As businesses increasingly recognize the potential of artificial intelligence, the integration of machine learning operations (MLOps) into commercial strategies has become vital, yet challenging due to the gap between development and deployment, with research indicating that 85% of AI and ML projects fail to reach production. This blog series highlights the importance of merging DevOps best practices with MLOps to bridge this gap and enhance competitive edge through data-driven insights. The first part discusses the inefficiencies, redundancies, and siloed approaches resulting from maintaining separate DevOps and MLOps pipelines, leading to slower releases and inconsistent practices. It argues for the integration of these pipelines into a unified Software Supply Chain to bring consistency, reduce redundant work, and foster better cross-team collaboration. Shared goals of rapid delivery, automation, and reliability in both DevOps and MLOps can be realized through treating ML models as standard artifacts within the software supply chain, thereby streamlining workflows, enhancing collaboration, and improving compliance, security, and governance. This approach ensures that both software and models meet high standards for quality, reliability, and security, ultimately enabling organizations to achieve their shared objectives more efficiently.