Best DevOps Software

DevOps Software Guide

DevOps software is a type of program that helps organizations automate and improve the process of managing development, testing, and deployment of their applications. It provides an integrated suite of tools for automating key processes in the IT lifecycle such as configuration management, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), container orchestration, log management, and more. DevOps software makes it easier to deploy applications quickly and efficiently while helping ensure quality and reliability.

At its core, DevOps software is designed to help organizations manage the entire application lifecycle. This includes everything from development to production including creating new features or services, testing them to make sure they work as expected, and then delivering them into production. By providing automation tools throughout this process DevOps makes it faster and easier for developers to get code into production while ensuring that it is high-quality and reliable when deployed.

The tools used with DevOps are typically open source projects such as Chef, Puppet, Ansible or Salt Stack. These enable powerful automated processes such as auto-scaling infrastructure or automatic provisioning and configuration of hosts. This helps reduce the time needed for deployment tasks along with improving consistency across production environments. Additionally many DevOps tools now integrate with popular cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure enabling users even greater flexibility in setting up their environments.

With a comprehensive DevOps workflow organizations can ensure that their applications are deployed quickly without sacrificing quality or reliability - reducing time-to-market for products while aiding in cost savings from reduced downtime issues caused by manual deployments. The automation provided also ensures compliance with best practices around security by making sure only trusted code gets into production environments preventing malicious agents from gaining access. Ultimately using a good set of DevOps tools leads to improved organization efficiency overall allowing teams to push out more features faster while ensuring their applications remain secure and reliable at all times.

What Does DevOps Mean?

DevOps are a collection of ideas that have transformed into a movement and are spreading rapidly across the technical community. Like any popular, new term, people occasionally misinterpret what it is. The proper definition for DevOps is a customary outline to discuss the different areas DevOps covers. To fully understand DevOps, some nuance is required as it is a fairly large concept similar to “Agile” or “Quality.”

The term DevOps developed from the combination of two key related trends. The first one is “agile operations” or “agile infrastructure,” which applies lean and agile approaches to operations work. The second trend expounds upon the understanding of the significance of collaborative value between operations and development staff throughout each stage of the development lifecycle when operating and creating a service, and how vital operations have become in a service-oriented world.

DevOps, for the purpose of this article, doesn’t distinguish between different sysadmin sub-disciplines. “Ops” is a generic term for security professionals, network engineers, DBAs, release engineers, operations staff, system administrators, systems engineers, and a variety of other job titles and occupations. “Dev” is an abbreviation for developers, but it also means “everyone who was involved in developing the product,” which can include QA, product, or other disciplines.

Lean and Agile approaches are two strong affinities DevOps has. An older view of operations focused more on the “Dev” side (the “makers”), while the people who work with the creation after its inception are part of the “Ops” side. There was a realization that any harm done in the industry between the two was being treated as an isolated concern, which is the driving force behind DevOps. For this reason, DevOps can be understood as an extension of Agile, where Agile software development collaborates closely with their developers, product management, customers, and on occasion, QA, to fill the gaps and iterate rapidly towards a better product. In response, DevOps says that how the systems and the application interact as well as how service is delivered is an important part of the value of a proposal to a client. Therefore, the product team must include these issues as a top tier item. In this way, DevOps encompasses Agile ideologies beyond the boundaries of a code to the entire service that’s being delivered.

Deep Dive Into DevOps Software

DevOps has a multitude of definitions that mean many things to different people since the discussion around this term covers lots of ground. Some people view DevOps as a collaboration between operations and development. Other people view DevOps as treating your code like it’s infrastructure or as a toolchain approach, an automated approach, a Kanban approach, or a cultural approach. The best in-depth definition for DevOps is to use a method that’s parallel to the definition of a similarly multifaceted word called agile development. According to the Agile Manifesto and Wikipedia, agile development comprises four levels of concern and a fifth term we have added called the tooling level. While DevOps and Agile become a bit too obsessed with tools, it’s unhelpful to pretend they don’t exist at all.

The following paragraphs will break down the definitions of all the different phrases and terms that revolve around Agile and DevOps.

1. Agile values - Agile values are a top-level philosophy embodied in the Agile Manifesto. These include fundamental values that inform agile.
2. Agile principles - Agile principles are strategic approaches that are generally agreed upon to support these values. Part of the Agile Manifesto refers to over a dozen of these specific principles. In order to be agile, you do not have to buy into all of them, but if you don’t subscribe to some of them, you’re likely doing something else.
3. Agile methods - Agile methods are more process-specific applications of the principles. From Scrum, XP, or even your own homebrewed processes, the viewpoint begins to give way to operational playbooks of how people intend to do things in real life. These are only possible implementations - they are not mandatory.
4. Agile practices - Agile practices include highly tactical-specific techniques that lend themselves to be used in connection with agile applications. While none of these are required to be agile, a majority of agile applications have seen value from embracing them. There are specific artifacts a developer needs to accomplish their work including CI, backlogs, planning poker, and standups.
5. Agile tools - Agile tools are specific procedural applications used by teams to simplify their work such as planningpoker.com or Jira Agile (Greenhopper).
6. DevOps values - Most of the essential DevOps values are captured effectively in the Agile Manifesto with a slight revision to focus on the overall software or service being delivered to the customer instead of only “working software.”
7. DevOps principles - While there isn’t an agreed upon list, there are many attempts which are widely accepted including James Turnbull providing his own definition and John Willis inventing “CAMS.” One commonly used DevOps principle is “infrastructure as code.” At an abstract level, DevOps is broadening Agile’s ideologies to include operations and systems rather than stopping its concerns during code check-in.
8. DevOps methods - Some methods are the same here. For instance, you can use Kanban and Scrum with operations that have more focus on incorporating ops with dev, product, and QA in the product teams. Another method includes operating the Visible Ops-style change control while utilizing the Incident Command System for responding to incidents. The list of approaches continues to grow. An approach that might be more thoughtful would be to monitor an area where common methods haven’t been well defined.
9. DevOps practices - These are specific methods that are used as part of executing the above processes and concepts. Continuous deployment and integration put your developers on call by giving them a pager and by using monitoring, metrics, and management schemes which are an effective approach to tooling. Cloud computing and virtualization are common practices used in the modern world of infrastructure to accelerate change.
10. DevOps tools - DevOps tools would be used in the commission of the principles we’ve already discussed. An explosion of tools have been released in the DevOps world such as teamcity, travis, and jenkins as well as configuration management (including puppet, chef, ansible, and cfengine), orchestration (including ZooKeeper, Noah, and Mesos), monitoring, containerization, and virtualization (including AWS, OpenStack, Vagrant, and Docker), and more. It’s incorrect to believe that any tool is a “DevOps tool” in the sense that it will automatically bring you DevOps, but there are a variety of specific tools in development with the goal of simplifying the above practices, methods, and principles. A universal understanding of DevOps should incorporate this layer.

Further Considerations

DevOps is difficult to define just like Agile. In order to be a successful DevOps or Agile practitioner, you need to understand everything that goes into it and what certain DevOps applications might have or not have. The main objective DevOps is hoping to bring to Agile is the practice and understanding that software isn’t complete until it’s delivered successfully to a user and meets their expectations as far as pace of change, performance, and availability are concerned.

Three key practice areas that are normally discussed with regards to DevOps include size reliability engineering which operates your systems as well as monitoring and orchestration and is also designed for operability, continuous delivery which builds, tests, and deploys all of your apps in a fast, automated fashion, and infrastructure automation which creates app deployments, OS configurations, and systems as code.

More than just a singular solution, DevOps overarches philosophy to employ many software systems. This concept has bridged the gap between development and operations. Through the use of agile procedures, both teams can work together to deliver better services and applications to customers and optimize productivity. DevOps has a cross-departmental nature which requires lots of tools from various software categories. The products included in the continuous delivery category as well as other subcategories including configuration management, build automation, continuous integration, and continuous deployment contribute to all of DevOps’ practices on the development side of things. These tools let developers release codes for their projects anytime, which makes improving apps, testing, and building an uninterrupted process. Source code management systems offer most of the same benefits as CD tools and are helping to uncover security risks and errors in the original versions of codes. Processes will become more efficient when a service or app is managed or developed. Team collaboration tools guarantee that this type of efficiency can be employed to provide open links of communication between each department that utilizes a DevOps strategy.

Popular DevOps Software Categories

Continuous Delivery

A somewhat debated and confusing term, continuous delivery is often described as an effective approach to software production. This concept includes integration and continuous delivery, paired with configuration management and build automation. The process is slightly more specific than DevOps because it functions around a series of releases, approval, and tests. Whenever a change is made, a test is run once a build takes place. The results of the tests are then returned to the development team to be approved or denied. Using uninterrupted integration tools, changes can either be instantly released or held off until a specific time. Businesses use these tools as well as this method to create a continuous user experience when updating software products and applications.

Continuous Deployment

Some of the largest, most dynamic tools included in this category are continuous deployment tools. This category provides tools to complete every step of the continuous delivery process. These tools also allow teams to instantly deploy after a change is made instead of waiting for multiple updates to take place and deploying them together as a group. The entire process is automated, but not meant for teams who require stringent analytics on deployment efficiency. Continuous deployment tools are for businesses that want continuously updated software.

Continuous Integration

Continuous integration tools are the tools that enable this development practice to allow individuals and development teams to check out parts of code from a repository. The code can be updated, changed, or edited but is eventually verified and integrated into the application, reducing the need for teams to set aside time for lengthy, bulky software updates and integrations. This process involves multiple developers to ensure swift and significant changes that can be integrated quickly into applications.

Build Automation

The tools featured in build automation include a development process that’s similar to continuous integration tools, but their capacities are often limited to only before updates are integrated into an application. The same process will be followed by developers. Code will still be gathered, built, and tested, and changes will still require approval. However, these products will not use the same kind of trigger that put changes into place automatically. The products will only perform the first step in the automation of the continuous delivery process.

Configuration Management

Otherwise called IT automation, configuration management reduces burdens placed on development teams to guarantee that the current state of an application is the one that was intended. These tools present information about the application’s current performance and state as well as document historical records of changes that were made during the delivery process. Configuration management more-or-less means version management and the performance control of benefits applications.

Additional categories include:

• Infrastructure as Code: This feature gives organizations the ability to define infrastructure needs through code rather than through manual configurations. This helps reduce time needed to set up applications on different environments while making it easier to detect errors early on in the process.
• Monitoring & Logging: This feature helps teams monitor their system performance in real-time, allowing them to identify problems quickly and take corrective action efficiently if needed. Additionally, it also enables them to log events for further analysis which can help optimize processes long-term.
• Automated Provisioning: This feature allows organizations to automatically provision servers and other resources at speed and scale with minimal manual effort. It helps eliminate the need for human intervention for tedious tasks such as server configuration and setup.
• Orchestration Tools: Used to automate processes or tasks across multiple computers or machines simultaneously in order to reduce manual effort by engineering teams during deployments or other operational activities like scaling and patching services running on different clusters or environments.
• Security Tools: Help ensure that applications are secure before they are released into production by scanning them for vulnerabilities as part of the CI/CD pipeline process or directly within source control repos.
• Source Code Repository: Allows teams to store and share code with other users, such as developers, testers, and operations personnel. This allows teams to collaborate and work on projects collaboratively.

What Advantages Does DevOps Software Provide?

1. Automation: Automating processes such as deployment, testing and configuration reduces errors, improves repeatability and saves time. It also enables teams to focus more on innovation rather than tedious tasks.
2. Speed and Agility: DevOps software allows teams to quickly launch new features or fix defects in existing ones. This flexibility helps organizations stay competitive in their markets by decreasing time to market for products and services.
3. Improved Collaboration: By automating tedious tasks, developers can collaborate better with other stakeholders such as operations staff, allowing them to focus on providing value instead of just getting a job done. Working together towards a common goal leads to faster delivery cycles which result in improved customer satisfaction.
4. Cost Savings: DevOps software helps reduce costs associated with manual labor and human error. By reducing the number of required personnel for certain tasks, organizations can save money as well as improve reliability by implementing automated processes that don’t require constant supervision.
5. Quality Improvement: Automated tests allow teams to quickly identify mistakes or issues before they become costly problems further down the line. DevOps tooling also makes it easier to track changes over time so that teams can easily identify any recent regressions in quality which helps ensure consistency and reliability from product feature launches through maintenance cycles.
6. Security: By automating security checks, DevOps software helps organizations keep their applications and data secure. This helps reduce the risk of malicious exploitation or data breaches while simplifying compliance with industry regulations.

DevOps Software Trends

1. Automation: Automation is a key element of DevOps, and recent trends have focused on making the automation process faster and more efficient. This means using tools such as scripting, configuration management, containerization, and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to automate the entire software deployment process from development to production.
2. Adoption of Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular among DevOps teams, as organizations are utilizing cloud-based platforms like AWS or Azure to improve their scalability, availability, and efficiency. By deploying applications in the cloud, organizations can ensure that they can scale quickly while still maintaining security and reliability.
3. Improved Security Measures: As more organizations are embracing DevOps principles, security measures have become more sophisticated in order to protect against potential threats. For example, secure coding practices are being implemented to reduce the risk of vulnerabilities in codebase and two-factor authentication is being used for access control purposes. Additionally, automated security scanning tools are also being employed in order to detect any suspicious activity or malicious code early on before it becomes an issue.
4. Increased Focus on Testing: The quality assurance (QA) process has become increasingly important within DevOps teams as they must ensure that their software is free from bugs and defects before it goes into production. As a result of this increased focus on QA testing, automated testing frameworks such as Selenium are often employed by DevOps teams in order to speed up the QA process while improving accuracy.
5. Containerization: Containers provide an effective way for developers to package applications together with all their dependencies so that they can be moved around easily between different environment without worrying about compatibility issues or conflicts with existing libraries or systems. This makes them perfect for DevOps teams who need fast feedback loops when developing complex distributed applications quickly and efficiently across multiple environments simultaneously.
6. Agile Methodologies: Agile methodologies are becoming increasingly popular within DevOps teams, as they can help speed up the software development process by breaking down complex projects into smaller tasks and iterating upon them quickly. This has allowed DevOps teams to move faster and work more collaboratively when developing new features or products while often resulting in higher quality code in the end.

Who Uses DevOps Software?

• Developers: Developers use DevOps software to develop applications and services, such as web apps and microservices.
• IT Managers: IT managers use DevOps software to automate tasks, configure systems, deploy code changes, and keep up with the latest trends in technology.
• System Administrators: System administrators use DevOps software to manage server infrastructure, monitor performance, troubleshoot issues, secure networks and applications, and implement changes.
• Cloud Engineers: Cloud engineers leverage DevOps tools to manage cloud deployments such as storage solutions and compute resources.
• Security Professionals: Security professionals employ DevOps tools for security auditing and risk management processes. They can also set up automated alerts and notifications when any suspicious activity is detected on the network or application layer.
• Quality Assurance Testers: QA testers rely on DevOps tools to create automated tests that provide feedback quickly on the quality of a product before it is released into production.
• Operations Teams: Operations teams use DevOps software for monitoring system performance metrics such as CPU usage and memory utilization so they can react quickly to any emerging issues with their deployments.
• Business Analysts: Business analysts utilize DevOps tools to analyze and measure the impact of changes across different business areas such as customer service, marketing, sales, etc.
• Database Administrators: DBAs use DevOps software to monitor database performance metrics and handle the security of their databases.
• Support Teams: Support teams use DevOps tools to easily troubleshoot customer issues and deploy fixes quickly.

How Much Does DevOps Software Cost?

The cost of DevOps software varies widely depending on the specific requirements of your organization. Generally speaking, the cost of DevOps tools will range from free open source solutions to comprehensive enterprise-level tool chains that can range into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

If you simply need basic version control and deployment automation, you might be able to get away with just using a combination of inexpensive open source services such as Git and Puppet. But if your organization needs advanced features like continuous integration and delivery, monitoring, secure containers and serverless architectures, then more expensive enterprise-level solutions may be in order.

Furthermore, any custom development work required for setting up the systems needed for DevOps can also add to the total cost. And don’t forget about ongoing support costs once you’ve set everything up. It is likely that you’ll need some type of technical assistance periodically throughout your DevOps journey.

All in all, there is no one size fits all answer when it comes to determining how much DevOps software might cost your organization because each implementation is unique based on an array of underlying factors such as size, complexity, desired features and resources available within the company.

What Integrates With DevOps Software?

DevOps software is often used in conjunction with a variety of other software types. Examples can include configuration management tools, such as Puppet, Chef, or Ansible; container technology tools, such as Docker; Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions, like AWS or Azure; and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools like Jenkins. Additionally, some DevOps solutions provide integrations with webhooks to allow for automated deployment triggered by external events. Each of these software types help to facilitate the automation of tasks necessary to ensure that code moves quickly and safely from development through to production.

How to Select the Right DevOps Software

1. Assess your organization’s needs: Before selecting a DevOps software, it is important to assess your organization's needs and make sure the software can meet them. Ask questions such as what processes need to be automated and how many users need to use the software.
2. Research available options: Once you have determined your organization’s needs, research available DevOps options that meet those requirements. Read reviews and compare features between each one to find the best fit for your business. Compare DevOps software using the tools on this page to sort by features, pricing, user reviews, integrations, operating system, and more.
3. Consult with experts: If you are unsure which DevOps software would best serve your organization, consult with IT experts who have experience with different DevOps tools. They will be able to provide insights into which ones might be the most suitable for you based on their own experiences.
4. Test before purchasing: Before investing in a particular DevOps tool, test it out in order to make sure it truly meets all of your needs and works properly for your team members. Many of these tools offer free trial periods which can be used for testing purposes so take advantage of them if possible!
5. Monitor post-purchase performance: After selecting and purchasing a DevOps tool, monitor its performance closely over time and evaluate whether or not it is meeting all of your expectations on a regular basis. Be sure to provide feedback about the tool to the vendor so that they can continue to improve and optimize the software.