All industries are undertaking numerous IT operations these days. However, as the frequency of these operations increases, the number of problems that surface during implementation is also on a rise. These problems may vary from one industry to another, but DevOps has been able to address all of them effectively. As a result, many industries have been taking up DevOps.

Implementation of DevOps has been growing significantly all across the globe. As the growth of DevOps market is estimated to reach around USD 10.31 Billion by 2023, it is safe to say that more and more industries are implementing DevOps in their systems and enjoying its advantages. 

The three biggest industries – Retail, Finance, and Healthcare – are slowly but surely moving towards the implementation of DevOps in their workflows. Nonetheless, these sectors also happen to be the ones in possession of some of the most critical customer data that requires a high level of privacy and security. Hence, anyone working in these industries is very careful about the technological implementations they take up for their business. DevOps is one of the safest bets any retail/financial/healthcare organization can make. You may wonder why this is the case. The answer lies in the seamless implementation opportunities and benefits which DevOps offers in these sectors. 

In this article, we will talk about the implementation and benefits of DevOps in the retail, finance, and healthcare industries. Let’s begin.

A- DevOps in Retail

According to Statista, the global retail market is expected to generate sales worth USD 27 Trillion by 2022. The retail industry has been experiencing steady growth, even during the global pandemic. The onset of Covid-19 made retailers realize the value of an omnichannel model for their business, which boosted the digitalization drive-in retail. 

The combination of traditional retail and digital retail leads to successful cross-channel retail models. Nevertheless, this too comes with its own set of challenges as the digital aspect grows. However, with the effective implementation of DevOps, issues can be tackled effectively. 

A1- Implementation

One of the main aims of DevOps in retail is to deliver all expected features in time without compromising on the quality and security of the product. It is able to achieve this goal with the help of its highly efficient components like:

  • Continuous integration cycles
  • Automated test cycles
  • Continuous delivery cycles
  • Timely deployments
  • Constructive mechanisms for building code

CI/CD pipelines can be very helpful to manage retail websites effectively while leveraging tools for monitoring, managing logs, and balancing load can be advantageous to ensure bug-free performances.  

Product-centric DevOps implementation is also useful, as it helps retailers to create a structured and coherent platform that enables them to develop new solutions regularly and enhance user experiences significantly. 

A2- Benefits

DevOps offers a rich amount of benefits to retailers:

  • It allows retailers to integrate additional features into their products seamlessly.
  • It enables companies to configure their organizational strategies profitably.
  • It speeds up deliveries of updates and fixes.
  • It ensures that all provided solutions align with your business requirements and objectives.
  • It enables retailers to develop smooth and automated workflows.
  • It is cost effective.
  • It ensures that reliable systems are developed.
  • It accelerates the collaboration and innovation potential of retail companies. 
  • It minimizes the risk factor of failure after deployment. 

B- DevOps in Finance

The finance industry is one of the most critical industries in the world. The data they handle, the clients they manage and the complex processes they carry out, all of it requires extreme efficiency and structure. As customers completely depend on financial service providers, it is essential that companies provide smooth and simple user experiences to their clients. However, things like regulatory compliances, data management and security raise concerns when working with legacy systems, which motivates financial service providers to move towards digital solutions. But this can be a little tough, as there is a lot of back-end work that needs to be done in order to ensure seamless digital experiences for clients, which adds on to the plethora of responsibilities that financial service providers already have. 

Implementation of DevOps in finance is a sure-shot way to achieve seamless digital experiences for customers while reducing the burdens of providers significantly. 

B1- Implementation

DevOps can be implemented in the finance industry in the following ways:

  • Process Automation: There are several processes in the finance industry that take up a lot of time and energy, leaving executives with very little to carry out actual, high-end tasks. With DevOps, many such tasks can be automated. From access controls to internal audits, monitoring, code reviews, and other daily operations, automating tasks can lead to more transparency and optimization without investing a lot of time and effort. By leveraging automation and continuous delivery through DevOps, the quality of products can also be improved while ensuring on-time deliveries.

  • Adherence to Regulatory Compliances: Whenever critical data is handled digitally, there are several regulatory compliances that need to be ensured. In the USA, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) act is imperative to adhere to, according to which companies have to maintain internal records to ensure that all financial data is properly reported and maintain controls to make sure that no changes in the software code are deployed into production unilaterally.

DevOps can be highly helpful to ensure proper adherence to SOX with the help of continuous integration it offers, by enabling the company to log and track each source code accurately. Hence, no unauthorized changes can be deployed. 

DevOps automation along with access controls can assist companies in ensuring that all compliance requirements have been met successfully. Several DevOps tools such as Git can also be used to maintain documentation and controls.

B2- Benefits

DevOps offers a rich amount of benefits to the finance industry:

  • Audits can be streamlined and automated
  • Daily operations can be managed more systematically
  • Time and effort of executives is saved with the help of automation
  • Companies can adhere to compliances efficiently and automatically
  • Maintaining documentation becomes easier
  • DevOps enables companies to implement continuous application performance monitoring
  • Majority of processes can be automated with the help of DevOps
  • DevOps improves collaboration among internal teams, thus breaks down organizational silos and makes financial processes more seamless and quick
  • By initially starting with continuous integration for better audits and documentation, and then slowly moving towards continuous deployment with DevOps, the finance industry can increase its return on investments
  • It enables providers to give enhanced digital financial services to clients, which was the ultimate goal they aimed to achieve in the first place

C- DevOps in Healthcare

The healthcare industry, right next to the financial industry, is also the one that deals with massive amounts of critical data that need to be handled securely. Over the years, the healthcare industry has seen the advent of myriad technologies which have aimed at improving its workflows and complex processes. 

However, as digital methods to handle data increase, so does the need to ensure adherence to regulatory compliances. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is the standard regulatory compliance for all healthcare organizations in the USA if they are storing or sharing any data electronically. Adherence to HIPAA compliance and security measures tend to be the most significant challenges faced by the healthcare industry as it moves towards digitalization. The inability to ensure HIPAA compliance in healthcare software can lead to hefty fines. Luckily, DevOps can help healthcare institutions to ensure HIPAA compliance and security measures in their software.

C1- Implementation

At the basic level, there are six steps that can be followed to implement DevOps in any industry, including healthcare:

  • Continuous Planning: Examining existing procedures and finding out requirements
  • Building the Code Repository: Developing a code repository with a version control system to enable developers to coordinate code and control changes
  • Continuous Integration: Focusing on integrating data across departments and code changes in the central repository with the help of CI tools
  • Automated Development: Using automation to script code and retrieve code that has already been deployed
  • Continuous Deployment/Delivery: Continuously delivering solutions and offering regular updates
  • Feedback and Monitoring: Continuous feedback and monitoring to ensure high-quality performance of applications

However, when it comes to healthcare, an additional step is added before the continuous deployment stage where the HIPAA infrastructure environment is defined. Storage network, computing and provisioning resources, public networks, private networks, and all other places where ePHI will be recorded are defined. Then, encryption and other security measures are incorporated to ensure that all HIPAA regulations are taken into account effectively. 

C2- Benefits

DevOps offers a rich amount of benefits to the healthcare industry:

  • It improves infrastructure efficiency. 
  • It optimizes resource utilization.
  • It is time-efficient and cost-effective.
  • It allows the implementation of new security features and models.
  • It ensures HIPAA compliance and other government regulations. 
  • DevOps can enable healthcare institutions to create APIs so that they can leverage massive amounts of data efficiently for their applications and servers. 
  • It automates compliances to streamline and simplify them. 

The implementations and benefits of DevOps across all industries are diverse. As we have discussed its implementations and benefits in the retail, healthcare and financial sectors, it has become quite clear that its advantages are the reason its market is growing so rapidly. 

However, like every other technology, DevOps implementations can have their challenges and setbacks as well, if not carried out under expert supervision. So, if you are looking for an experienced team to implement DevOps solutions, get in touch with our experts.