DevOps is a practice that aims to break down barriers between development and operations teams. It originated as teams adopted Agile methodologies and moved toward continuous delivery of software. DevOps aims to speed up delivery through practices like continuous integration, infrastructure as code, and breaking down silos between teams. The document outlines the history and benefits of DevOps, including increased speed, reliability, collaboration and security. It also defines key DevOps practices and provides examples of how they work.