DevOps Tools Explained

DevOps aims to bridge the gap between application development and IT operations to allow organizations to create better software faster than ever before. DevOps tools and platforms provide a framework to empower teams to plan, build, deploy, monitor, and keep track of operations and feedback. Without these tools and platforms, organizations would have an increasingly difficult task managing software development lifecycles as the complexity and scale of the systems they're developing increase.

DevOps tools are applications that help to streamline the process of developing software. Most DevOps tools focus on one or more of the following areas:

• Communication and collaboration

• CI/deployment automation

• Test automation

• Version control

• Container management

• Monitoring

• Configuration management

• Artifact management

As organizations turn ideas into software to fuel their businesses, they are increasingly relying on DevOps tools to make that happen. DevOps tools empower companies to more quickly, efficiently, and securely develop and deploy software products that engage with customers, promote the brand, and increase revenue.

Here are just a few of the ways DevOps tools can help teams drive real business benefits:

• Save time and resources by automating repetitive tasks

• Minimize risks by integrating security and compliance into your software development lifecycle

• Improve customer satisfaction by delivering safer, higher-quality software, faster

Because DevOps ties all parts of the software development lifecycle together, it may be tempting to cobble together various tools to speed up software delivery. But going this route comes at a price:- the time spent integrating and maintaining the toolchain instead of coding and delivering software. That's the DevOps toolchain tax.

Executing development and production processes across multiple tools will ultimately slow down the delivery of products, impact communication, and reduce overall code quality. Setting up numerous integrations can be daunting and, more importantly, many of these are not just a one-time setup, as new projects require new component connections. The solution to this problem is a single end-to-end DevOps platform.

GitLab's One DevOps Platform gives IT teams a single application that covers the entire software lifecycle, giving everyone an overview of projects as they progress from planning to deployment, monitoring, and documentation. GitLab simplifies the entire toolchain, allowing your teams to work together as a unified, collaborative system while maintaining a high level of security.

Plan

Identifying the work to be done is the first step in the DevOps toolchain. This allows tasks to be prioritized and tracked.

Build

Enabling developers to easily create feature branches, review code, merge branches, and fix bugs allows for a smooth development cycle.

Continuous integration and deployment

Running automated tests each time code is checked in or merged ensures that bugs are detected early and fixed before they get to production.

Monitor

Monitoring your application and production server performance, as well as managing incidents, is critical to the smooth operation of your software.

Operate

Ensuring the released system can scale automatically as needed is one of the ways to guarantee smooth system operations.

Continuous feedback

Distilling and sharing information empowers organizations to develop accurate insights into how well the software is received and used.

Implementing DevOps tools significantly enhances the collaboration between development and operations teams, optimizing the software development process. These tools streamline the entire lifecycle, from initial planning to final deployment, while improving software quality through continuous testing and deployment. With real-time visibility and robust feedback loops, along with thorough code reviews, teams can achieve swift deployment and uphold stringent software project standards.

GitLab's One DevOps Platform is a prime example, offering an integrated suite of tools that consolidates code repositories, application deployment, and monitoring into a seamless, effective workflow. As DevOps processes evolve, utilizing such platforms ensures organizations can meet the rapid demands of software development, maintaining an edge with efficient operations and superior team collaboration.