DevOps—the process of joining software development and IT operations teams to work collaboratively—enables organizations to quickly and easily deploy software and make continuous improvements. While private companies have long mastered this framework to meet the changing demands of consumers, DevOps in the public sector is gaining traction as well, with organizations like the United States Air Force, National Science Foundation and NASA leading the way.
DevOps has been a long-term goal for many government agencies. But after the pandemic began, consumers expected many in-person interactions, like the process of applying for a driver license, to be available online. Now, consumers expect more of these services to not only live online, but also function as easily and quickly as the web services from their favorite brands. However, unlike the private sector, government agencies have unique challenges for continued, widespread adoption in response to changing consumer behavior.
From compliance regulations like FedRAMP, a multifaceted approach to ensure public sector information is stored safely, to centralization and task management requirements, government environments add extra layers of complexity to DevOps initiatives. Here’s what IT professionals working within the public sector need to know about adopting DevOps, and how the combination of Atlassian tools and an Atlassian Platinum Solutions Provider like Contegix can help agencies quickly implement agile practices.
Adopting DevOps in the Public Sector
For government IT teams, initiating the shift to DevOps requires dissolving traditional waterfall approaches that have kept teams software development and IT operations siloed and slow moving—taking months or even years to release products.
To facilitate this shift, IT leaders must migrate the entire structure to a process of continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD). Continuous integration incorporates automatic testing and integration for software code changes, which enable continuous delivery: the process of producing reliable software in increments.
Involved in the process, teams also have to transport data from legacy systems into a supporting infrastructure—a time-consuming task accompanied by complex regulations. Security measures, while critical across industries, are even more robust within the public sector—including compliance requirements like FedRAMP.
Between enforcing process changes, transferring data into new systems and maintaining compliance at every point of the process, the amount of work from IT teams and related costs multiply. And for government IT teams, with limited budgets and staff, it’s critical that technology innovation, while meeting primary objectives, remain cost-effective, too.
How Atlassian Tools and Experts Can Help
Atlassian offers a portfolio of products to support government IT leaders on their journey to implementing DevOps effectively. Combined, Jira Software, Confluence, Bitbucket and Opsgenie give teams a connected, simple method to adopt DevOps and produce secure software at scale.
In Atlassian’s suite of DevOps products, developers, team leads and operations teams use Jira Software for agile software planning and tracking. Jira’s Bitbucket integration gives developers insight into ongoing changes and requests for collaboration and enables automation so teams can deploy code quickly and reliably through CI/CD. Team leads can leverage Jira to track the software delivery lifecycle and document spec requirements, status and more using Confluence. And Operations teams can respond to any issues through Opsgenie and instantly troubleshoot problems that arise.
These platforms already power top government organizations, including the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, and NASA. But making the switch to DevOps is complex and takes time to implement, and agencies looking to jump start the implementation of DevOps solutions can turn to verified government partners to accelerate the process.
Partnering with an Atlassian Platinum Solutions Provider
Atlassian Verified Government Partners are a trusted group of consulting partners that are equipped with knowledge and experience required to support government IT teams in their unique path to adopting DevOps.
As an Atlassian Platinum Solutions partner for government, Contegix provides hands-on support from cloud migration to consulting services and performance tuning. Contegix also offers additional compliance solutions including FedRAMP, HIPAA and PCI, so agencies using Atlassian products can ensure their data is both secure and compliant.
The experienced team at Contegix works as a bridge to help government agencies leverage the tools Atlassian offers to make sure DevOps adoption fulfills its maximum capabilities and operates efficiently.
For more information about implementing DevOps in the public sector, including how to reap all the benefits of DevOps and more specifics into what Contegix can offer your team, read our whitepaper: The Ultimate Guide to Implementing DevOps in the Public Sector.