SysOps Vs. DevOps: What's the Difference?

Introduction

If you are following the recent trends in the IT world, you must have heard about DevOps and SysOps. With all the attention they are getting these days, it’d be hard not to. Being familiar with these two terminologies is not enough if you are a techie or a programmer in this ever-evolving technological world. You are going to need to know a whole lot more, especially when you are interested in Cloud Computing. This blog will give you a basic introduction to both SysOps and DevOps, along with the key differences between the two.

So, without further ado, get started with it!

SysOps and DevOps are two very important concepts of cloud computing. When Cloud Computing came into existence, it fulfilled about 20 percent of a DBA’s work, almost 50 percent of a System Admin’s work and 80 percent of a Network Engineer’s work. Before the advent of cloud, businesses and IT organisations had to hire Testers, DBAs, Developers, Network Engineers, System Engineers, Operators, and what not to function, successfully. Thus with the evolution of cloud, the System Admins changed their working style. With less tasks and more time in their hands, they shifted to aiding developers in building business applications rather than shielding users and businesses from the mistakes of developers. This was the birth of DevOps.

Check out this Intellipaat DevOps Training video:

To understand the differences between DevOps and SysOps, first you have to understand these two concepts individually.

DevOps (Development Operations)

DevOps, as the name suggests, is a concept that helps manage the tasks related to development and operations teams together.

About 16 years ago, System Administration used tools like CVS (concurrent version systems), SCCS (source code control system), and vendor package management tools to accomplish what DevOps professionals do nowadays.

DevOps professionals use Puppet, Chef, and similar open-source, cross-platform tools for system configuration and automation. System Admins automate the process of infrastructure building; whereas, continuous deployment is the goal of developers through build tools automation. So, combining these tasks of System Admin and Development teams is what DevOps is all about.

SysOps (System Operations)

SysOps delivery style is ITIL, which is a set of thorough guidelines for IT service management (ITSM) that concentrates on aligning business goals with IT services. ITIL enables the firm or an organisation to form a baseline from which it can design, execute, and measure. It is used to show compliance and estimate improvement. In the past, the term ‘SysOps’ or ‘system operator’ was used to denote any professional who was responsible for any computer system. But with the advancement of Cloud Computing, it has become a terminology for denoting professionals who are responsible for multi-user systems. They are responsible for various tasks. Some of them are similar to DevOps and some are different.

For example, DevOps typically follows the continuous delivery model. In this model, teams develop, write, test, and release software in short time cycles. DevOps makes use of automation at every step so that the time cycles can be rapid and reliable.

Now, you know that SysOps and DevOps may appear similar, but there are some differences that you still haven’t explored. Ready to dig up?

Differences Between SysOps and DevOps

Although there are many areas where SysOps and DevOps provide similar functionalities, there are some areas where these two differ from each other significantly.

The differences between SysOps and DevOps in terms of some specific areas and the ways in which these two work are mentioned earlier in this blog. Now, go through the table below to understand all these differences better.

The SysOps way of managing infrastructure is centralized around infrastructure which is taken care of on a more individual level. The DevOps way of managing infrastructure is also centralized around infrastructure, but it is taken care of by using the latest robotic process automation tools.

DevOps and SysOps are two large areas of Cloud Computing. These two approaches are used to manage the infrastructure. If a choice has to be made between the two, then that totally depends on your requirements. There are at least seven things to consider while you choose between DevOps Automation and System Administration aka SysOps for building an application.

• Estimating load predictability
• Determining when the traffic shoots up or falls down
• Having a clear idea on the required execution speed
• Realizing how rapidly the application should adapt to unforeseen changes
• Recognizing how fast the scaling should be when the traffic shoots up
• Ascertaining whether your business is global or not (A global traffic spike is different from a local traffic spike)
• Understanding how often you want to perform releases to your application

Therefore, it is clear that there is no exact answer for the question related to choosing between DevOps and SysOps. It varies from organization to organization depending on the aforementioned factors. Moreover, when it comes to individual workload and market strategy, the answer to such a question may still vary.

Check out this Intellipaat AWS SysOps Administrator Training video:

Conclusion

In the managed operations, SysOps and DevOps are two approaches which were incepted as a result of immense development in the field of technology in the cloud and Internet era. Businesses, especially those came up within the last 10 years, have relied on IT as their main source of success. There have been so many advancements in technologies which have resulted in huge competition among the online firms, and it is obvious that the successful firm is the one which provides new and improved services to their clients. In each firm, hence, SysOps and DevOps professionals should work in tandem so that they can best address the needs of their clientele.