What is DevOps?
DevOps is a culture one can use for continuous improvement in their daily working methods. In DevOps, they combine software development processes (Dev) and information technology operations (Ops) wherein software and operation engineers work together throughout the development cycle, right from the beginning, i.e., creating ideas until the end, i.e., production.
DevOps’ significant features are increased production, communication improvement, reduction in cost, and management of failures. A DevOps certification increases the organization’s ability to improve its services faster, helping them serve its customers better and maintain its position in the market.
Many DevOps tools are developed to make collaboration and development more straightforward. There are a variety of DevOps tools available for organizations and DevOps teams to use. This article discusses the most popular and widely used DevOps applications below.
DevOps engineers and IT professionals can use these popular tools to help them make their deployment process faster and easier. These tools offer various functionalities, so DevOps teams need to do further research to understand which one will be the right fit for them. The best way to ensure the correct implementation of these tools is to work with certified DevOps professionals who use DevOps tools and create a DevOps culture within the team. Read more about mobile app development tools.
The Top 10 DevOps Tools
1. Git
This DevOps tool is used globally by software companies, as it allows you to keep track of your team’s development work and create separate branches and combine new features. Presently, there are two best online Git services- GitHub and Bitbucket. GitHub is very popular as it gives free access to all public dealers, which is an excellent thing for many projects. Both GitHub and Bitbucket are easily combined with Slack, which will notify each team member whenever someone makes any changes.
2. Jenkins
It is a free open source tool written in Java that quickly finds and solves bugs in your work. Jenkins is very popular because of its vast plugin ecosystem. With Jenkins, you can make changes in your CI/CD according to your needs. One can easily install Jenkins with the help of Docker. If you are using it for the first time, you can install it with frequently used plugins. With Jenkins, one can do things again and again and start a new code very quickly. It also benefits you to know the progress of your work step by step.
3. Gradle
This tool has become famous as the official build tool for Android and allows developers to write their code in languages like C++, Java. Gradle uses a Groovy base and a domain-specific language to describe build scripts that save a lot of time. It also comes with many configuration options. The automation options available with Gradle help increase developer productivity and deliver software at a faster speed.
4. Puppet
It is a configuration management tool that is used everywhere while developing the software. It is an open-source tool that can work for hybrid infrastructure and applications. This tool is free of cost, and many companies like Cisco, Teradata, and JP Morgan Chase& Co. use Puppet. This tool also supports Windows, Linux, and Unix operating systems. Puppet comes with its own domain-specific language and is written in Ruby.
There are two layers to Puppet. The first layer is a configuration language used to showcase how the application’s services should look. The second layer is an abstraction layer where DevOps engineers can implement their configurations.
5. PagerDuty
This DevOps tool offers solutions for incident management to organizations, which helps to improve their reputation. PagerDuty arranges a cross-functional substitute that detects and solves problems from development to production. This tool also allows DevOps teams to deliver high performing apps with reliable alerting facilities, sound collaboration systems, reporting, scheduling, and many more.
6. Selenium
Selenium is an automated portable testing network created for engineers as a free, open-source model to execute web applications. The scripts that developers create using Selenium automatically test the built web applications for multiple conditions in the program. One of the biggest reasons DevOps engineers prefer using Selenium as a tool for their development and operations is that team members can simultaneously execute parallel tests.
Selenium also offers multiple integrations such as TestNG, Jenkins, Junit, Maven, Docker, and more. Another benefit of using Selenium is that it requires less hardware when compared to other DevOps tools.
7. Docker
Docker is by far the forerunner in containerization for DevOps tools. The main reason why DevOps professionals want to use Docker is that it creates the same development environment throughout the development cycle. They can test their environments with Docker in the staging and production cycles of the deployment. Another reason why developers prefer using the tool is that Docker can segregate applications into containers.
This way, the apps would automatically become more accessible and secure. The container also includes all the dependencies and elements of the application and then sends the whole package as an individual item. It reduces the time used for development by creating an automated and reliable supply chain to deliver the same value.
8. Ansible
Ansible is an open-source platform provided by Red Hat for DevOps engineers with many features like configuration management, software provisioning, and deployment of applications. Ansible connects through SSH and remote PowerShell to help developers execute their tasks in the deployment process. The application uses playbooks to execute nodes managed by Ansible.
Ansible is a complete web service application that makes it easy for developers to operate the tool. The application supports DevOps by accelerating feedback loops to reduce deployment times. Some of the other ways in which Ansible supports DevOps teams is by discovering bugs in the software sooner, reducing overall risk, and increasing the coordination in deployment.
9. Chef
Chef also helps DevOps engineers simplify their deployment process by automating the configuration management of the application. The tool manages, repairs, and continually updates application infrastructures. DevOps teams can create a flow of continuous and seamless deliveries when they use Chef. The tool also comes with customizable policies that can be implemented throughout the application infrastructure in the development life cycle.
10. Nagios
Nagios is another free, open-source platform available to DevOps engineers for use. Nagios is such a popular tool because the software can be used seamlessly to detect and fix problems and bugs in the code and script. The tool is used to monitor the deployment process of any application. There are two versions of Nagios available for use. Nagios Core is available for basic functionalities, and Nagios XI, a tool that offers more functions and features for developers.
DevOps professionals use Nagios for various purposes. The tool’s main functions are easy monitoring of applications, services, network protocols, and more, and bug fixing. Besides these, Nagios can also be used to keep records of all the outages.
Conclusion
DevOps engineers and IT professionals can use these popular tools to help them make their deployment process faster and easier. These tools offer various functionalities, so DevOps teams need to do further research to understand which one will be the right fit for them. The best way to ensure the correct implementation of these tools is to work with certified DevOps professionals who use DevOps tools and create a DevOps culture within the team.