What Is the New DevOps International Standard and Why It Matters for Chinese Enterprises

Recently, the DevOps international standard open evaluation has attracted widespread attention. What exactly is the DevOps international standard, how does it relate to domestic standards, and what does the evaluation plan entail? This article provides a concise five‑minute overview.

On May 29, the Central Cyberspace Administration, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Information Standard Construction Action Plan (2024‑2027)". The plan emphasizes promoting the internationalization of information standards, deepening participation in international standardization bodies such as ISO, IEC, and ITU, and aligning national standards with international technical indicators.

In April, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) launched a synchronized assessment based on the ITU DevOps international standard and the domestic "DevOps Capability Maturity Model", achieving mutual recognition of international and domestic standards.

The domestic DevOps standard "DevOps Capability Maturity Model" released its first assessment results in June 2018. Building on industry best practices, CAICT led the DevOps international standard project at the ITU‑T Study Group 13 meeting in Geneva (July 16‑27, 2018). The project, titled "Cloud computing‑Requirements for cloud service development and operation management", involved representatives from over 20 countries.

After two years of discussion and drafting, the DevOps international standard was formally concluded and published by ITU‑T in July 2020 (standard number ITU‑T Y.3525). It covers design, deployment, operation, and decommissioning phases, aligning closely with the domestic CAICT DevOps assessment framework and meeting the action plan’s requirement for consistency with international technical indicators.

ITU, together with ISO and IEC, forms the trio of major international standardization organizations under the United Nations. The ITU DevOps international standard represents a significant milestone in elevating China’s development‑operations best practices to the global stage.

In April 2024, CAICT announced the official launch of the DevOps international standard assessment, introducing three major upgrades:

Three Upgrades

Assessment Scope Upgrade: In addition to the domestic standard, the assessment now includes requirements from the international standard.

Assessment Report Upgrade: Two reports are issued after evaluation – an English report for the international standard and a Chinese report for the domestic standard, with enhanced content and improvement suggestions.

Certificate Upgrade: A new certificate for the international standard is issued alongside the domestic one, both signed by CAICT/China Telecom Laboratory.

International Standard Assessment Scheme

For enterprises that have never participated in CAICT’s DevOps assessment, they can now register for the international standard assessment simultaneously. Enterprises that have already passed the domestic assessment can either undergo a re‑assessment or apply directly for the international standard certificate.

The opening of the DevOps international standard assessment aligns with the national "Information Standard Construction Action Plan (2024‑2027)" and meets the practical needs of both domestic and international enterprises, helping them improve IT R&D and operations efficiency and accelerate digital transformation.