The 10 Most Common DevOps Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them in 2025)

DevOps isn't just about shipping code faster, it's about doing it smarter, safer, and saner. But let's be real: even the best teams make mistakes. Some are harmless. Others take down production on a Friday afternoon (yes, that Friday deploy).

Here are 10 common DevOps mistakes in 2025, how to avoid them, and a few moments that might hit a little too close to home.

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1. Treating Infrastructure as Code Like a One-Off Script

You wrote Terraform once, it worked, and now it lives untouched in a dusty repo folder. That's not IaC, that's tech debt.

Avoid it:

• Version control your IaC.
• Apply formatting and linting.
• Test it with tools like terraform plan or terratest.

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2. Not Enforcing Version Control on CI/CD Configs

Your pipeline files are changing, but without versioning, there's no easy way to debug regressions.

Avoid it:

• Store all CI/CD config files (like GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.) in version control.
• Treat pipeline logic like any other critical code.

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3. Poor Secrets Management

Hardcoding secrets in code or using .env files without encryption is a fast way to land on HN for the wrong reasons.

Avoid it:

• Use Vault, Doppler, AWS Secrets Manager, or SOPS.
• Rotate secrets regularly.

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4. No Rollback Strategy

You deploy. Something breaks. And there's no plan B.

Avoid it:

• Use blue-green or canary deployments.
• Automate rollbacks on failure.
• Always have a rollback.sh or previous image ready.

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5. Ignoring Observability Until It's Too Late

Monitoring isn't just about uptime. You can't fix what you can't see.

Avoid it:

• Add metrics, logs, and traces from day one.
• Use tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenTelemetry.

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6. Too Many Tools, Not Enough Integration

Your stack has 25 tools. None of them talk to each other. And your alert fatigue is real.

Avoid it:

• Consolidate tools where possible.
• Favor tools that integrate well with your existing stack.

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7. Manual Approval for Every Tiny Change

A typo fix shouldn't need a 3-person review and a Slack war.

Avoid it:

• Set up clear policies: auto-approve safe changes, gate critical ones.
• Use GitHub environments, OPA, or custom bots to help.

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8. No Documentation = Single Point of Failure

"Ask Alex, they built it." Alex is on vacation.

Avoid it:

• Write docs as you go.
• Use tools like Backstage, Docusaurus, or just plain Markdown.
• Encourage a culture of async knowledge sharing.

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9. Skipping Tests for Infrastructure Changes

You test app code, but deploy infra changes directly to prod? Bold.

Avoid it:

• Use staging or preview environments.
• Test IaC with checkov, terratest, or kitchen.

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10. Forgetting Security in Your Pipelines

If your pipeline can deploy to prod, attackers might be able to as well.

Avoid it:

• Use least privilege for pipeline credentials.
• Run security checks like trivy, semgrep, and snyk.

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Final Thoughts

DevOps is a journey. These mistakes are all lessons learned the hard way by teams around the world, and probably you, if you've been around long enough.

Want to avoid these mistakes before they cost you time, sleep, or your weekend? We're building checklists, guides, and battle-tested content at DevOps Daily. Come hang out.

PS: Got a DevOps horror story or lesson to share? Drop it in the comments or tag us on Twitter.