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Integrating external entities in DevOps ecosystem
Integrating external entities in DevOps ecosystem

July 16, 2025

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DevOps has become an integral part of the IT industry; combining cultural change with different sets of tools has revolutionized the way DevOps teams operate. The global market size for DevOps solutions is expected to grow from USD 2.90 Billion in 2017 to USD 10.31 Billion by the year 2023, according to a study by Markets And Markets. The need to deliver applications faster made the Dev and Ops teams come out of the silos and work together to collaborate on various processes like software development, automated testing, and continuous operations to promote continuous integration and continuous deployment.

Implementing a successful DevOps strategy is easy if you have a workforce that is capable of getting the best out of the codebase, DevOps tools, and cloud infrastructure. And tools and services that can augment the efforts of the workforce. Generally, all of us, tend to keep all the development processes in-house to have total control over them. However, sometimes, it is dependent on external dependencies. Most of the development pipelines are in some or another other way dependent on third-party resources and outsourced processes. And to get the best out of your DevOps workflow, it is important to understand the role that these third-party services play.

Relating your DevOps with the external ecosystem

To have an outstanding DevOps pipeline, almost all organizations have been using external services regularly. These services could be open-source tools or by a cloud service provider or by a partner ecosystem or by a third-party vendor such as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and other hosting services. So, to optimize the performance of your DevOps process, it is important to understand DevOps integration and its dependencies on external factors. Here are some of the highlighting ones:

  • To begin the actual development workflow, you need an infrastructure platform. So, unless you have a big in-house setup, you start with the cloud computing. And this is where your interaction with external entities starts.
  • Once your infrastructure management is decided, you can move on to the source code. You can integrate the open-source software into your codebases and depend on the open-source community to contribute to the codes for you.
  • There could be several developers working on the same codebase management. So, you will need a source code repository such as an AWS CodeCommit, Azure Repos, Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, Launchpad, etc. Along with this, you will look for a version control system like Git or Mercurial.
  • Once the coding phase is finalized, you can opt for virtual machines (VMs) or containerization. Now, no matter if you use open-source containers or enterprise containers, you are again dependent on external resources.
  • Your DevOps partners play a vital role in the DevOps lifecycle. It is important to synchronize with them to ensure the compatibility of release schedules and toolchains with them.
  • Most of the applications depend on APIs, these APIs could be designed in-house. However, in most cases, it is easy to just go for third-party APIs that are developed and managed by the industry leaders. You can expose some of a product or service's internal functions in a controlled environment. However, the most important thing to notice is you can use their API functionalities in your applications. This will augment the user experience adding to the business value.
  • Testing automation against various operating systems, browsers, and hardware devices that are managed by third-party testing services is a critical aspect of any delivery cycle.
  • Project management tools are another important aspect, and messaging tool integration is vital for transparency and communication between the developers involved. Tools like Jira, Trello, Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc. could come in very handy. If you are using Azure DevOps services then here is how you can integrate third-party services that will notify you and will take proactive actions on behalf of you.
  • The delivery chains should meet regulatory compliance such as PII, GDPR, HIPPA, etc., that are again managed by external compliance providers.
  • Third-party monitoring tools for SaaS or Cloud applications, such as New Relic, Elasticsearch, Sumo Logic, Amazon CloudWatch, Nagios, etc., can help to keep track of the status of the DevOps process.

To make your DevOps efficiency better, you have to integrate external integrations in one or the other way. It is evident that it is unavoidable and it will mean losing control over the process to a marginal extent. However, the benefits it brings to your DevOps optimization are prominently discernible.

Outsourcing DevOps, in general, and DevOps-as-a-service, in particular, is a powerful approach when used correctly. Like other external dependencies, you will lose some control, but at the same time, the benefits added are huge. Ready access to the talent pool, shortened development cycles, and improved output quality are some of the visible benefits. However, before you integrate third-party vendors into your DevOps strategy, it is important to know the best possible way to do it. Here are some of the important aspects that one should consider before opting for a DevOps service provider or external contractor -

  • Clear communication: Ensure clear, open, transparent, and timely communication channels.
  • Collaboration tools: Well-planned collaboration using conferencing tools, periodic review meetings, and scrum methodologies.
  • Secure code sharing: Sharing codebases, tools, and technologies with proper security protocols.
  • Automation tools: Optimum utilization of automation software for test data management, code integration, code release, provisioning, and configuration management.
  • Virtualization adoption: Adopting virtualization, cloud services, and container orchestration.

Adding value to your Interconnected DevOps

It is not always easy to build a CI/CD pipeline and DevOps workflows with all these third-party integrations getting into the play. The golden rule for this is - Always adopt flexible tools that are highly flexible and cover a broad area. Make sure your CI/CD processes have multiple branches so that it is easy for you to support different environments. If you want your third-party providers to add value to your software delivery pipeline then always try to do the strategic planning and make effective strategies. Even if you pay attention to every minute of CI/CD chain details, the very simple fact that you should know is this is an interconnected ecosystem where the right planning strategies play a very important role.

While choosing a DevOps-as-a-service partner, it is important to have an organization that has an engineering team with a thorough knowledge of CI/CD practices, tools, release automation, infrastructure configuration, and management. As DevOps is more about cultural change, it is extremely important to choose a partner that is ready to share your culture.

Get in touch with us today to discuss your DevOps initiatives.


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