Some say DevOps is a new way of thinking, some contend it's Agile extended beyond development and others still consider it "". According to Tom Silver, vice president of Dice North America, , DevOps is, "a combination of development and operations that work to facilitate more interaction between developers and SysAdmins."

Done correctly the result can mean delivering software faster with fewer deployment issues, which is good no matter what you do. The key takeaway is that a DevOps methodology has your IT teams and development teams working together to bring the infrastructure inside the development process where it's treated more like part of the application.

In a traditional IT/Development setting, developers create applications and code releases, and then pass off their work to IT, who would then be expected to handle the deployment--this separation or invisible wall can quickly lead to delays and deployment issues. The DevOps methodology, however, mandates that the IT operations team and the developers work together to deliver apps, updates and new features to end-users. The end result have been shorter delivery cycles and more timely updates.