Development teams know all too well the detrimental impacts delayed incident response has on software development. From interrupted development progress to large financial or data losses, DevOps teams cannot endure the risks from ineffective incident management.
These risks highlight the importance of improving response strategies and automating incident management especially when it comes to ensuring continuous progress on development projects. So, this blog will dive into the benefits of automating incident management, as well as the steps required to do so.
What is incident management?
In the context of DevOps, incident management refers to the process of identifying, responding to, and recovering from incidents that impact critical systems necessary to making seamless progress on software development. It is crucial that there is a strong incident management plan in place that streamlines incident response. This ensures that development teams are not experiencing prolonged delays that may impact deployment dates, thereby negatively affecting their business reputation.
Why should I automate incident management?
Reducing incident response times is imperative to mitigating the impacts that critical incidents have on development, so improving incident management workflows should be a priority. Especially with the ever-changing digital landscape, constantly requiring faster, streamlined deployment. Ultimately, this leads to the belief that the future of DevOps is automation.
Automation is one of the most effective ways to improve incident management, with benefits including:
Reduced MTTR & MTTD
Automation tools, like log monitoring systems and critical alerting systems, can immediately detect and notify response teams of anomalies within critical systems that could imply cyberthreats or system failures. Eliminating the need for staff members to manually monitor for vulnerabilities can significantly reduce mean time to respond (MTTR) and mean time to detect (MTTD).
Improved accuracy
With the numerous trends and threats teams must remember and steps they must take to ensure effective incident management, they can often make mistakes or miss system vulnerabilities. Incident management systems successfully automate these processes, ensuring that no vulnerabilities go overlooked and no incident goes untracked.
Decreased costs
Automation expedites incident response, avoiding prolonged downtimes that have costly ramifications. Additionally, with the reduced need for human intervention, labor costs can be significantly reduced.
Improved productivity
Many incident management plans that incorporate automation include the implementation of incident alert management tools. These tools deliver distinguishable alerts right to the DevOps team’s mobile phones, allowing them to seamlessly work on their project without having to constantly monitor their emails for alerts from their monitoring systems or incident commander.
Steps to automating incident management
Review current incident management processes
When deciding to automate incident management processes, the first step is to review the current processes to see where automation is necessary for improvement. Oftentimes, DevOps teams use automation for incident ticket tracking, system monitoring, and incident alerting.
Examine the capabilities of existing technologies
Many DevOps teams’ existing technologies are capable of automating processes through integrations. For example, monitoring systems are often compatible with alerting solutions that can automate the notification process, ensuring response teams are promptly mobilized upon incident detection.
Research & implement tools that fit organizational needs
It is imperative that teams research automation tools and choose them based on organizational needs. This could include implementing technologies that integrate with existing tools,or researching technologies that are within a specific price range.
Implement incident management tools
Once the automated incident management tools have been purchased, they must be properly implemented into the organization’s environment. Teams should slowly implement automation tools, so that staff is not overwhelmed, learning all of the new processes at once.
Train staff on new tools & their corresponding protocols
Adding on to the last point, staff must be properly trained on both how to use new automation technologies, as well as the changes in the existing incident management protocols, so that they fully understand the new process. This ensures the successful implementation of an automated incident management plan.
Don’t forget about security!
With the increased number of teams moving towards DevSecOps, it is imperative to mention how cybersecurity fits into the automation of incident management. Teams cannot implement tools without researching their security measures, and with so many incident management systems that offer encrypted messaging, to ensure that incidents are handled securely without risking the loss of additional data, this should be easy. This is especially important to teams that are designing secure software development lifecycles – ensuring that their security efforts are not undermined by new technologies. Ultimately, teams must take security into consideration when automating incident management to ensure that all incidents are securely handled.
Conclusion
Automation is one of the best ways to reduce response times, and with the increased pressure for DevOps teams to deploy software after software, this is crucial. So, this blog guides development teams through the process of automating incident management, to ensure that no incident significantly impacts software development progress. Additionally, prioritizing security during development is essential and must be addressed in the incident management plan as well to ensure that organizations are not vulnerable to attack. So, by researching and implementing secure automation tools that align with organizational goals, teams can streamline incident management ensuring that DevOps teams can maintain seamless productivity.
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