defined a business goal;
  
• Defined the role of software development in meeting the business goal;
  
• Defined the goals and outcomes of software development;
  
• Drafted a clear and comprehensive request for proposal;
  
• Assessed in-house capabilities in strategy, design, and engineering.
  
  

Now, as you have defined the parameters of your work, your exact needs, and what the best potential solution would be for you, it is time to start looking for an outsourcing DevOps partner:

1. Focus on expertise in the hiring process – Consider only those DevOps outsourcing partners who have access to the latest technology and have the technical expertise and necessary skill sets;
   
   
2. Pay attention to the reviews – Choose an outsourcing company with positive feedback and successful cases rather than a cheaper option;
   
   
3. Clearly discuss the terms of the contract – Everything, including the budget, intellectual property, security risks, etc., should be part of the contract.
   
   

To summarize, if you are ready to collaborate with outsourcing companies, and want your business to stay a step ahead of your competitors, focus on establishing clear communication and defining your goals within the future partnership.