What to Do When Your Dev Team Becomes Your Ops Team

When your development team is suddenly responsible for managing systems, it can disrupt productivity and strain resources. Developers often face challenges like handling incidents without specialised support, balancing feature development with system maintenance, and controlling cloud costs. These issues can lead to missed deadlines, wasted budgets, and team burnout.

The solution? Focus on automation, clear incident response plans, and cost management. Tools like Infrastructure as Code (IaC), monitoring systems, and budget alerts can help streamline processes. Additionally, external experts can provide valuable support for complex tasks, while regular reviews and skill-building ensure continuous improvement. By addressing these areas, teams can maintain focus on creating great products without being overwhelmed by operational demands.

Creating a DevOps Culture in an Infrastructure Team

Common Problems When Developers Run Operations

When developers are suddenly tasked with managing production systems, they often face three major hurdles. These aren't just small annoyances - they can disrupt product development and have serious business consequences.

Handling Incidents Without SRE Support

Picture this: it's 2 a.m. on a Thursday, and the payment system crashes. A lead developer, who excels at coding but has limited experience with outages, gets the alert. Incident response is a whole different ballgame, requiring skills that go beyond writing clean code.

A staggering 65% of organisations reported an increase in incidents over the past year. Without the expertise of a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), developers often spend hours troubleshooting issues that an experienced ops engineer could resolve much faster. The financial impact of downtime is no joke - enterprise companies lose an average of £3,000 per minute. For a UK SaaS startup, even a two-hour outage during peak hours could mean thousands of pounds in lost revenue, not to mention the hit to customer trust.

Developers in these situations must juggle tasks like defining escalation protocols, communicating with stakeholders, and diagnosing problems. Without clear post-incident reviews, teams risk repeating the same errors, creating a cycle of operational chaos. And it’s not just the immediate crises - balancing system maintenance with feature development adds another layer of strain.

Keeping Systems Running While Building Features

This challenge hits most development teams hard. Operational hiccups often interrupt sprints and delay feature releases. One minute, you're deep into building a new feature; the next, you're scrambling to figure out why the database is lagging or why API response times have suddenly spiked.

SREs typically rely on software solutions to boost system reliability, minimising the need for manual fixes. But when developers are left to manage operations, they often resort to quick patches that pile on technical debt. The constant back-and-forth between coding and firefighting slows sprint velocity and pulls focus away from delivering the updates that customers actually care about.

On top of these technical disruptions, there's another lurking issue: uncontrolled cloud spending.

Managing Rising Cloud Costs

Cloud bills can spiral out of control in the blink of an eye. A £500 monthly AWS bill can unexpectedly balloon to £2,000 if cost drivers aren’t fully understood. Research shows that about 25% of cloud spending is wasted, with some organisations able to cut costs by up to 50% through better optimisation. For a UK startup spending £10,000 a month on cloud infrastructure, this inefficiency could mean £2,500 in waste each month - or £30,000 a year.

Take the example of SwiftApp, a mobile app startup. They failed to monitor their cloud expenses and saw costs jump by 350% over six months. By introducing monitoring tools, they managed to slash their cloud spend by 60% in just two months. This highlights a common issue: developers might provision resources for testing and forget to decommission them, or they may opt for expensive instance types when unsure about performance needs.

Without proper cost allocation and spending alerts, teams often discover budget overruns weeks too late, forcing them to make rapid cuts that can harm system performance and reliability. Understanding options like reserved instances, spot pricing, and storage classes requires specialised knowledge - something developers, focused on building applications, may not have.

These challenges show just how important it is for development teams to find a balance between driving innovation and managing systems effectively.

How to Make Operations Work for Dev Teams

Making operations work for development teams isn’t about turning developers into operations specialists overnight. Instead, it’s about setting up smart systems that automate repetitive tasks. When done correctly, these systems allow developers to manage production environments without pulling them away from their primary focus: building and improving product features.

Use Automation to Reduce Manual Work

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has revolutionised how dev teams handle cloud environments. Instead of clicking through endless AWS dashboards or manually setting up servers, teams can define their entire infrastructure through code. This method brings version control, reproducibility, and collaborative workflows - areas where developers already excel.

Automation tackles inefficiencies by streamlining tasks like configuration, scaling, and deployment. This ensures consistent setups and reduces the risk of manual errors.

Configuration management tools like Ansible, Puppet, and Chef cater to various team needs. Whether you’re after a quick, agentless setup or a more robust solution for complex environments, these tools offer flexibility without adding unnecessary complexity.

CI/CD pipelines are another game-changer. They automate building, testing, and deploying applications, making software releases faster and more reliable. Beyond that, automation tools can handle everything from server provisioning and application testing to security event responses and monitoring.

The payoff? Companies that embrace cloud automation report savings of 10% to 19%. However, automation works best when guided by a clear strategy that aligns with business goals. Security remains a top priority - measures like least privilege access, encrypting sensitive data, and secure secret management should always be part of the plan.

Once automation is in place, teams can shift their attention from firefighting manual fixes to focusing on strategic incident management.

Create Simple Incident Response Plans

Automation does more than reduce busywork - it also sets the stage for streamlined incident response. Simple, lightweight playbooks can be lifesavers when systems fail at inconvenient times. Unlike overly complex enterprise protocols, these playbooks provide clear, actionable steps that anyone on the team can follow under pressure. They should outline escalation paths, communication procedures, and diagnostic methods without drowning team members in unnecessary detail.

For smaller teams, service-level agreements (SLAs) don’t need to be overly elaborate. Straightforward goals - like acknowledging incidents within 15 minutes and issuing updates every 30 minutes during outages - can create structure without excess red tape. Post-incident reviews are essential for learning from mistakes, documenting what went wrong, and figuring out how to avoid similar problems in the future. Testing and validation also play a critical role in improving reliability and minimising errors.

Observability is another cornerstone of effective incident response. With robust logging, monitoring, and alerting systems in place, teams gain the visibility they need to tackle issues as they arise.

While managing incidents is crucial, keeping cloud costs under control is equally important for maintaining agile operations.

Control Cloud Spending

One of the simplest ways to manage cloud expenses is through resource tagging. By tagging resources based on projects, departments, or clients, teams can gain a clear view of where their money is going and track spending patterns more effectively. What once seemed like a baffling cloud bill can quickly become a transparent cost breakdown.

Budget alerts are another handy tool for preventing financial surprises. For instance, AWS Budgets provides two free action-enabled budgets per month, with additional ones costing around £0.08 per day. Setting alerts to trigger at thresholds like 50%, 80%, and 100% of the monthly budget gives teams enough time to investigate and address potential overspending.

Monthly cost reviews are far more effective than quarterly ones. A FinOps framework can help teams align their cloud spending with business priorities by monitoring usage, rightsizing resources, and taking advantage of cloud provider discounts. Businesses using software asset management tools have reported saving up to 30% on software costs in the first year, while adopting a multi-cloud strategy can cut overall cloud expenses by as much as 26%.

Automated scaling tools, such as AWS Auto Scaling or Google Cloud Autoscaler, adjust resources in real time based on demand. Predictive analytics can further refine this process by forecasting usage and ensuring resources are allocated efficiently. For teams working with a single cloud provider, native FinOps tools are often sufficient for basic cost tracking. However, for multi-cloud or hybrid setups, third-party FinOps tools offer more advanced analytics and automation capabilities.

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Tools and Support Options for Small Teams

As development teams take on more operational responsibilities, having the right tools and support becomes essential. With cost controls and incident response plans in place, the next step is finding solutions that offer visibility without overwhelming already stretched resources.

Set Up Better Monitoring and Alerts

Effective monitoring can reduce major incidents by 73% and cut cloud costs by up to 30%. The trick is finding tools that align with your workflow, instead of forcing you to adapt to overly complicated systems.

Datadog is a popular choice, starting at £15 per infrastructure host per month. It’s praised for its seamless integration of logs, metrics, application performance, database monitoring, and real user monitoring. However, some teams find its cost and initial interface complexity a bit challenging.

For those on tighter budgets, Site24x7 offers monitoring from £9 per month. While its interface feels slightly outdated, it’s a practical option for startups. If you’re looking for a free solution, Zabbix provides comprehensive monitoring at no cost, though it requires a hands-on setup. Other options include PRTG Network Monitor, known for its user-friendly dashboards and generous free version, and Nagios Core, valued for its reliability and customisation capabilities - albeit with a steeper learning curve.

Modern monitoring tools now feature automated, customisable dashboards that deliver real-time insights. These tools use intelligent alerts to minimise unnecessary notifications, helping teams focus on what truly matters. Look for platforms that support all major cloud providers and prioritise the metrics most relevant to your business.

Once monitoring is in place, the next step is ensuring you have access to expert support for challenges that go beyond your team’s expertise.

Get Expert Help When Needed

Even with automated systems, external expertise can fill knowledge gaps and relieve operational pressures. Small teams often encounter situations that require specialised skills, and nearly half of SMBs rely on external experts to supplement their internal teams. This approach allows teams to tap into specialist knowledge when needed.

For example, Critical Cloud's Engineer Assist provides Slack-based engineering support, light infrastructure reviews, and alert tuning for £400 per month. This package includes up to four hours of proactive SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) input each month, along with cloud cost monitoring and health snapshots. For teams requiring 24/7 coverage, Critical Cover adds round-the-clock incident response for an additional £800 per month.

This flexible model avoids the expense of hiring full-time staff while addressing compliance needs, security improvements, and complex infrastructure challenges. Given that 43% of cyberattacks target small and medium-sized businesses, integrating external security expertise can significantly enhance your team’s defences. The key is partnering with providers who offer clear communication, thorough documentation, and effective knowledge transfer.

In-House vs External Support

Choosing between in-house and external support requires careful consideration of factors beyond just cost.

In-house operations can be up to 50% more expensive than outsourcing, with 70% of companies citing cost reduction as a key reason for opting for external support. While in-house teams offer advantages like direct communication and faster response times, many small teams find a hybrid approach works best. In this model, core operational knowledge stays in-house, while external experts handle specialised tasks like compliance audits, security assessments, or infrastructure migrations.

Your choice should depend on your team’s current skills, budget, and growth plans. Teams with strong technical foundations might use external support for specific challenges, while those with less experience may benefit from more comprehensive external assistance initially, gradually building their internal capabilities over time.

These tools and support options allow you to keep your focus on product development while managing operational challenges effectively, setting the stage for long-term growth.

Building Better Operations Over Time

Achieving operational excellence isn't about quick fixes - it's about committing to structured, ongoing reviews that strengthen capabilities without interrupting product delivery. This requires regular review cycles, targeted skill-building, and fostering collaboration between development and operations teams. Together, these efforts support strategies like incident management, automation, and cost efficiency.

Review Operations Monthly

Consistent operational reviews are essential for continuous improvement, but they should focus on learning, not blame. As Ben Horowitz puts it:

Written communication to engineering is superior because it is more consistent across an entire product team, it is more lasting, it raises accountability.

This principle applies perfectly to operational reviews. By documenting findings and actions, teams create a resource that drives long-term improvements.

Effective monthly reviews should cover three main areas: incident patterns, system performance trends, and cost-saving opportunities. Reviewing post-mortems from the previous month can highlight recurring issues, frequent alerts, response times, and areas where processes could improve.

When founders or CTOs participate in these reviews, it sends a strong message about the importance of operational priorities. This visibility encourages teams to treat operational improvements as a key responsibility rather than an afterthought.

Tracking action items is critical to maintaining progress between reviews. Clearly document improvements, assign them to team members, and monitor their completion openly. This transparency ensures that insights lead to real changes rather than fading into forgotten discussions.

Your review should also consider user sentiment by analysing feedback channels, support tickets, or surveys. Understanding how operational issues impact users helps prioritise fixes that directly improve customer satisfaction. Often, small infrastructure tweaks can make a big difference in how users perceive product reliability.

Use these findings to guide targeted skill development across your team.

Train Developers in Cloud Operations

Once reviews uncover skill gaps, address them with focused training and hands-on practice. For development teams to handle operations effectively, they need a balanced approach to skill-building that meets both immediate needs and long-term goals. A strong grasp of cloud services is essential - developers should understand the core offerings of major cloud platforms and know at least one programming language for automation tasks.

• Entry-level developers should start with the basics: how cloud resources scale, setting up basic monitoring, and writing simple automation scripts.
• Mid-level developers can expand their knowledge to include advanced cloud services, cloud-native design patterns, and security practices.
• Senior developers should focus on mastering cloud architecture and developing the strategic decision-making skills needed to guide operational improvements.

Hands-on training in sandbox environments is especially effective. These controlled settings let developers experiment with infrastructure changes without risking production systems. Additionally, maintaining internal documentation on operational procedures, troubleshooting steps, and escalation paths creates a valuable resource for the team. This knowledge base becomes indispensable during incidents when quick solutions are needed.

Automation skills are particularly important because they reduce the manual workload. Developers should learn to use infrastructure-as-code tools, set up basic monitoring, and automate deployments. Every script eliminates repetitive tasks and builds team confidence.

Cross-training is another key strategy, especially for smaller teams. Make sure multiple developers understand critical systems to avoid creating single points of failure. Rotating operational responsibilities helps spread knowledge naturally and ensures that expertise doesn't remain siloed within one person.

Improve Dev and Ops Collaboration

With an upskilled team in place, focus on fostering collaboration to merge development and operational responsibilities seamlessly. A DevOps mindset encourages both development and operations teams to share accountability for the products they build and maintain. For teams managing both roles, this means breaking down the divide between "building features" and "keeping systems running."

Building on earlier steps like automation and streamlined incident response, shared goals and open communication further strengthen team alignment. Shared metrics and objectives bring everyone onto the same page. Dashboards displaying both feature delivery metrics and operational health indicators help developers see how their work impacts system performance. Tools like Grafana or custom dashboards provide real-time insights into both development and operational progress.

Incorporate short operational updates into daily standups and create dedicated channels for system health discussions. This keeps operational priorities visible without disrupting the development workflow.

Blameless retrospectives are another cornerstone of continuous improvement. When issues arise, focus on understanding the underlying processes rather than assigning blame. This approach encourages open discussions about system weaknesses and process improvements while maintaining team morale.

A shared responsibility model works well for development teams managing operations. Avoid assigning "ops-only" roles; instead, rotate operational duties across team members. This ensures everyone gains experience with operational challenges while preventing burnout for any single individual. Each rotation should include knowledge-sharing sessions where outgoing team members pass on insights to their successors.

The ultimate goal isn't to split development and operations into separate silos. Instead, it's about building development teams that naturally prioritise operational excellence as part of their daily work. This approach strengthens resilience and boosts team capability.

Conclusion: Running Lean Operations That Work

When your development team takes on operational responsibilities, success hinges on four key strategies: smart automation, leveraging external expertise, regular improvement cycles, and tight cost management. These pillars help balance innovation with dependable operations.

Automation acts as the backbone of efficiency. Tools like Terraform streamline infrastructure provisioning, reducing the risk of human error, while automated monitoring systems detect potential issues before they escalate into outages. Every automation script eliminates repetitive tasks and boosts team confidence. Focus on automating high-impact processes to maximise value.

External expertise bridges knowledge gaps without the expense of hiring full-time staff. Whether you need a security audit, compliance review, or help with cost optimisation, bringing in specialists on demand ensures you stay on track. For UK teams, this is especially useful for navigating GDPR requirements or achieving ISO 27001 certification. Combined with automation, this approach strengthens operational resilience.

Regular operational reviews are essential for identifying and addressing potential problems early. Monthly retrospectives that examine incident patterns, performance metrics, and cost anomalies create a feedback loop for continuous improvement. Tracking key metrics ensures operations remain aligned with product goals.

Cost control in cloud environments demands vigilance. Automated alerts, resource tagging, and budget thresholds help balance the need for speed with financial discipline.

Beyond tools and processes, a shift in mindset is crucial for successful DevOps integration. Reflecting on the challenges and solutions discussed, fostering a culture that values operational excellence as much as product innovation is the final piece of the puzzle. Transitioning from traditional development to DevOps isn't just about adopting new tools - it requires a cultural commitment to operational reliability. Teams that embrace this mindset, supported by automation and external expertise, can consistently deliver reliable services while maintaining the agility to ship new features effectively.

Running lean operations means making deliberate choices about what to handle internally and what to outsource or automate. Ultimately, clear communication between technical teams and business stakeholders is critical. Transparent dialogue during incidents helps maintain trust and ensures operational issues don’t spiral into broader business challenges.

FAQs

How can development teams manage operational tasks without sacrificing productivity or feature delivery?

To effectively juggle operational tasks and feature development, development teams should adopt a DevOps culture that promotes shared responsibility and teamwork. This mindset creates faster feedback loops and supports ongoing improvement, keeping teams nimble and productive.

Automating essential processes like deployments, monitoring, and incident response can cut down on manual effort, allowing more time for creativity and innovation. By prioritising tasks and clearly outlining roles in line with business objectives, teams can prevent operational duties from overshadowing feature delivery. These strategies help ensure that teams remain focused and efficient while managing operational demands effectively.

How can I set up a cloud infrastructure that stays cost-efficient and avoids unexpected charges?

To build a cloud infrastructure that won't drain your budget or surprise you with unexpected charges, the key is smart resource management and promoting a cost-conscious mindset within your team. Start by rightsizing your resources - this means aligning your cloud capacity with actual needs. Enable auto-scaling to adjust resources dynamically, and regularly review usage to avoid paying for unused or underutilised services.

It's also important to educate your team about cloud spending. Set clear budgets and use tools that provide detailed cost breakdowns and real-time alerts. These tools can help you quickly spot inefficiencies and take corrective action. Opting for cloud providers with clear and upfront pricing models can further reduce the risk of surprise expenses and make your costs easier to predict.

Treat cost management as an ongoing effort. Schedule regular reviews of your cloud setup and follow best practices for scaling efficiently. By staying vigilant, you can keep your expenses in check while ensuring your infrastructure meets your business needs.

How can external expertise support a development team with operational tasks, and when should you consider bringing it in?

External experts can bring specialised skills and new insights to help development teams handle operational tasks more efficiently. This support often covers areas like monitoring, security, fine-tuning infrastructure, and responding to incidents - especially when these tasks lie outside the team's primary skill set.

External assistance becomes particularly valuable when your team is stretched thin, lacks certain technical expertise, or needs an unbiased evaluation of cloud operations. It’s especially helpful during cloud migrations, infrastructure reviews, or when scaling operations to ensure they remain reliable, cost-effective, and secure. By working alongside your internal team, these experts can help implement best practices and keep operations running smoothly and efficiently.

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