The vendor is pioneering a new way to develop software that emphasizes close working relationships among interested parties.
Risk Focus Inc., a DevOps solutions vendor, is launching a “player-coach” service for software systems development that emphasizes a close working relationship and is “a radical departure from the bureaucratic cloud adoption programs that are common in large enterprises,” officials say.
“Risk Focus works with its clients throughout the process, from defining and specifying the deliverables through identifying the technology and process challenges, to implementing the solutions and ensuring that the client’s team is ready to make use of the deliverables,” according to the vendor.
This new model may prove attractive to firms that need to get onto the cloud quickly, says Vassil Avramov, CEO of Risk Focus, in a prepared statement. “Many firms need and want to use the cloud more effectively, but don’t know where to start. This methodology helps them to get results very quickly and puts them on a sustainable path,” Avramov says.
The term DevOps, which is short for development and operations, “is an enterprise software development phrase used to mean a type of agile relationship between development and IT operations,” according to a definition found via Webopedia. “The goal of DevOps is to change and improve the relationship by advocating better communication and collaboration between these two business units.”
The goal of this new model is to target staff not only working in IT and software development but those working in securities operations and in compliance, according to Risk Focus officials.
“We have found that clients have been trying to modernize not only their technology stack, but their software development methodologies, so they want to bring us in to raise the knowledge and skill levels of their internal teams, regardless of what the firm/group does,” a spokesperson for Risk Focus tells FTF News.
The company primarily serves financial services firms but “we also have a few non-financial clients taking us up on this,” the spokesperson adds.
The new DevOps model “combines the planning and delivery principles of Agile [software development] with the automation opportunities of Cloud, giving flexibility in approach and adapting to learning, but still respecting the corporate gating and controls,” according to Risk Focus. (The Agile software development method exploits an iterative development process that involves cross-functional teams.)
“The Player-Coach is a one-of-a-kind service which empowers the client through active coaching and a close working relationship,” Risk Focus officials say. The service encompasses an initial discovery period over one-to-two weeks to “identify projects within their immediate needs that can be delivered quickly and cost-effectively.”
The initial phase is followed by four weeks of “implementation and deliverables,” according to Risk Focus. “The outcome for the engagement is that within just six weeks the client has a working deliverable, a backlog of projects and tasks that can be addressed in the future, and a plan for completing them,” say Risk Focus officials. The vendor’s team can then complete the backlog.
The size of the Risk Focus team will vary from client to client. “We typically start with a senior engagement lead and an architect, followed up by software developers. It all depends on what we agree to with the client during the first two weeks,” the spokesperson tells FTF News. Clients will pay for the service via a fixed bid/fixed scope process, “if possible,” the spokesperson adds.
Some of the major development areas that the new model will cover are:
- Continuous Integration /Continuous Delivery (CI/CD): This is for building pipelines and repos, automated testing, gating and release management;
- Containerization and Container Orchestration: This encompasses building containers, moving legacy apps into containers, building and scaling clusters;
- Cloud First Steps: This aspect of the service helps end-users define “an actionable vision, educating stakeholders, building a minimum viable prototype;”
- Public Cloud: This area of focus helps with infrastructure automation, application migration, cost management;
- Hybrid Cloud: The discipline helps with “common tooling, single pane of glass, support for multiple clouds”
Risk Focus has signed “one major client who needs to remain anonymous for now, with three more clients in advanced discussions,” the spokesperson says.
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