This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Paul Anaekwe
Your DevOps Roadmap: Where to Start?
Feeling excited about the possibilities of making your business tech run smoother? Implementing DevOps isn’t an overnight sprint; it’s a journey. Think of it like building a new wing for a booming shop you don’t just put up walls randomly. Here’s a simplified roadmap to guide your organization:
Start with the Culture Shift (Team Talk First)
Begin by fostering better communication and collaboration between your development and operations teams. Encourage them to understand each other’s challenges and goals.
Automate What Hurts Most (Fix the Biggest Wahala)
Identify the most painful, time-consuming, and error-prone manual tasks in your software delivery process. Could it be testing, setting up new environments, or deploying code?
Implement Continuous Integration (Frequent Updates, No Surprises)
Get developers to merge their code changes frequently into a central place, where automated tests run immediately. This catches problems early.
Embrace Infrastructure as Code (Blueprint Your Systems)
Start treating your IT infrastructure (servers, networks, databases) like software code. Write scripts to automatically provision and manage them.
Monitor Everything (Eyes on the Market):
Implement robust monitoring tools to keep a constant eye on your applications and infrastructure in production. This helps you detect issues quickly and understand performance.
DevOps is an ongoing journey. Regularly review your processes, learn from failures and successes, and make small, continuous improvements.
Demystifying DevOps and Tech for Every Nigerian Business
A few years ago, my family friend whom we referred to as Uncle Emeka ran a booming provision store in Surulere. Business was great, but managing stock, tracking sales, and ordering new goods was a constant headache. He relied on notebooks, phone calls, and sheer willpower. When a new shipment of popular drinks arrived, he’d often realize too late that he’d already run out of space, or worse, forgotten to order enough of a fast-moving item like Indomie noodles.
His biggest challenge wasn’t attracting customers; it was the behind-the-scenes chaos. Every new order, every customer wanting a specific item, felt like a mini crisis. He was always reacting, never truly in control. It reminded me a lot of how many businesses still handle their technology – reactive, manual, and often overwhelmed by growth.
This is where understanding some key tech concepts can turn that chaos into a smooth operation…
What is DevOps?
Imagine you’re running a very busy buka or local eatery in Surulere Lagos. In the past, the person who buys all the ingredients and plans the menu would just cook up the food and then tell another person to just serve it to customers and manage the daily sales. Sometimes, the chef might cook something the server doesn’t know how to handle, or the server might need something urgently that the chef didn’t prepare. This can lead to delays, wasted food, and unhappy customers waiting for their amala.
DevOps is like getting the chef and the server/manager to work hand-in-hand, like fufu and egusi, from the moment they plan the day’s menu to when the last customer leaves. They share ideas, share responsibility for making sure the food is ready and served right, and even help each other out.
So, if my descriptions of DevOps felt more like a recipe for collaboration than a tech strategy, please forgive me. It’s just that I believe understanding complex concepts is a bit like appreciating good food it’s all about the flavor, process, and how well it satisfies your hunger for knowledge.
I hope, despite the culinary detours, the core ideas were digestible!
Think of it as
Better Teamwork: The chef and server communicate constantly, like a close family working together, making sure everyone knows what’s needed.
Faster Service: Because they’re in sync, customers get their jollof rice and fried plantain much quicker, hot and fresh.
Smoother Operations: If a popular dish runs out, they can quickly figure out how to restock or offer alternatives without causing a commotion.
What is Automation, Scaling, and Infrastructure?
Automation
Automation in IT refers to the use of software and tools to perform repetitive IT tasks and processes with minimal human intervention. It involves creating automated workflows that can execute tasks more quickly, consistently, and accurately than manual methods.
In our tech world, automation means we use smart software to do things like:
Testing new features: Instead of someone manually checking if our mobile app’s transfer money function works every single time, a program does it automatically, like a super-fast, error-free auditor, catching issues before anyone notices.
Getting updates out: When we have a new version of our app, automation helps us release it to everyone with just a click, like a well-organized distributor quickly stocking every shop, instead of someone driving around Lagos delivering updates manually.
Setting up new systems: If we need a new server for our app, automation can build and configure it instantly.
Why is this good? It means fewer errors (no more counting mistakes!), things get done much faster, and our tech team can focus on creating new, exciting things for you, like a new fintech product, instead of just repeating dull tasks.
Scaling
Think about your market stall. What happens if suddenly everyone in Lagos wants to buy your Aso-Oke? If your stall can only serve 10 customers at a time, you’ll have a queue stretching down the street, and customers will leave! Scaling is about making sure our technology can handle more and more customers or transactions without our “stall” collapsing.
There are two main ways we scale:
Vertical Scaling (Bigger Stall): This is like making your single stall bigger by adding more shelves and more display space. It works for a while, but eventually, your stall can only get so big.
Horizontal Scaling (More Stalls): This is like opening more, smaller stalls in different parts of the market, or even new markets entirely. So, you can serve many more customers by spreading the work. If one stall has a problem, the others keep selling. In tech, this means we can add more computers (servers) to handle more users or data.
Why is this good?
It means our systems can grow as our business grows, so we can handle more customers downloading our app, more people making payments, and more activity without our service slowing down or crashing, just like a danfodriver handling a rush hour crowd.
Infrastructure
If our company was a bustling market, the infrastructure would be everything that makes the market function: the land it’s built on, the security guards, the electricity supply (even if it’s via a generator sometimes!), the water tankers, the waste disposal, and all the actual stalls and warehouses.
In the tech world, our infrastructure includes:
Computers (Servers): These are like the big, powerful generators and storage rooms in our market. They store our app’s data and run all its operations.
Networks: These are the “roads” and “communication lines” that connect all our computers, allowing them to talk to each other and to the internet, like the market’s internal walkie-talkie system and the roads customers use to get there.
Databases: These are like the super-organized ledgers or storage rooms where we keep all our important information, like customer accounts, transaction records, or product inventory.
Cloud Services: Increasingly, we “rent” our infrastructure from big global tech companies (like AWS or Google Cloud), who manage the physical computers and networks for us in their massive, secure data centers around the world. This is like renting space in a huge, modern shopping mall with reliable power and security, instead of building our own market from scratch.
Why is this good? It’s the bedrock for everything we do. Without solid infrastructure, our apps wouldn’t run, our customers’ data wouldn’t be safe, and our operations would grind to a halt, like a market without power or security.
Why is DevOps Important?
DevOps isn’t just another oyinbo tech term; it’s genuinely important for the success of our business here in Nigeria because it helps us:
Deliver Faster (Sharp Sharp!): We can get new features and improvements into your hands, our customers, much more quickly. This means we can respond faster to what people need and offer solutions before our competitors do. Imagine getting a new banking feature that makes life easier, almost as soon as you think of it!
Higher Quality and Reliability (No Wahala!): By testing constantly and working closely, we catch problems earlier. This means our products are more stable, have fewer issues, and work reliably every time you use them, like a generator that never fails in a blackout.
Increased Efficiency (Saving Time and Money): Automating tasks means our tech team isn’t wasting time on boring, repetitive work. They can focus on brilliant ideas and building the next big thing, like a savvy trader using a POS machine instead of counting cash all day.
Better Teamwork: DevOps breaks down the silos, making our tech teams work like a tight-knit family or community (egbe), where everyone is pulling in the same direction. This leads to better understanding and smoother operations.
More Innovation: Because we’re not bogged down by slow, manual processes, our teams have more time to think about groundbreaking solutions, like developing new ways for people in rural areas to access digital services.
Better Customer Satisfaction (Our Customers Are King/Queen!): Delivering high-quality, new features frequently, with fewer issues, directly means our customers are happier and keep coming back for more.
Stronger Business: All of this adds up to a more agile, responsive, and competitive business. We can adapt faster, serve our customers better, and stay ahead in Nigeria’s fast-paced digital landscape.
In short, DevOps helps us run our technology operations like a well-organized festival – everything flows smoothly, everyone is happy, and the party keeps going without a hitch!
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Paul Anaekwe