Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) 101 With DevOps vs SRE

Consider the Scenario Below

An Independent Software Provider (ISV) developed a financial application for a global investment firm that serves global conglomerates, leading central banks, asset managers, broking firms, and governmental bodies. The development strategy for the application encompassed a thought through DevOps plan with cutting-edge agile tools. This has ensured zero downtime deployment at maximum productivity. The app now handles financial transactions in real-time at an enormous scale, while safeguarding sensitive customer data and facilitating uninterrupted workflow. One unfortunate day, the application crashed, and this investment firm suffered a severe backlash (monetarily and morally) from its customers.  

Here is the backstory – application’s workflow exchange had crossed its transactional threshold limit, and lack of responsive remedial action crippled the infrastructure. The intelligent automation brought forth by DevOps was confined mainly to the development and deployment environment. The IT operations, thus, remained susceptible to challenges.