TOP DEVOPS AUTOMATION TOOLS IN 2022 AND BEYOND

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December 2021

 

Automation has become pivotal in today’s technologically advanced world. One can see a number of processes in which automation has played an important role. It has created a new sense of emergency in which either a person is busy automating processes or getting automated.  Because with the help of automation, the efficiency has increased manifold. As well as, the productivity and quality of the work have also improved.

Similarly, it will not be wrong to say that integration of development and operations has introduced a new paradigm in the software development lifecycle.  As per the stats, circa 51% of companies are using marketing automation tools and around 58% have a plan to use automation tools.

The great thing about this level of automation is that it frees people up. They don’t have to focus on these manual labor tasks that a machine can do. ~ Josh Steimle

In the context of DevOps, automation plays an important role throughout the whole process of writing code, its integration, it’s regular testing, and monitoring.  It frees people up of the tasks that can be automated and divert their efforts towards more productive tasks.

Read More: DEVOPS AUTOMATION – WHY AND WHEN TO AUTOMATE DEVOPS PRACTICES

The automation of the software development lifecycle effectively helps in improving the code quality and imbuing quick changes. Automation also covers the testing processes which include unit testing, user interface testing, installation testing, and so on.

As we have briefly touched upon the benefits of automation in development, you must be wondering how it can be inculcated. Therefore, let’s discuss what are some popular DevOps tools and their usage.

What are Top DevOps automation tools and their usage?

The phrase DevOps refers to the combination of development and operation. And, DevOps automation tools refer to all the tools, platforms, and applications that play an important role in DevOps. Because DevOps is a very diverse topic in the sense that it combines the workflow of application development and operations into a single workstream.

The main goal of DevOps is to ensure continuous deployment. When the development and operations teams work separately, they, most of the time, face problems in the deployment and release of the scrums. With the help of DevOps tools, automation of different banal and repetitive tasks is possible which can improve deployment pace and the scalability of the applications.

If we talk about the DevOps automation tools, you may need different DevOps tools depending upon your requirements. However, let’s discuss some top DevOps automation tools for 2022 and beyond.

 

The first step in the DevOps lifecycle is development in which all the programming, storage, analysis, and evaluation of the sources code takes place. Below are the DevOps automation tools required for management and building code for continuous deployment.

1. Git: Open Source Code Management and Version Control System

Git is one of the most popular tools of DevOps and it is expected to hold its popular position for years to come. It is a free open source code management platform, which not only manages the code but provides a number of other benefits also.

Furthermore, imagine you are working on a project with some of your friends at different locations. How would you manage if you have to make modifications to the project? How will that pass to your friends? This is where the role of Git comes in.

It allows the programmers to store the source code at a single repository and make its up-to-date version accessible to all. GitHub, Bitbucket, and GitLab are some of the most popular Git Repo hosting services. So it can be said that Git is a place where:

    • You can store your source code
    • Making and tracking any changes in the code is possible
    • You can make it accessible to everybody if required.

Moreover, Git perfectly allows and supports the non-linear and distributed development processes. And all the changes in the code stay there in Git forever. And you can these versions of the application easily anytime as per need.

2. Jira: Issues and Project Tracking DevOps Tool

Jira is a product of Atlassian, the developer of Trello, Bitbucket, and many other well-known software solutions. It is a project management and issues tracking tool which is available as SaaS also.

Although Jira began as a bug tracking platform yet it evolved over time. But still, many developers think of it as a bug-tracking DevOps tool only. Its user interface is very friendly, and it allows you to examine how the project is progressing and evaluate commits, manage dependencies, and so on.

Its powerful automation engine allows you to automate different rules with simple drag and drop interfaces. Moreover, it also allows the developers to link to other technologies like Microsoft Teams, BitBucket, and so on and involve them in the automation process.

3. SonarQube: Open Source Platform for Code Security and Code Quality

SonarQube is an automated tool that is a product of SonarSource. It is a very famous tool for continuous code review, which supports 27 programming languages. It thoroughly examines the code throughout and assesses the quality and security bugs in the source code.

A most noteworthy feature of SonarQube is its Quality Gate which subsumes a number of conditions. It is a very useful metric to evaluate the quality of the code. Quality gates are also useful in examining the pull requests to assess whether to merge them or not.

It is, doubtlessly, one of the finest DevSecOps tools that enhance the security of the application by evaluating the code continuously.

4. Gradle: A Build Automation Tool

Gradle is yet another popular tool that has also been counted in the top 20 open source projects also. For DevOps, a dependable build tool is very essential. For years, Maven and Apache rendered their services, but the popularity of Gradle also increased since its introduction in 2009.

Gradle supports a lot of programming languages which include, C++, Python, Java, and etc. Moreover, a number of IDEs such as NetBeans and Eclipse also support Gradle. Because of the utility that it provides, it has become an official build tool for Android Studio.

Moreover, it is one of the most versatile DevOps tools which ensures quicker deliveries and a lot of tuning possibilities.

These are some of the most popular and top DevOps automation tools that play important role in managing, analyzing, and evaluating the source code.

Now, the next step is containerization. It is a process in which the application’s source code and all the dependencies are virtualized and encapsulated in a container image. Furthermore, it can be deployed as it is to multiple environments without any further tweaks.

5. Docker: Free Open Source Platform for Containerization

Docker has been very popular since its introduction. And it is continuously evolving over time. It is true that the concept of containerization is popular in the IT industry more or less because of Docker. It allows remote development and also automates the deployment processes. Docker delivers software in the form of containers and enables the programmers to run and share cloud-based applications from your computer to the cloud.

Moreover, it also helps in dependency management by grouping them in a single container and sent as a single unit box. This enables the user to run the application on any computer without any problem.

6. Jenkins: Open Source Automation Server

Jenkins is one of the widely used DevOps open-source continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) tools. It allows the users to ensure timely and speedy deliveries by automating different phases of the delivery pipeline.

You can easily configure and customize its setup through its web interface. Its popularity is mostly because of its extensive APIs through which it can be extended as well.

7. Bamboo: Continous Deployment and Integration Build Server

In the same way, Bamboo is also a continuous integration and delivery automation server. It is a product of Atlassian which shares many capabilities of Jenkins as well. However, it is not freely available like Jenkins, so you may have to pay for Bamboo to access delivery pipeline automation services.

 

The next stage in the DevOps lifecycle is managing configurations of the application. It plays an indisputable role in accelerating the deployment speed by automating different infrastructural procedures.

8. Ansible: Configuration Management DevOps Tool

Ansible is a very simple configuration management tool that is also useful for automating IT. In the context of capabilities, it is comparable to other tools like CHEF and Puppet. The purpose of its introduction was to support a multi-tier development model. It automates a number of infrastructural and deployment procedures which include internal structural orchestration, application deployment, and so on.

In comparison to other such automation solutions, the key feature of Ansible is that it is very easy to use and operate. Its work revolves around the Infrastructure-as-a-code methodology.

 

9. CHEF: DevOps Tool for Defining Infrastructure as Code

CHEF holds the position of pioneers of the DevOps movement. It is currently working with thousands of companies and platforms and assisting them by providing practices and platforms to deliver software at speed. Furthermore,  it critically focuses on the security and stability of the patches. As well as, its clock feature allows you to keep things running on time.

 

Moreover, with the help of managed DevOps solutions provided by the cloud service providers, you can also use the complete DevOps stack in the cloud.

10. Azure DevOps: Cloud-Based DevOps Cycle Management Tool

Microsoft provides an integrated DevOps platform which is Azure DevOps. With the help of Azure DevOps automation tools, a user can manage all the cloud-based DevOps cycles from a single dashboard. This Microsoft DevOps solution consists of a number of technologies. Each one of these technologies focuses on assisting in one distinct step in the whole development process. However, it is not essential to use all the tools but you can subscribe and unsubscribe to the tools as per your needs.

11. AWS DevOps: Cloud-Based Amazon DevOps Toolset

AWS DevOps is an offering of Amazon Web Services which assists with managing tools in the complete SDLC. However, these tools are not limited to the cloud, but they can also be used to deploy any part of the AWS architecture on your in-house server.

AWS DevOps is not a PaaS solution like Azure, but it provides an Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solution. Furthermore, you can’t deploy services from AWS to Azure but you can do otherwise.

 

The last part of the DevOps cycle is looking for mistakes and any problems that may appear. A continuous evaluation is necessary to respond quickly if any problem arises. Following are some DevOps automation tools that are helpful in this regard.

12. Raygun: Error Detecting and Reporting Tool

Raygun is one of the important DevOps tools which is a full-stack performance and error-monitoring system. It works in real-time and evaluates the quality of online and mobile applications and generates actionable insights. Raygun helps in diagnosing the problems and tracing them down to the actual line, portion, or API in the source code. It is very helpful in responding to the bugs reported by the users and debugging them efficiently.

13. Nagios: System for Infrastrucutre Monitoring

Nagios is yet another one of the widely used DevOps open-source tools. It is very helpful in monitoring the infrastructure and looking for any issues in it. Moreover, the graphs of Nagios can also be used to predict and look for any mistakes and security risks.

Furthermore, since it is a free tool so you have to set it up on your own. However, its support plans can also be purchased to access its team’s experience and help.

Wrapping Up

Concluding the whole discussion, it is as clear as day that there exist a number of DevOps automation tools. And these tools are very likely to keep their popular standing intact in 2022 and beyond. You can choose any tools from all the available DevOps automation tools as per your requirements.

Are you looking to hire DevOps services? Don’t hesitate to contact us at ARFASOFTECH.

author

Fahad Ali, Author

Fahad is PM at ARFASOFTECH but has a knack for writing. He enjoys writing about the latest technologies and evolving trends. Most of his writings revolve around trending technologies and their integration into operations.

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