The question of whether or not you can outsource DevOps is a complicated one. Some say it can’t be done. In this article, we’ll explore both sides of the issue so you can make an informed decision about whether or not it’s right for your organization.

Pros and cons of outsourcing DevOps

The advantage of not having to build out your own internal capabilities is obvious, but there are pros and cons of outsourcing DevOps, too.

Pros: The key benefit of hiring someone else to help with DevOps is that you can engage with a partner that is more experienced in the field and bring in specific skillsets you don’t have. This can accelerate speed of the project by leveraging these external capabilities. Also, if the vendor has already built up some automation for other clients, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel yourself. The biggest con here—and it’s a big one—is that you need to align culture and incentives across two different organizations. You can’t just let vendors do all the work! You need them as partners who are willing and able participants on your team rather than just another resource offloading their responsibilities onto yours.

You can outsource some parts of DevOps but you have to do it right.

All too often, companies look to outsource DevOps without understanding what it takes to implement DevOps and reap its benefits. Outsourcing only part of your application life cycle isn’t enough—you’ve got to adopt a holistic approach if you want the full benefit of DevOps.

This doesn’t mean that outsourcing isn’t a good option; in fact, it can be an excellent way to accelerate your adoption of DevOps by leveraging a partner who has experience doing what you need done. But before selecting an outsourcing provider or engaging them on contract terms and conditions, consider these recommendations from industry experts:

Don’t outsource parts of your application development process without considering the entire life cycle of the software being developed.
Think about outsourcing to teams that have responsibility for development, quality and operations in a transversal way.
Another option is to create hybrid teams between direct employees and employees from the vendor and the full multidisciplinary team owns transversally development, quality and operations.
Understand how cultural aspects play into implementing DevOps within your organization so that you can determine whether or not outsourced help is right for you. This includes everything from hiring practices (and whether they reflect agile principles) all the way down through how teams collaborate with one another internally at work versus externally with vendors who may work remotely but still require face-to-face interaction at times during projects (which will likely be challenging if team members aren’t physically located nearby each other).
Consider nearshoring as an alternative solution since it will allow teams greater access to each in real time while providing savings over engineers in North America.”

What to focus on when adopting DevOps with a partner

It can be challenging for companies that have never adopted DevOps before or those that haven’t fully embraced its concepts. Here are three areas where you should focus on with your partner when adopting DevOps:

If you’re looking to adopt DevOps, it may not be possible to outsource the entire process. However, leveraging nearshore with the right partner can help you accelerate the DevOps adoption and internalize hard skills for your company faster. If you want to explore this option, reach out.