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Tag: ASG

  • CloudBees Advances Expanding DevOps Agenda

    CloudBees Advances Expanding DevOps Agenda

    CloudBees today at its online DevOps World 2020 conference announced it is embedding additional DevSecOps capabilities that span the application development and deployment process within the continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform based on the open source Jenkins projects.

    In addition, CloudBees announced it will make generally available by the end of this year two additional modules for its Software Delivery Management (SDM) platform. Launched last year, the SDM platform provides a centralized mechanism for all stakeholders in the enterprise to track application development projects.

    The first module available today unifies the management of feature flags across an entire application development project. The second creates a system of record for tracking progress by importing and normalizing all the data made available by the tools that make up a DevOps platform.

    The DevSecOps offerings, meanwhile, provide IT teams with a hardened instance of the CloudBees CI offering, along with hardened audit-ready pipelines to ensure only immutable, approved components and environments are used without any drift or tampering. CloudBees is also adding support for role-based access controls based on fine-grained permissions as well as tighter integration with the feature-flagging capabilities of the CI/CD platform. If issues arise in a production environment, specific features can be pulled back with full traceability provided automatically.

    Finally, CloudBees has integrated its CI/CD platform with security automation applications from Anchore, Alcide.io, FOSSA, CyberArk, Checkmarx, Contrast Security, Shiftleft.io, Snyk, RunSafe Security, Sonatype, WhiteSource Software, Synopsys and Zimperium.

    CloudBees CEO Sacha Labourey said in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear organizations are accelerating the development and deployment of more sensitive applications that drive digital business transformation initiatives. In fact, according to the results of a survey of 347 IT professionals conducted by Accelerated Strategies Group (ASG) on behalf of CloudBees published today, digital transformation objectives have somewhat or significantly increased in priority for nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents.

    Slightly more than half said their organizations have also placed higher priorities on increasing their DevOps initiatives (52%). Many are also now practicing daily standup meetings (56%), using cross-functional teams (46%) and automating tasks (43%).

    Overall, 59% said their software teams have become somewhat or significantly more productive, with 43% reporting it is now easier to complete work tasks in a timely fashion. Nearly two-thirds (61%) said they are also finding it easier to work across time zones and, in some cases, even different continents (39%).

    Labourey said that as digital business initiatives continue to gain steam, more organizations will be applying DevOps principles to the business itself. SDM platforms will play a critical role in enabling that transition by providing a common framework through which IT and business professionals will be able to collaborate more closely, said Labourey. The goal should not be to turn software development into a factory, but rather to prioritize projects and initiatives in a way that benefits the business.

    Ideally, SDM also provides a framework through which IT teams can manage up at a time when many business leaders lack visibility into often complex DevOps processes that tend to have lots of dependencies, noted Labourey.

    In the meantime, the divide between all the application owners, IT teams and security professionals that make up an IT community within an organization continues to narrow. The challenge now will be determining what to do next, once all those constituencies are finally seeing the same thing at the same time.

  • New ASG Report Looks at COVID-19’s Impact on Software Development

    New ASG Report Looks at COVID-19’s Impact on Software Development

    We are all trying to adapt to a new world created by COVID-19. As the coronavirus continues to spread, the economy and businesses everywhere have been severely impacted, and no one really knows what the so-called “new normal” will be. For now, most organizations have gone remote, not knowing when—or even if—employees will be able to return to their offices.

    While some organizations have been open to the idea of working remotely, many have also struggled to shift to a remote workforce seemingly overnight. For software developers, however, remote work is nothing new. Many developers have successfully worked remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic even started.

    “The Future of Remote Work and Software Development“ research published today by Accelerated Strategies Group dives into the long-term impact of a decentralized workforce on software development and delivery. ASG interviewed 347 industry leaders from around the world to gather and refine data on the impact of COVID-19 on software teams and their organizations’ ability to create software, and the importance of remote work tools and applications during the pandemic.

    The ASG report, commissioned by CloudBees, revealed some interesting trends. The survey found 63% of respondents said digital transformation objectives have significantly or somewhat increased in priority. Business automation (61.6%) and the need for investment in creating contactless services (60.1%) have increased somewhat or significantly.

    More than half of the respondents said the COVID-19 conditions have increased their focus on DevOps initiatives (51.75%) and increased their progress on cloud migration (52.25%). Also worth noting is the growth in companies’ DevOps and Agile adoption, with 46.24% of respondents stating they are using cross-functional teams, 55.64% practicing daily stand-up meetings and 43.23% automating tasks.

    The majority of respondents (59.49%) to the ASG report saw an increase in productivity on software teams since the pandemic started. Forty-two percent of respondents said it has become somewhat easier to complete their work tasks in a timely manner.

    However, feedback concerning respondents’ ability to manage unproductive distractions was mixed: 39.7% said managing these distractions was somewhat or much easier, 36.36% said it was somewhat or much more difficult and 23.48% said they had no change in their ability to manage these distractions.

    When asked to provide insight into the potential negative impact of their remote workforce on productivity, more than one-third (38.6%) of respondents said there was no change, 27.58% of respondents indicated that teams were slowed down significantly or somewhat and 33.83% said things moved along significantly or somewhat faster.

    The majority of remote workers (64.4%) expect to remain working remotely, either permanently or at least three or more days per week, once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Only 12.7% said they anticipate returning to an office location full-time.

    For the most part, the transition to working from home has benefited software teams. COVID-19 has not only impacted the global economy, but also business priorities and has accelerated business and software strategies. Though the future is uncertain, and no one has a clear picture of what the “new normal” looks like, there is a huge possibility many software and DevOps teams won’t return to the office—at least not full-time.