Invested in a Web or Mobile Application Without DevOps? Your Business Is at Risk

As a business leader, the last thing you want to do is risk the safety and security of your business. So why would you invest in web and mobile application development without a DevOps team? Sure, with the right software platform you might have a single developer with enough experience to successfully build an application, but how long is that going to take? And what’s to keep it from falling apart? Like a puzzle, there are a lot of pieces to application development that need to be solved. The more experts you have working to put the pieces together, the faster and more accurate the results.

When investing in web and mobile application development, it’s important to have all the pieces of the puzzle upfront. It’s equally as important to have a team of individuals in place to put those pieces together. Who’s going to manage the operational capabilities or ongoing development of your application? What about software integration? Who will be your thought leader during the app development cycle’s pre-planning and testing phase? Who will be there to answer questions related to automation techniques that correspond to how functions can relate to the planned software? Despite many platforms that try to persuade app developers that one person can successfully build an app, this is simply not true. It takes a team of people to ensure that problems get solved before they arise so you’re not left scrambling to pick up the pieces down the line.

What Is DevOps?

DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten the system’s development lifecycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. The combination of development and operations teams is an organizational approach that enables faster development of applications and easier maintenance of existing deployments. By enabling organizations to create stronger bonds between Dev and Ops, along with other stakeholders in the company, DevOps promotes shorter, more controllable iterations through the adoption of best practices, automation and new tools.

A professional team of software developers will provide your business with DevOps that delivers the following:

• Technical support services
• Performance reports
• App management
• Forecasting and evaluation
• Enterprise-level development and support

You want a team that helps you realize the anticipated ROI from your investment and protects it, turning it into an asset that drives enterprise-level value.

Why Is It Risky to Invest in App Development Without DevOps?

If you don’t have a structured internal DevOps team capable of supporting what a vendor delivers, or your vendor doesn’t provide DevOps as a service, you’re setting yourself up for failure. This is a really common problem among midmarket companies. The operational cost of a modest in-house DevOps team can cost as much as $500 thousand a year or more. This is why the midmarket must rely on their software engineering vendor for DevOps services. Most midmarket companies approach web and mobile application development as if they are projects and enter into service level agreements (SLAs) for maintenance services. Unfortunately, these SLAs too often become break-fix agreements.

Without realizing it, custom web and mobile applications can quickly become liabilities — all due to the lack of DevOps services to properly handle ongoing development, maintenance and tech support services. Business leaders must switch up the conversation, specifically midmarket companies that have already, or are preparing to, invest in game-changing custom business applications.

Does Having DevOps Deliver ROI?

Your investment in web and mobile application development is all very manageable if handled properly. DevOps, when done well, provides the metrics you need to prevent issues from occurring. Measuring the performance of a custom business application informs your progress on achieving ROI. Without DevOps, your only hope of realizing ROI is that you can do so before systems break down, end users get frustrated or a security breach brings everything to a screeching halt. Someone will have to own the issues once they occur, with or without a plan.

At Red Hawk, our unique business model bundles services for a fixed monthly fee, not only making DevOps simple, but affordable as well. All it takes is time to understand your total cost of ownership over time. Making these calculations a part of the plan upfront will help make or break the case for your investment. Contact us today to see a return on your investment and keep your business out of harm’s way.