We live in a world that is driven by applications and outcomes. More and more organizations are using the amazing power of Information Technology (IT) to develop, improve and deliver their services and products. While software architectures evolve, a similar shift is happening with the processes used by IT professionals to develop and deliver software-based services. And this change not only impacts IT, but also the fabric of how your organization operates.
DevOps is the name for a set of operating practices that are transforming the way IT operations teams work. Instead of dividing responsibilities into functional teams, DevOps takes a more agile and holistic approach that advocates collaboration with a focus on the entire lifecycle. The results are real and well documented, including shorter time to delivery for capabilities, more flexibility to adapt to changes and higher service levels with less downtime. This is why 89 percent of organizations report that they are planning or implementing a DevOps transformation.¹
Dell Technologies is committed to helping organizations achieve their own benefits from DevOps transformation. Our strategy is anchored in three strategic initiatives: API standardization, automation ecosystem integrations, and real-world experience-led education.
API Standardization
Automation starts with standardized APIs. There are two types of API standards that Dell supports – product APIs for the offerings we engineer and sell, and open industry APIs which are community supported. Product APIs are a standardized set of RESTful APIs, defined by our experts to allow for software-based communication with Dell products. We publish these on our developer portal where they can be accessed and downloaded for use. Open industry APIs are defined by standardized bodies that encourage collaboration and allow for rapid development. Dell supports a variety of APIs such as Redfish, Container Storage Interface (CSI), Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) and others. These can also be found on our developer portal as well as open repositories such as GitHub.
Automation Ecosystem Integrations
Automation is table stakes for DevOps. One of the surest signs that your organization is making the DevOps transformation is when your operations teams are starting to code. This doesn’t mean that system admins are replacing your business logic developers, but they are using tools that allow them to write software that codifies IT operations. This may mean exposing core IT services for consumption in a portal, or scripting configuration and maintenance with techniques such as Infrastructure-as-Code.
Dell is supporting this trend by using our standard APIs to integrate with common automation frameworks such as Ansible, Terraform, ServiceNow and others. We are also developing advanced automation tooling on our own – one example of that is our Container Storage Modules. With these modules, we are extending storage automation for Kubernetes to add critical enterprise capabilities beyond the rudimentary functionality enabled by standard CSI drivers.
Real World Experience-led Education
When we’re geeking out on technology and the acronyms begin flying around, it’s easy to forget that the most important part of IT is the people who program and run it. At Dell, we have years of experience with DevOps transformation. We’ve transformed our own IT department (Dell IT). We have specific services and practices that are set up to help other organizations establish their own transformation plan. And we are actively participating in IT communities such as the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, the Linux Foundation, the Desktop Management Task Force, the Open Compute Project and many others.
Transformation is not easy. But the results are in, DevOps pays real dividends. At Dell, we are focused on providing every tool you need to achieve real-world results. We’re delivering on that through API standardization, automation tooling development, and real-world experience-led education transfer.
Getting Started
We will be at Kubecon 2022 in Detroit during the week of October 24, 2022, please stop by or check out our virtual booth at the event. For more information online, please visit our Developer Portal, Dell DevOps solutions page and the KubeCon and CloudNativeCon Website.
1 Source: Modern Technology Operations Survey, Forrester 2021
