Revolutionizing development with Web3 DevOps: Will apps grow on the distributed ledgers’ trees?

What is Web3 DevOps?

Web3 DevOps is a software development approach applying the DevOps principles on the surface of modern Web3 technologies. It is a method of creating, deploying, and managing applications that are built for distributed ledger platforms. It allows developers to build apps X times faster and with fewer risks, using more automation tools and applying CI/CD pipelines.

Web3 DevOps bridges the gap between traditional software development practices and blockchain technologies. For developers, it means taking the best of both approaches, deploying apps with fewer efforts, and managing them as with a magic wand.

Benefits of Web3 DevOps

You can expect the following benefits to appear if you choose Web3 DevOps approach for your app. 

• X times faster development.
  The automation and CI/CD are unavoidable attributes of the Web3 DevOps approach. With all these fancy attributes that are not quite directly connected with development, your app will have faster time-to-market indicators and a less twisted way to production.
• Improved scalability.
  It’s one of the core values of any Web3 app development multiplied by DevOps techniques. Nothing can scale better than blockchain nodes by all means; this power can be used for the good of your app.
• Increased security.
  This benefit is caused by “design,” if we may say so. Thanks to decentralized and anonymized, still extremely transparent architecture, distributed ledger technologies can build one of the safest apps and projects inaccessible for bad intentions from outer spaces. 
• Reduced costs.
  This point is tightly connected with the first three. All of them cause a decrease in costs. The automation and CI/CD decrease human error and shorten developers' time that needs to be invested in the same processes. Scalability features are available from the beginning, no need to invest in them separately. And fixed security issues from the project's start is a priceless design. 

Why Web3 DevOps is revolutionizing development: Three main reasons

So the main reasons for you to pay attention to the Web3 DevOps approach for your app lie in the following facts:

1. Even if you’re not closely familiar with distributed ledger technology, you have a chance to create a project that’s much easier to deploy and manage for any team by simply choosing it as a basis for your app. 
2. With this approach, you can save a fortune and a massive amount of time and appear on the market faster than your competitors. 
3. The security and scaling matters are not problems for you anymore. You’ll be able to scale your startup into a business and protect your data as easily as if you know that everything will work this way from the start. 

How Web3 DevOps works

Things don’t differ much at the beginning of the project with the traditional or Web3 DevOps approach. You must map and plan the app's functions with a small amendment. You have to realize that it will be deployed one day to the blockchain of your choice. The choice of blockchain will be one of the toughest decisions for you, but if you make it right, the whole app work will go smoothly, and no problems with the operational part will appear. 

Your development team can use your favorite tools to create the app. There are no limitations regarding the frameworks you can use or programming languages. The main thing is to remember that it’s all going to be deployed on a distributed ledger. 

Once the application is deployed, your dev team (or even DevOps engineers from Dysnix) can manage the application using tools and services available thanks to Web3. We can set up performance monitoring, automate the app’s updates, and improve the app's security even further.

The main challenges of Web3 DevOps

This approach also has a downside, and we have to admit it. Working with many teams striving to apply the Web3 DevOps approach in their development, we mentioned that they all had some features in common. These challenges should be overcome for the successful work of the future app.  

• The dev team must be at least aware of the distributed ledger technologies, their general principles and possibilities. And it’s always better to have some hands-on practice. If your developers are totally new to this technology, it’s not a dead end either. Hiring an experienced DevOps for consulting and guidance will also work for you. 
• You may meet the lack of tools and services needed for some features of your app that are common for non-Web3-based projects. This challenge can be avoided by careful planning at the beginning of development. No surprises in the development and management of applications are pleasant and cost less for the business. 
• The last challenge is connected with a lack of standardization for Web3. Each vendor can have a different version of the same tool or how they transfer data or do any other function. As a developer, you can’t be sure that the components you heavily rely on will be supported a year or two after the launch of your app. Risks are pretty visible here. 

Best Practices for Web3 DevOps

Don’t be afraid to start anyway, all challenges are passable. If you use the best practices for your development, you have all chances to create an efficient and modern Web3 app.

• Care about your team's education, help them learn more about Web3, all these blockchains and ledgers. 
• Set CI/CD pipelines and automate the deployment processes to the fullest.
• Prepare that the main phase of setup activities will begin after deployment to the ledger: you must be ready to monitor and adjust your app’s performance and maintain it according to expected scenarios. 
• Still, care about meeting the security and quality standards when creating applications on Web3.

How to get started with Web3 DevOps development

Overall, you have two main approaches to start with the Web3 DevOps approach.

1. You may do everything with the resources of your team. 
   ‍If you have resources and are ready for the long run, then this way is for you. Start with planning, architecture, tools, features audit, security, and all other essential matters to cover. Find out the weak spots of your preparations, especially in distributed ledger technologies, and enforce them via education. All these investments will pay you back. Then you can proceed to the development and deployment, as we’ve mentioned above. After deployment on the ledger, continue with further improvements. ‍
2. Delegate an unknown part of Web3 DevOps to the specialists, like the Dysnix team, and concentrate on development and business planning. With this approach, you’ll have more resources on the development alone, while dedicated experts will cover all Web3 DevOps parts. Your team should be synchronized with your consultants and work as one. It’s better to hire the same team for all the processes—starting from planning and ending with support and maintenance.  

Tools and technologies for Web3 DevOps

To develop an app that will meet Web3 DevOps requirements, you won’t need to invent a bicycle. Any preferred development tools and frameworks to create the apps will work, even your favorite JavaScript and Python will do. Regarding of ledger platforms, everything is highly customizable and individual for your project, from Ethereum with its variable tool range available for devs to the exotic and nerdy blockchains that you haven’t even heard about with zero tools developed for them. 

The second number of instruments that should interest you depends highly on your ledger. And it’s not only about officially supported tools available at the official websites or stores but also about third-party vendors that use the blockchain to provide wider possibilities for projects that host there. 

Regarding CI/CD and automation, there are plenty of tools like Jenkins and Travis CI that are pretty familiar among developers or distributed ledger-specific tools like Truffle and Embark.

Practical examples of Web3 DevOps applications

The concept of Web3 is not new, so a massive number of applications are developed on the basis of a distributed ledger. For example, the RPC Fast by Dysnix, the tool developed using the Web3 DevOps approach, works as a geo-distributed blockchain node provider for any project that needs to leverage the speed and power of Web3.

Another popular example of the Web3 DevOps app is the DeFi dashboard, a web application built for different blockchains that help to track the most useful information from it, like real-time insights into their DeFi investments.

The garden of Web3 is going to bloom. You should be there

As practitioners and pioneers of the Web3 DevOps approach, we can’t stress enough the value of this methodology for moving whole industries forward. No modern Web3 app can be imagined without implementing the principles described above. The main trick of this approach is that if your team is low-qualified, you select the inappropriate ledger, and the product idea is generally weak, no matter how quick and optimized the whole development process will be, you’ll get a junky app in the end. So you’d better take advantage of both team and development techniques to apply.