In the ever-evolving landscape of software engineering, tools and methodologies are continuously refined and recrafted to meet the growing needs of the industry. One of the newest entrants in this sphere is the Integrated Software Delivery Platform (ISDP), an answer to the challenges faced in managing and integrating the plethora of available tools for different phases of software development.
The Era of Monoliths
It’s hard to ignore the imposition of large monolithic software development platforms like ClearCase and Microsoft TFS. These platforms, while comprehensive, came with their own set of limitations—escalating costs and vendor lockdown—that eventually led to their demise. Sensing the need for change, the developer community spearheaded a movement that led to the arrival of skilled open-source tools, such as Jenkins for continuous integration, Git for version control, Sonar for code quality, and others. This resulted in an explosive growth in the number of development automation tools available to the community.
Paying the DevOps Tax
However, diversity does not come without its own set of challenges, especially when you are developing code on a large scale. With different teams opting for different tools, complications were bound to arise. From ensuring compliance on a large scale to the delivery of a common developer experience across an organization, everything became more difficult. Additionally, the customization and maintenance of these development platforms led to what we now refer to as the “DevOps tax.”
The Arrival of ISDP
It is not surprising that when asked, about 79% of our ISDP reference customers referred to “tool consolidation” as a high priority while choosing an ISDP vendor. The list of requirements is long: not only should the ISDP offer an open platform that provides core capabilities such as Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), but it also needs to manage users (for consistent compliance), be able to onboard new developers (for improved developer experience) easily, provide secured pipelines, release readiness, and extras such as delivering policy as code.
The Forrester Wave™: Integrated Software Delivery Platforms, Q2 2023
The platform should also come with utilities such as value stream analytics which can provide observability, manage costs and connect effort with value. Our references want a platform that will let them harness the benefits of DevOps without having to bear its tool tax. This is where Integrated Software Delivery Platforms (ISDP) fill the gap perfectly, enabling developers and businesses to drive value and expedite delivery while mitigating the overheads of tool management.
In the Forrester Wave report on Integrated Software Delivery Platforms for Q2 2023, it’s evident that ISDPs are making waves in the software development community. The broader capabilities and wider flexibility offered by these platforms are revolutionizing the way software development and delivery is approached.
The Future of ISDPs
The next frontier for ISDPs is to improve ability to adapt to changing needs of the businesses and developers. Consolidation, openness, and interoperability will be key trends moving forward. Reach out to learn more about how ISDPs are reshaping the world of software development.
tags: #ISDP, #DevOps, #ToolConsolidation, #SoftwareDevelopment