Digital transformation and DevOps are giving businesses a competitive edge, especially in the era of remote work. Increased screen time illustrates why these processes are vital to the success of every business.
Digital transformation and DevOps have been hot topics of late. Many businesses were forced to embrace or accelerate digital transformation plans when the world was hit with the coronavirus pandemic. Not all businesses have made it through the process yet, but they should be working toward it. DevOps is becoming more widely adopted, along with DevSecOps, as businesses learn of its benefits and hear success stories. Still, there are businesses out there which haven’t made these steps and aren’t really sure if they’re ready. For those businesses, let’s discuss why digital transformation and DevOps are so important.
When we were all sent home to work last year, people around the world needed to use their electronic devices more than ever. They helped us stay connected to friends and family members we couldn’t visit, they helped us decompress with mindless apps and a multitude of streaming services, and they helped us continue to work to support our families. Virtual meetings, virtual concerts, virtual zoo tips and museum exhibits, all of these things were necessary to earn a paycheck and keep our sanity.
The result of the extra need for technology saw an increase in our collective screen time. According to App Annie, a mobile and data analytics firm, consumers worldwide are spending an average of 4.2 hours per day using apps on their smartphones, which is a 30% increase from 2019. There are markets where the average reaches over five hours, too. A grain of salt here, App Annie only analyzes data from Android devices. So it’s possible that this number is actually higher when you add in iOS and other mobile platforms.
TechCrunch notes, “In the first quarter of 2021, the daily time spent in apps surpassed four hours in the U.S., Turkey, Mexico and India for the first time, the report notes. Of those, India saw the biggest jump as consumers there spent 80% more time in smartphone apps in the Q1 2021 versus the first quarter of 2019.” They go on to highlight the break-out apps that saw increased usage.
With all of this extra time spent on devices, users are fast adjusting to having what they want at their fingertips, and they have it when they want it. This is why digital transformation and DevOps are vital to the success of businesses today. Digital transformation is step one, it modernizes your business and brings you into the cloud. DevOps can be adopted alongside digital transformation, but it’s more efficient to do one and then the other. DevOps can happen without the cloud, but it functions better and is easier to work with in the cloud.
Remember, digital transformation is the process of bringing analogue processes and turning them into digital ones. DevOps is the integration of development and operations, it streamlines code deployment and makes it so updates and features can be rolled out more frequently (and more easily) with CI/CD. It’s important to remember, though, that DevOps is a culture, not just a way of doing things. The entire organization has to embrace it and understand its role in the effort.
Humans are not patient, especially in 2021 where you can have a grocery list ordered and delivered to your house in 2 hours. Where a bug shows up in a platform and it’s fixed before anyone knew there was a problem. We want what we want, and we want it now. If your business hasn’t gone through digital transformation or adopted DevOps, it’s time to sit down and look at both. If your business is lagging here, it’s also highly recommended that you hire or consult an expert to help with the process. Complicated technological projects are best left to the experts who truly understand technology at its foundation.
Digital transformation is important for every single business. DevOps may not be practical for all, but the vast majority of businesses will benefit from it. Both of these processes increase the efficiency of your business. Increased efficiency leads to increased productivity, which results in increased revenue streams and higher profits. The goal of every business is to make money, so why not do everything you can to do that?