Dev vs. Ops: The Original Split
Before DevOps existed, two teams built and ran every application, and they barely spoke to each other.
Every application is built by developers and run by operations. But historically, these two teams worked in complete isolation, like neighbours who share a wall but never talk.
The Dev team's job was clear: write code, build features, ship fast. Their success was measured by how fast they could deliver.
The Ops team had a different mandate: keep things stable, secure, and running. Their success was measured by how stable the system stayed.
Dev wants to ship fast. Ops wants to keep things stable. Speed vs. stability: that's the fundamental tension.
When Dev finished coding, they'd "throw it over the wall" to Ops: "Here, deploy this." Ops received something they didn't build, didn't fully understand, and were expected to run flawlessly. The result:
This blame game slowed everything down: delayed releases, frequent outages, and frustrated teams on both sides. Something had to give.