DevOps is a set of practices that bring together development (Dev) and operations (Ops) teams to streamline software delivery. The tools associated with DevOps support the essential principles of DevOps such as communication, unity and efficiency. These tools play a crucial role in enabling the fundamental principles of DevOps such as fostering communication, promoting collaboration, and enhancing efficiency.
This article explores various tools that can be employed to enhance each of the seven phases in the DevOps lifecycle.
Table of Contents
What are DevOps Tools?
DevOps tools are applications designed to facilitate software development. Their primary goal is to enhance collaboration by utilizing project management and automation. Various types of DevOps tools exist and a few examples are highlighted below:
- DevOps Automation Tools
DevOps automation tools eliminate the necessity of performing repetitive tasks within the workflow. Some tools are designed for specific processes like testing or deployment, while others provide comprehensive end-to-end capabilities. The phrase “end-to-end” refers to comprehensive coverage throughout the entire development process including conceptualization, deployment and continuous monitoring.
- Version Control Tools
Version control tools, also known as version control software (VCS) or source control, are systems designed to track and manage changes made to the code of the software.
- Configuration Management Tools
Configuration management involves the supervision and maintenance of system functionality. Within the domain of DevOps, these tools are essential for maintaining the uniform performance of all applications and services under established standards.
- Performance Monitoring Tools
These DevOps tools monitor the performance of applications and streamline the management of the overall infrastructure. They usually come equipped with strong reporting features and utilize artificial intelligence (AI) for detecting defects.
- Container Management Tools
In the field of software development, a container refers to an application or software packaged into a portable environment. These containers contain the libraries, frameworks, and dependencies of an application. Containerization enables applications to operate independently in various environments, independent of the underlying operating system details. Container management tools enable developers to package, monitor, and modify these distributed applications.
How to Choose the Right DevOps Tools
You can’t order DevOps in a box. No single tool or vendor can provide all the functionalities needed to strengthen a DevOps approach or its pipeline. Nevertheless, it is essential to consider specific critical factors when choosing tools and products that align with your organization’s needs and unique DevOps goals. The goals frequently vary depending on the structure, operations and environment of the organization.
When selecting the appropriate tools for a project or organization, it’s important to consider a few key factors:
Application & Technology Infrastructure
Which application and software platforms do you use? What infrastructure technologies support these platforms? Is the tool compatible with applications and/or infrastructure hosted in cloud, local or hybrid environments?
Ease of Use & Scalability
Ensure that your team can quickly grasp and apply the tool and confirm that the tool can adapt and expand alongside your team’s evolving capabilities and your organization’s growth.
License Models & Cost Considerations
When evaluating a tool, it’s important to determine whether it is open-source or commercial. However, it’s crucial to go beyond just licensing costs. Although there are no licensing expenses associated with free tools, they can still be expensive in terms of the resources needed for deployment and maintenance. Moreover, it is crucial to grasp the licensing framework—does it hinge on the number of seats or another metric? Choosing a product with clear licensing terms and an upfront approach to operational costs not associated with licensing streamlines the planning process and removes potential hurdles during the implementation of your DevOps pipeline across different projects and teams.
Developer Process Integration
Can the tool integrate with your existing development tools, IDEs and/or ALM or project management platform?
Open and Broad Integration
Is the tool capable of integrating with a range of DevOps pipeline technologies such as:
- Testing frameworks (e.g. Selenium, Jest, TestNG, Mocha, JUnit, etc.)
- Communication platforms (e.g., Slack, Teams, etc.)
- Project management systems (e.g., Jira)
- CI & CD (Jenkins, CircleCI, GitHub)
DevOps Tools for Each Stage in the DevOps Life Cycle
The origin of the 7 Cs mnemonic device is rooted in the observation that every stage in the DevOps development process starts with the term “continuous.” The emphasis on continuity is a pivotal aspect of DevOps, symbolized by an infinity loop to represent its life cycle. In contrast to traditional linear development approaches like the Waterfall model, which mandates the completion of each development stage before progressing to the next, DevOps allows for a more fluid and continuous process. This adaptability proves advantageous in addressing challenges that may arise later in the development cycle.
In contrast, the DevOps life cycle comprises automated workflows within an iterative development cycle. Put simply, tasks are carried out in small increments and are consistently monitored, tested and enhanced. This approach echoes the wisdom of the popular saying, ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket.’ If all your eggs are in a single large basket and its handle breaks, you run the risk of breaking all of them. However, if you distribute your eggs among smaller baskets and one of them fails, you only risk losing a few.
The subsequent seven sections correlate 11 DevOps tools with their corresponding processes. Despite the list being numerical, it’s important to bear in mind that each stage of the DevOps lifecycle may undergo multiple iterations or repetitions throughout the project until completion.
DevOps Tools for Continuous Development (CD)
Within the DevOps life cycle, continuous development involves the planning and coding of software. Two widely used DevOps tools for this development phase are Jira and Git.
1. Jira
Jira is a popular choice among DevOps organizations, even though planning doesn’t mandate specific DevOps tools. Many opt for Agile project management software such as Jira, due to its alignment with DevOps principles. Agile project management emphasizes continuous releases and integrates customer feedback in each iteration. Utilizing the Jira DevOps template proves to be an effective solution for project management, workflow creation and bug tracking.
Examples:
Spotify: The music streaming giant uses Jira to manage its entire software development process, from backlog prioritization to bug tracking. They heavily customize Jira with add-ons and workflows to fit their specific needs like tracking A/B tests and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs). This results in streamlined development, faster releases & better user experiences.
Netflix: The video streaming giant relies on Jira to manage its complex global development teams. They utilize Jira’s agile features such as kanban boards and sprints to ensure efficient collaboration and timely delivery of new features and fixes. Jira also helps Netflix prioritize tasks based on business impact ensuring optimal resource allocation.
Dropbox: The popular file-sharing platform uses Jira for project management and issue tracking throughout its development lifecycle. Their custom workflows involve automated reports and dependencies between tasks, promoting transparency and accountability. Jira also integrates with other tools like Confluence (their internal wiki) for seamless knowledge sharing.
2. Git
Git, an open-source version control system, is available for free use by anyone. As mentioned before, version control tools manage the source code of applications or software. Git stands out as a valuable DevOps tool due to its support for nonlinear workflows and facilitation of collaboration among programmers. GitHub, a web-based hosting platform for Git code repositories serves as a bridge between development and operations. It enhances collaboration with features such as support ticket management.
Examples:
Google: The tech giant utilizes Git for version control across its vast codebase. Git’s distributed nature allows Google’s large developer teams to work collaboratively on code revisions without merge conflicts. GitHub Enterprise, the on-premises version of GitHub, offers Google enhanced security and control over its code repositories.
Red Hat: The open-source software company uses Git extensively for its product development. They rely on Git’s branching and merging capabilities to maintain multiple versions of their software simultaneously. Additionally, Red Hat contributes actively to the Git open-source community helping improve the tool for all users.
Airbnb: The online marketplace for vacation rentals uses Git for its backend server development. They appreciate Git’s scalability and efficiency in managing large codebases. Additionally, GitHub’s review features help Airbnb maintain code quality and ensure consistency across its platform.
DevOps Tools for Continuous Integration (CI) & Continuous Delivery (CD)
Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) are facilitated by various DevOps tools. Within the DevOps pipeline, developers are tasked with committing changes such as new features or bug patches to the source code. Jenkins stands out as a prominent DevOps tool extensively employed during this phase of development.
1. Jenkins:
Jenkins, built using Java and provided as an open-source solution, functions as a versatile software program. It functions both as a dedicated Continuous Integration (CI) server and as a central hub for facilitating continuous delivery. Jenkins is acclaimed for its robust features such as extensive customization of workflows, simple installation process, the capability to distribute tasks across diverse machines for cross-platform development and a rich ecosystem of plugins and integrations.
Examples:
Uber: Utilizes Jenkins to automate their code deployment process enabling them to deploy new versions of their app multiple times a week. This allows them to quickly test and iterate on new features and stay ahead of the competition.
PayPal: Utilizes Jenkins to automate its security testing and code inspection. This helps them to identify and fix vulnerabilities earlier in the development process minimizing security risks.
Capital One: Uses Jenkins to automate their build and deployment pipelines for various internal applications. This has helped them to improve development speed and quality while reducing costs.
DevOps Tools for Continuous Testing
Continuous testing is a crucial aspect of the DevOps life cycle, ensuring consistent checks for bugs and defects in the developed software. DevOps automation tools play a vital role in facilitating continuous testing by providing features such as automated test execution and parallel testing across multiple codebases. Selenium and Bamboo emerge as prominent solutions in the realm of continuous testing, empowering quality assurance (QA) teams to broaden their testing scope effectively.
1. Selenium
Selenium, a versatile open-source development tool, serves as an automated testing framework used to generate test scripts in widely used programming languages such as Java, Python and C#. While its primary purpose is automating web applications, it can also be employed for automating web-based administrative tasks. Selenium’s flexibility extends its automation support to various browsers and operating systems.
Examples:
Etsy: Employs Selenium to automate regression testing of its marketplace platform, minimizing the risk of regressions after code deployments and maintaining a stable platform for its seller and buyer communities.
Booking.com: Utilizes Selenium to automate functional testing of its travel booking website ensuring a smooth and reliable booking process for its huge global user base.
2. Bamboo
Bamboo is a DevOps tool that operates on servers. Users can create detailed construction plans and trigger their automated implementation. Notably, Bamboo is recognized for its seamless integration with Jira and its ability to conduct parallel testing.
Examples:
Spotify: Relies on Bamboo’s continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) capabilities to automate the build, test and deployment of its music streaming platform enabling rapid delivery of new features and bug fixes.
Dropbox: Utilizes Bamboo for automated testing and deployment of its cloud storage platform ensuring high availability and reliability for its millions of users worldwide.
Atlassian: Employs Bamboo for internal development of its software products including Jira and Confluence, streamlining their CI/CD pipeline and speeding up delivery times.
DevOps Tools for Continuous Deployment
Continuous deployment within the DevOps life cycle involves the ongoing deployment of code to production servers. Given its continuous nature, it is crucial to utilize DevOps tools that facilitate rapid and frequent deployments. Both container management tools and configuration management tools prove advantageous for achieving seamless continuous deployment.
1. Docker (container management)
The Docker application enables development teams to package, manage and execute distributed applications. Docker boasts several prominent features such as a standardized packaging format, smooth integration with GitHub, and connectivity with Docker Hub. Docker Hub fosters collaboration among DevOps team members by offering a user-friendly platform for effortless image publishing and access control.
Example:
IBM Cloud: IBM Cloud uses Docker containers to deliver its cloud services. This containerization enables rapid development and deployment of new services improving the overall developer and user experience.
2. Ansible (configuration management)
Ansible serves as an open-source automation platform mainly designed for configuration management and infrastructure orchestration. Its user-friendly, minimalistic design facilitates effortless utilization by developers, IT professionals and administrators. With Ansible, users can establish machine groups and dictate their behavior within production environments.
DevOps Tools for Continuous Feedback
Analyzing and integrating feedback plays a vital role in the DevOps methodology. The ongoing feedback process facilitates continual improvement and involves gathering internal insights such as employee surveys and bug reports as well as external responses like support tickets and mentions on social media. Various DevOps tools are available to assist in establishing and enhancing your continuous feedback loops.
1. Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management, integrated into the Jira platform, serves as a DevOps tool designed to streamline communication. The primary goal is to consolidate feedback from various channels into a centralized hub. This tool enables customers to submit service requests and provide feedback through widgets, portals, emails or a personalized help center.
2. Parlor
Parlor serves as a user relationship management tool, specifically designed for collecting customer feedback. It actively interacts with users in real-time to acquire contextual insights. The platform seamlessly integrates with various business tools including support ticket systems like ZenDesk, technical task management platforms like Jira, communication tools such as Slack and data management programs like Excel.
DevOps Tools for Continuous Monitoring
Within the DevOps pipeline, ongoing application monitoring necessitates regular examinations for bugs, system errors, performance issues and any other factors that may affect product quality. Your DevOps monitoring tools ought to be capable of supporting two categories of monitoring: application and server.
1. Prometheus
Prometheus is a performance monitoring database that operates on an open-source, community-driven model, facilitating continuous monitoring processes. It provides robust reporting capabilities and offers extensive client libraries making it a valuable tool for developers and QA teams. Additionally, Prometheus is well-suited for DevOps due to its various modes of data visualization.
2. SoundCloud:
For music creators and listeners, SoundCloud’s platform needs to be reliable and performant. They use Prometheus to monitor their audio processing pipelines, storage systems and user activity. This helps them identify and address issues that could impact audio quality or user experience.
DevOps Tools for Continuous Operation
Continuous operation implies that applications and services should run seamlessly without any disruptions or downtime. While many tools mentioned earlier offer features to support continuous operations, utilizing an incident management platform such as Opsgenie can prove advantageous.
1. Opsgenie
Opsgenie is a DevOps solution designed for anticipating, managing and resolving service disruptions. It smoothly incorporates continuous monitoring tools, chat platforms, ticketing systems and various business applications. Opsgenie facilitates scheduled customizations to ensure timely notifications to the appropriate individuals via the correct communication channels in the event of challenges. Its automated escalation features play a crucial role in quickly detecting and resolving significant bugs.
Airbnb leverages Opsgenie to centralize alerts from diverse services and trigger automated workflows depending on the issue. This includes notifying internal teams, escalating critical incidents and triggering remediation actions like service restarts.
GitHub uses Opsgenie to monitor its platform health and trigger alerts for outages, performance bottlenecks and security vulnerabilities. On-call engineers receive instant notifications and can collaborate using integrated tools like PagerDuty.
Here are the Key Insights
- DevOps phases are not strictly sequential; rather, they iterate as necessary to ensure the highest quality of software products.
- DevOps tools play a supportive role rather than defining DevOps itself. They reinforce DevOps methodologies by promoting practices such as open collaboration and continuous feedback gathering.
- Automation tools in DevOps are crucial for facilitating continuous development and testing, as they effectively reduce the need for manual tasks.
- Organizations adopting DevOps methodologies can greatly benefit from utilizing open-source DevOps tools as valuable resources.
- Collaboration stands as a fundamental pillar of DevOps. It’s crucial to ensure that the DevOps tools selected actively support communication and collaboration not only within your team but also across the entire organization.
How HashStudioz Can Help You?
HashStudioz Technologies stands out as a leading provider of DevOps services and solutions offering a comprehensive suite of tools and expertise. With a commitment to optimizing efficiency, collaboration and automation throughout the software development lifecycle, HashStudioz enables organizations to achieve faster release cycles, improved quality assurance & increased overall productivity. We customize our solutions to align with the unique requirements of clients and offer continuous support to ensure lasting success in the dynamic realm of software development and deployment. Partnering with us ensures that your organization is equipped with the best DevOps practices, fostering innovation and agility in the ever-changing world of technology.
Manvendra Kunwar