DevOps is not just a type of process pipeline; it is a cultural shift in an organisation. It combines two of the most important aspects of IT, development and operations, for shared responsibility and accountability. It breaks down silos for enhanced delivery, collaboration, automation, and deployment. However, this is not possible without the use of tools designed for specific purposes.
In this blog, we will talk about 12 essential DevOps tools that are dominating the software development market. These tools are divided into six categories, depending on what they are used for.
A] CI/CD & Automation Tools
1. Jenkins
Jenkins is one of the top open-source CI/CD tools in DevOps, essential for continuous integration and deployment. Jenkins automates numerous development tasks, including building, testing, and deploying code changes. It can speed up the development and delivery timeline. Jenkins has a vast library of plugins, allowing it to adapt to various environments. It also allows developers to save pipelines as code, enabling reusability, version control, and collaboration.
2. GitLab CI/CD
GitLab CI/CD is a DevOps automation tool within GitLab meant to automate the building, testing, and deployment of code. It brings the complete software development and deployment pipeline under a single integrated environment. Its feature to automate building and testing code allows developers to find and fix bugs in the early stages of development. Its features also enable the release of code changes faster, without the risk of human error. Its USP lies in its ability to natively integrate within the GitLab ecosystem. Almost every major DevOps consultancy service uses GitLab CI/CD.
3. GitHub Actions
GitHub Actions is another popular CI/CD implementation tool focusing on automation. Where GitLab focuses on an integrated DevOps experience, GitHub Actions has a broader ecosystem, focusing on automation that lets you define custom workflows for your development process in GitHub. With GitHub Actions, you can build workflows that automatically test every build pull request. The unique benefit of using GitHub Actions over its peers is its vast pre-built code snippets that automate and streamline DevOps tasks.
B] Configuration Management & Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
1. Terraform
Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code tool that allows developers to manage their configuration and infrastructure resources. Terraform allows developers to keep up with modern applications and their demands. In an increasingly complex and cloud-oriented environment, it allows automated and error-free DevOps workflows. It uses HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), a declarative language that allows developers to save the desired state of their infrastructure.
2. Ansible
Ansible is an open-source DevOps tool that assists developers in continuous delivery. It is often used for its simplicity and versatility. It is made up of many components, including modules, playbooks, APIs, cloud infrastructure, and CMDB. It automates the installation and configuration of database systems or web servers. It is simple to set up, has agentless functioning, and uses the SSH protocol for security in DevOps processes.
3. Puppet
Puppet is one of the most popular configuration management software tools. Puppet is written in Ruby and uses a declarative Domain-Specific Language (DSL) that enables developers to define the desired state of the system and ensure consistency. It is mainly used because it helps to reduce operational complexity and streamlines delivery. It allows developers to scale rapidly while maintaining compliance and security. It is specifically designed for Linux and Windows systems.
C] Containerisation & Orchestration
1. Docker
Docker simplifies DevOps practices by putting everything (code, tools, libraries, and configuration) in a single container. With Docker, developers and operators can collaborate better and ensure standardisation. It is open-source and is widely used to automate web and mobile application development, testing, and deployment. Containerisation ensures the app works smoothly on every machine and can help to scale seamlessly.
Learn more about Docker: What Is Docker and Why Is It So Popular?
2. Kubernetes
Kubernetes, commonly known as K8s, is a container orchestration platform that is often used alongside containerisation platforms like Docker. It is an open-source platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerised applications. It is the second most used containerisation software after Docker. Kubernetes automates deployment, code repair, and load balancing. This simplifies container management, as K8s automatically runs, stops, and restarts containers as needed. For organisations looking to scale, K8s’ self-healing and support for hybrid and multi-cloud environment capabilities are extremely attractive.
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D] Monitoring & Logging
1. Prometheus
Prometheus is one of the most crucial DevOps monitoring and alerting tools. It collects, stores, and analyses data from the app’s infrastructure to ensure the system is running fine. If it notices potential issues with the servers, applications, or the database, it sends an alert to the developers and operators. It uses the pull model for data collection, meaning it collects real-time information from the application. This model also makes it safer and more scalable.
2. ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)
The ELK stack stands for Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana. It is a trio of open-source DevOps tools for developers that is used for log management, monitoring, and data visualisation. Logstash is used for collecting data from everywhere into a single place. Then Elasticsearch finds patterns, errors, and performance issues by quickly searching through them. Finally, Kibana visualises the data in a simple and readable manner.
E] Testing
1. Selenium
Automated testing is one of the key aspects of CI/CD in DevOps. Selenium is one of the leading automated testing tools used today for conducting cross-browser testing. Once a code is uploaded to the shared database, Selenium checks the entire website, including forms, buttons, responsiveness, and links, to ensure everything is working as expected.
F] Collaboration
1. Slack
Slack is a collaboration tool widely used in project management and acts as the central repository for updates, notifications, alerts, and collaboration. Slack acts as a central hub for all the information that comes in. It acts as a glue that holds the philosophy of DevOps together.
Also Read: DevOps vs. Agile
G] Conclusion
While DevOps may be considered a mindset and organisational philosophy, it requires numerous tools to make it possible. These tools are required for automation, configuration management, containerisation and orchestration, monitoring, testing, and collaboration. These tools enable efficiency in the workflow management process, which is what DevOps is meant to do.
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