Companies frequently ask us at Everest Group if the benefits a devops team can be delivered in a distributed labor model. In other words, can a company configure a devops team to operate with part of the team in one onshore location and other part of the offshore or in a different onshore location? To be clear, there is currently a significant debate around this question. Many tech companies and new service providers emphatically say devops can’t work in a distributed model. But legacy service providers with large investments in offshore talent factories argue that It absolutely can work and point to examples in which they are utilizing components of a devops model in an offshore and distributed manner.
Legacy service providers have a strong vested interest in maintaining their current offshore factories, which are highly leveraged with cheap junior resources and are working hard to persuade their customers that the offshore models only need an injection of devops technology. However, none of them appear to be running at the productivity level – or even close to the level – of devops teams that are not in a distributed model.
