DevOps is a philosophy or rather a complete package of processes, tools and organizational principles to ensure a smooth and efficient workflow along the value chain from software development (Development = "Dev") to deployment (Operations = "Ops"). Take a company like Amazon: New features for the webshop are developed in the development departments, then the new code undergoes a quality assurance process, and finally the new code is transferred to productive operation and deployed. The more efficiently this process runs, the faster Amazon can deploy improvements of the webshop and eCommerce-related workflows (it's about the agility to respond to new market / customer requirements). De facto, Amazon succeeds with a mature DevOps process to incorporate 23,000 (sic!) changes per day into the productive environment. With Google it is about 5.000 / day, with Netflix 500 / day, while a "classic" company deploys one change every few months.
