CA Southern Africa has revealed the results of a global study commissioned by CA Technologies.  The study, TechInsights Report: What Smart Businesses Know About DevOps, reveals that IT leaders in the United States have seen concrete business benefits as a result of their organization’s DevOps implementation.

According to respondents, they have experienced anywhere from a 17 to 23 % improvement in business in the form of increased revenue, faster time-to-market, improved competitive positioning and enhanced customer experience.  Nearly all (99 %) U.S. respondents recognize a greater need for DevOps strategies now than before.
DevOps is a methodology which helps foster collaboration between the teams that create and test applications (Dev) with those that maintain them in production environments (Ops).   The study surveyed 1,300 senior IT decision-makers worldwide on behalf of CA in order to learn global awareness and adoption of DevOps.

The report points to a 22% increase in customers and 19% more revenue for respondents who have experienced benefits from implementing the methodology.  The financial opportunity for U.S. organizations in particular was shown to be significant with 66% of respondents with a DevOps strategy having experienced an increase in revenue.  The report also shows that awareness of the practices associated with the strategy has increased – particularly as a means to better address customer demands and improve the customer experience overall.
“In today’s world of mobile apps and online consumer reviews, companies are under enormous pressure to deliver higher quality applications faster than ever before,” says Jaco Greyling, CA Southern Africa, manager, service assurance & application delivery.
“Companies, which have been around for more than 20-30 years, face big challenges as they have legacy systems.  Those who are willing to undergo internal transformation can win the competition in fast-changing markets.”

The report reveals that external factors such as customers – and not necessarily IT – are the major driving force for the DevOps strategy.  The need to improve the end-customer experience is the number one driver in the United States (68%), followed by the need for greater collaboration between development and operations teams (61 %), the increase use of mobile devices (52 %) and the increasing need to develop and deploy cloud-based applications (43 %).  Internal pressures such as solving for the complexity of IT systems and cost-cutting are at the bottom of the list (7 % and 2 % in the United States, respectively).

Organizations which have been successful with DevOps also recognize the importance of measuring success using business-relevant, externally focused metrics rather than internal measurements.  Worldwide, 49 % (91 % in the United States) are measuring implementations primarily with external metrics such as increased revenue, faster time-to-market and improved customer experience versus 38 % (8 % in the United States) primarily using internal metrics such as lower costs and improved efficiencies.
“CA Technologies has taken the lead in identifying the benefits and challenges of adopting DevOps,” says Greyling.   “The report paints a clear picture of what companies can expect to gain by embracing the new strategy and transforming their IT organization.  DevOps is evolving from the theoretical into an essential strategic approach for all businesses.”