Web operations

Web operations (WebOps) is a domain of expertise within IT systems management that involves the deployment, operation, maintenance, tuning, and repair of web-based applications and systems.^[1] WebOps is also increasingly acknowledged as crucial to the success of digital marketing teams, and shows up as part of the MarTech (marketing technology) ecosystem.^[2]

Historically, operations were seen as a late phase of the Waterfall model development process. After engineering had built a software product, and QA had verified it as correct, it would be handed to a support staff to operate the working software. Such a view assumed that software was mostly immutable in production and that usage would be mostly stable. Increasingly, "a web application involves many specialists, but it takes people in web ops to ensure that everything works together throughout an application's lifetime".^[3] The role is gaining respect as a distinct specialty among developers and managers, and is considered by many to be a subset of the larger DevOps movement.

With the rise of web technologies since mid-1995, specialists have emerged that understand the complexities of running a web application. Earlier examples of IT operations teams exist, such as the Network Operations Center (NOC) and the Database Administration (DBA) function.