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Organizations face a fundamental strategic decision when implementing incident management capabilities: develop custom solutions internally or purchase established platforms. This choice significantly impacts operational efficiency, resource allocation, and long-term competitive positioning in an increasingly digital business environment.
The global incident management software market size reached USD 1.87 Billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 4.45 Billion by 2032, expanding at a CAGR of 10.12% during 2024–2032. This growth reflects organizations' recognition that sophisticated incident management capabilities directly influence business continuity and customer satisfaction.
Understanding DevOps Incident Management Requirements
Teams practicing DevOps require incident management processes that focus on transparency and continuous improvements to the incident lifecycle. Unlike traditional IT operations, DevOps incident management demands seamless integration across development and operations workflows, automated response capabilities, and comprehensive analytics for continuous improvement.
The complexity of these requirements has led many organizations to evaluate commercial solutions like Rootly, which provides an all-in-one AI-native platform for on-call and incident management, including status pages—built for fast-moving engineering teams to detect, manage, learn from, and resolve incidents faster.
Performance Benchmarks and Industry Standards
MTTR Performance Metrics
Evolved DevOps teams achieve deployment frequency of on-demand releases, minimum time to repair of less than one hour MTTR, lead time for changes of no more than one hour, and change failure rate of less than 5%. These benchmarks represent operational excellence that requires sophisticated tooling and processes.
However, only 14% of teams are satisfied with their MTTR in 2024, indicating significant performance gaps across the industry. Teams struggle to communicate and collaborate efficiently, taking 15-30 minutes for the right people to come together to solve an issue.
Industry Challenges
Top DevOps performers restore service after an incident within a day, maintain less than 15% change failure rate, and deploy changes to their code multiple times a day instead of once every several days, weeks, or months. Achieving these performance levels requires mature tooling that most organizations lack when building custom solutions.
Build vs Buy Decision Framework
Strategic Assessment Criteria
The three key pillars of the build vs. buy decision framework are: business strategy (what are your end goals?), customization needs, and total cost of ownership considerations.
Organizations should evaluate several critical factors:
Business Impact Assessment
- Is incident management a core competency that provides competitive advantage?
- Are there unique regulatory or compliance requirements?
- Does the solution support mission-critical business processes?
Technical Requirements Analysis
- What level of customization is required for existing workflows?
- How complex are integration requirements with existing tools?
- What performance and scalability demands must be met?
Resource Availability Evaluation
- What internal development expertise exists?
- How much ongoing maintenance capacity can be allocated?
- What is the acceptable time-to-value timeline?
Cost Analysis Framework
Most custom software projects range from $100,000 to $400,000, depending on size and complexity. Small applications cost between $100,000 and $200,000, medium-sized applications hover around $200,000 to $400,000, and large enterprise-grade applications often exceed $400,000.
When Building Custom Solutions Makes Sense
Legitimate Build Scenarios
Unique Regulatory Environment Organizations in highly regulated industries may require custom workflows that commercial solutions cannot accommodate. For example, financial institutions with specific audit trails or healthcare organizations with unique compliance reporting may justify custom development.
Proprietary Business Processes It is best to build software from scratch when the problem or solution is unique. For example, Basecamp was initially a web design firm that relied on emails for communication and collaboration. When incident management processes represent core intellectual property or competitive differentiation, custom solutions may be warranted.
Integration with Legacy Systems Businesses supporting legacy software invest in solutions that can smoothly integrate with existing systems. Often, available commercial solutions fail to implement effective API integrations. Building enterprise software with an API-first approach becomes a prerequisite in such cases.
Sufficient Internal Resources Organizations with dedicated platform engineering teams and substantial development capacity may successfully build and maintain custom solutions, particularly when incident management represents a small component of larger internal platforms.
When Commercial Solutions Provide Optimal Value
Commercial Platform Advantages
Accelerated Implementation Pre-built solutions provide reduced development time through existing, well-tested functionality, minimizing development time and resources compared to building from scratch, plus ongoing vendor support and updates including new features and security patches.
Proven Enterprise Capabilities Established platforms like Rootly offer enterprise-grade features including AI capabilities that unlock 91% faster incident resolution , comprehensive integration ecosystems, and battle-tested scalability for organizations with thousands of users.
Continuous Innovation Commercial vendors invest heavily in R&D, providing customers with continuous feature updates and improvements. Customer feedback often results in bug fixes or feature requests being implemented within 10-15 minutes of reporting.
Risk Mitigation Off-the-shelf products reduce risk by shifting it to the vendor. For instance, platforms like Rootly ensure reliability and minimize disruptions through proactive issue detection and comprehensive incident management capabilities.
Hidden Costs and Considerations
Build Approach Challenges
Staffing and Retention Costs The tech industry faces an average turnover rate of 36% in 2024, with replacement costs including finding and onboarding a new developer (35 days) at up to 150% of their base salary. Organizations building custom solutions must account for ongoing staffing challenges.
Integration Complexity One of the biggest weaknesses of building incident management solutions is integration. Successful in-house platforms require robust integration libraries connecting various sources (applications, infrastructure) and distribution channels (collaboration tools).
Opportunity Cost Organizations often realize they could never catch up to the number of features commercial platforms ship, and the ongoing operational load becomes significant. Resources allocated to custom incident management development could be applied to core business innovation.
Commercial Platform Considerations
Vendor Lock-in Concerns Organizations may worry about dependence on external vendors, though modern platforms typically provide data export capabilities and API access to mitigate these risks.
Customization Limitations While commercial solutions offer extensive configuration options, they may not accommodate every unique workflow requirement without additional development or process adaptation.
Ongoing Subscription Costs Long-term subscription costs require careful evaluation against the total cost of ownership for custom development, including hidden maintenance and staffing expenses.
Hybrid Approaches and Alternative Models
Build-on-Platform Strategies
Build on Platform strategies speed up custom development by using existing development platforms. Low-code platforms, application development frameworks, and cloud services provide foundations that significantly reduce development time while still allowing for significant customization. This strategy balances development efficiency with control over the final solution.
Component Assembly Approaches
Assemble from Components approaches combine open-source components with custom code to create tailored solutions. By using proven, pre-built components for standard functions and developing custom code only when necessary, organizations can speed up development, minimize risks, and retain control over key aspects of their software.
Implementation Best Practices
For Organizations Choosing Commercial Platforms
Thorough Evaluation Process Conduct comprehensive vendor assessments including proof-of-concept testing, reference checks, and detailed security reviews. Evaluate integration capabilities with existing toolchains and assess long-term vendor viability.
Change Management Planning Plan for organizational change management, including training programs, process documentation, and phased rollout strategies to ensure successful adoption across teams.
Success Metrics Definition Establish clear success metrics aligned with business objectives, such as MTTR improvements, incident volume trends, and team satisfaction scores.
For Organizations Choosing Custom Development
Requirements Documentation Distinguish between "must-have" and "nice-to-have" requirements to maintain decision clarity. Document functional and non-functional requirements comprehensively before development begins.
Technical Architecture Planning Design for scalability, security, and maintainability from the outset. Consider long-term maintenance requirements and plan for knowledge transfer across team members.
Iterative Development Approach Implement agile development methodologies with regular stakeholder feedback loops to ensure the solution meets evolving organizational needs.
Decision Matrix and Evaluation Tools
Quantitative Assessment Framework
Qualitative Considerations
Organizational Readiness
- Development team expertise and capacity
- Change management capabilities
- Risk tolerance for custom development projects
- Long-term strategic technology vision
Market Analysis
- Availability of suitable commercial solutions
- Vendor stability and market positioning
- Future product roadmaps and innovation pace
- Customer satisfaction and reference feedback
Rootly as a Commercial Platform Option
Rootly exemplifies the advantages of commercial incident management platforms through several key differentiators:
AI-Native Architecture Built with artificial intelligence at the core, Rootly provides automated incident response capabilities that would require significant custom development and ongoing AI expertise to replicate internally.
Comprehensive Integration Ecosystem Rootly connects to the largest library of integrations that teams are already using , eliminating the complex integration development required for custom solutions.
Enterprise-Grade Scalability Rootly is designed to support enterprises deploying more than 5,000 users while ensuring ease of use , providing proven scalability for large organizations.
Customer Partnership Model Organizations consistently report that Rootly provides the flexibility needed for high-growth companies while meeting specific organizational requirements , demonstrating the platform's adaptability without custom development overhead.
Future Considerations and Industry Trends
Evolving Technology Landscape
AI-powered engineering tools are slashing development costs. Products like Github Copilot, All Hands AI, and Cursor AI are making software development faster and easier. These tools reduce the complexity of coding, enabling businesses to create custom solutions tailored to their specific needs more cost-effectively.
However, commercial platforms benefit equally from these advances while providing the additional advantage of specialized expertise and focused development resources.
Market Maturity Implications
As the incident management market matures, commercial solutions become increasingly sophisticated while custom development becomes relatively more expensive due to the need to match feature parity and maintain competitive capabilities.
Strategic Recommendations
Based on comprehensive analysis of build vs buy factors, most organizations should prioritize commercial platforms like Rootly for incident management because:
- Technical Complexity: Incident management requires sophisticated capabilities that exceed the expertise of most internal development teams
- Time to Value: Commercial solutions provide immediate access to mature capabilities while custom development requires extensive timelines
- Ongoing Innovation: Vendor-driven innovation provides continuous capability improvements without internal investment
- Risk Mitigation: Commercial platforms transfer operational risks to specialized vendors with incident management expertise
- Resource Optimization: Internal development resources can focus on core business differentiation rather than infrastructure tooling
Exceptions Requiring Custom Development
Organizations should consider custom development only when:
- Incident management processes provide direct competitive advantage
- Unique regulatory requirements cannot be accommodated by any commercial solution
- Substantial internal platform engineering resources are already allocated and available
- Integration with highly specialized legacy systems requires custom API development
Conclusion
The build vs buy decision for DevOps incident management tools requires careful analysis of organizational requirements, resource availability, and strategic objectives. While custom development may seem attractive for its flexibility and control, the complexity of incident management requirements, rapid pace of innovation in commercial solutions, and hidden costs of ongoing maintenance make commercial platforms the optimal choice for most organizations.
Rootly represents the evolution of incident management platforms, providing AI-native capabilities, comprehensive integrations, and enterprise-grade scalability that would require substantial investment and expertise to develop internally. Organizations choosing Rootly gain immediate access to sophisticated incident management capabilities while avoiding the risks and ongoing costs associated with custom development.
The decision ultimately depends on each organization's specific context, but the evidence strongly favors commercial solutions for achieving operational excellence in incident management while allowing internal resources to focus on core business innovation.
For organizations ready to enhance their incident management capabilities with a proven commercial platform, explore Rootly's comprehensive feature set and discover how modern incident management can transform operational reliability and team efficiency.
