One of the most overlooked, yet powerful, stories in the world of Azure DevOps is its approach to governance, security, compliance, and scalability. I see this time and again—organisations get so caught up in the bells and whistles of tooling that they forget the real value often lies in the things you get out of the box. With Azure DevOps, these critical capabilities aren’t afterthoughts or bolt-ons; they’re baked right in from the start. And that, in my experience, is a game-changer.
Let me share a bit of context from my own work. I regularly teach the “Applying Professional Scrum for Software Developers” course. It’s a hands-on, immersive class where participants don’t just talk about DevOps—they actually set up and use DevOps tooling in real time. The challenge? They have to make changes and ship a working product in about 45 minutes. It’s a pressure cooker, and it exposes the strengths and weaknesses of your tooling in a way that theory never can.
Now, there are two flavours of this class:
- The .NET flavour, which uses Azure DevOps as the backend.
- The open source flavour, where you can use whatever tools you like.
Here’s the rub: setting up the open source stack is a logistical nightmare. As a trainer, it takes me hours—sometimes more—to set up and validate all the environments. Why? Because the tools don’t talk to each other. There’s no seamless integration, no single source of truth, and certainly no out-of-the-box governance or compliance. You’re left cobbling things together, hoping nothing falls through the cracks.
Contrast that with Azure DevOps. Everything is integrated:
- Automated builds are linked directly to work items.
- You know exactly which work items are in which build output.
- Traceability is not just possible—it’s effortless.
This level of integration is invaluable, especially when you’re dealing with traceability, auditability, and compliance. Inside Azure DevOps, you get logging out of the box. Want more? Turn on additional audit logging and you’ll know exactly who did what, when, and where. If someone changes your process, adds or removes fields, or tweaks permissions, you have a full audit trail. That’s governance, security, and compliance handled—without the need for a patchwork of third-party tools.
Let’s talk about scale for a moment. I’ve seen the Windows team run a single Azure DevOps project with 15,000 people. The Azure DevOps team itself has operated with 900 people, and the wider Microsoft developer division is about 5,000 strong. These aren’t just numbers—they’re proof points. Azure DevOps was designed to work at scale, and it does so reliably.
A common misconception is that GitHub is the be-all and end-all for git repositories. While it’s true that most git repos live on GitHub, the largest ones—by far—are in Azure DevOps. Why? Because Azure DevOps is the only platform that truly supports that kind of scale, and it does so while integrating fully with Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory). Security, compliance, and scalability aren’t just features—they’re foundational.
Here’s what you get with Azure DevOps, right out of the box:
- Integrated security and compliance: Built to work with enterprise identity and access management.
- Scalability: Proven to handle thousands of users and massive codebases.
- Governance: Full audit trails, process controls, and traceability.
- Seamless integration: From work items to builds to releases, everything just works together.
In my experience, while open source tools have their place, they can quickly become the worst solution when you need robust governance, security, and compliance at scale. Azure DevOps removes the friction, letting you focus on delivering value rather than wrestling with your toolchain.
If you’re looking to build in scalability, security, and compliance from day one, let’s talk. I can help you leverage Azure DevOps to apply governance within the context of your DevOps strategy—so you can spend less time firefighting, and more time delivering real value.
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Discover why Azure DevOps stands out for governance, security, compliance, and scalability. Learn from Martin Hinshelwood’s hands-on experience and see how integrated tooling can transform your DevOps strategy.
