DevOps and cloud computing get so much enterprise attention and investment today, it’s easy to forget the important fact that they are a means to an end. Businesses are not reorganizing software development operations and redesigning IT infrastructures for the sake of change. The end goal is to innovate faster.

DevOps and cloud infrastructure alone are not enough to reach your digital innovation, acceleration and transformation goals. The combination of DevOps and cloud changes a lot about how and where work gets done, but not necessarily how quickly. To do that – and to realize the full value of DevOps and cloud – organizations need to automate as many of their development and operations tasks as possible, in all development, testing and production stages. Automation also needs to extend to any environment, flowing easily across on-premises and multi-cloud infrastructure.

DevOps and cloud are also more than process and architectural changes; they also present a culture change. They require traditional IT organizations to give up some control and embrace a collaborative culture with the lines-of-business and product teams. By adding the key ingredient of automation to this new cultural shift, organizations can get the most value from their DevOps and cloud efforts.