One concept that seems to be universal across all IT departments is the admins lament of “how do I convince my boss that we should spend the money.”  Whether it is security, QA or development tools, technical professionals have a difficult time talking the language of the business to justify the expenditure of always scarce dollars. So why should it be any different with DevOps?

The good news is that in DevOps unlike some other IT disciplines we can actually show some ROI (sometimes anyway).  Nothing will convince a financial stakeholder that spending money is OK faster than if you can show it will allow the organization to either save money or make more money. But how do you show ROI with DevOps. There is more than one way to skin that cat.

Step 1 of 7

14%

Which of the following best describes how you currently monitor and manage systems across your hybrid cloud environment?(Required)

Multiple separate tools for different environments

Multiple separate tools for different monitoring and management functions

Single consolidated dashboard

Custom built monitoring and management solution

No full monitoring and management solution

Don’t know

How valuable would it be for your monitoring and management solution to incorporate predictive analytics to help you identify and address system issues that are critical and not waste time or effort working through all the data and “noise” that is not critical?(Required)

Extremely valuable

Moderately valuable

Somewhat valuable

Slightly valuable

Not valuable

How do you most typically address potential system issues BEFORE they impact your operations?(Required)

Automated workflows and playbooks to remediate potential issues as soon as they are detected

An orchestrated response process that leverages automation, AI, and human expertise to rapidly respond to potential issues

Advanced monitoring tools such as predictive analytics and anomaly detection to proactively identify and address potential issues

Respond to issues as they arise, using manual processes and troubleshooting techniques

A combination of automated remediation, orchestrated response, and/or proactive monitoring to address potential system issues

Don’t know

Other

What methods does your organization use to control and monitor cloud/IT spending?(Required)

Centralized procurement processes

Pre-approved budget thresholds

Automated cost monitoring tools

Department-level spending controls

Regular cost audits and reviews

Cloud cost optimization platform

Approval workflows for resource provisioning

Native financial operations tools provided by the cloud provider

No formal controls in place

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

Which methods do you rely on most to detect security vulnerabilities in your systems?(Required)

Automated scanning tools

Manual assessments

Vendor notifications

Threat modeling (for early detection)

None of these

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

What are the TWO most common ways you prioritize vulnerabilities to address within your environment?(Required)

Based on potential impact

Based on exploitability

Regulatory compliance requirements

Based on CVSS scores

Risk-based analysis of multiple factors

First-in-first-out approach

No formal prioritization process

Don’t know

How do you typically handle system updates and security patches?(Required)

Automated updates and patches

Manually review and apply updates and patches on a regular schedule

A combination of automation and manual review

Apply updates and patches on an as-needed basis.

Outsourced update and patch management

No defined process

Don’t know

Other

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This coming week I am hosting a webinar that will explore the various ways of showing ROI using DevOps.  We will also be looking at some case studies where ROI was demonstrated successfully. One of these organizations is HM Health Solutions. One of the interesting things in this case is that as a health care related organizations the usual compliance issues such as HIPAA often make things like automation and continuous delivery more complex.

I will be joined by Valerie Scott, Manager of Shared Services Division, HM Health Solutions who is going to relay first hand what she and her team have done to show their executive team how DevOps delivers a real, tangible and measurable ROI.  Valerie is a seasoned exec and I am sure she will have some great insights.

In addition to Valerie I will also be joined by Rick Slade of IBM who has lots of experience with different organizations in showing the ROI of DevOps.  I expect this webinar to be very informative.  If you are grappling with how to justify a shift to DevOps in your organization I invite you to join us next Tuesday, June 2nd.

This webinar is sponsored by IBM. It is the third in the series we are doing on Variable Speed DevOps. Our previous webinars in this series have all been very interesting. You can listen and follow along to those here and here. The series deals with how organizations can do more faster  even though not parts of the stack run at different speeds. It is not how fast they run individually, but how well they work together is the key.

So join me Tuesday as we discuss DevOps ROI and Variable Speed DevOps.