According to Global Market Insights, the DevOps market, which has exceeded $8 billion by 2022, will have an expected CAGR of 20% from 2023 to 2032. Streamlined software delivery, enabling companies to roll out new products and services faster, is one of the main drivers for increasing DevOps adoption.
At Itransition, we believe that companies can get these and other benefits by adding AWS DevOps tools to their tech stacks. This article explores the concept of AWS DevOps and highlights its most essential instruments.
What are the benefits of AWS DevOps?
In line with the concept of DevOps, AWS DevOps implies synchronization between development and IT operations, automation of crucial software delivery aspects (i.e., testing, deployment, and integration of code changes), and continuous documentation. By introducing these practices into their IT processes, companies can create software and roll out updates much faster compared to the traditional software development model.
By choosing the AWS platform for DevOps, companies can also gain additional business advantages:
- Cost-efficiency
AWS provides pay-as-you-go pricing so companies can implement or omit any DevOps tools and services on demand. Additionally, companies can start with the AWS Free Tier plan to explore the platform’s DevOps capabilities without making any significant investments.
- A wide selection of services and tools
AWS is one of the most mature cloud platforms on the market, offering customers more than 200 services, many of which are integrated. IT teams can apply these tools for a wide range of tasks, including building CI/CD pipelines from scratch, managing security controls, and automating infrastructure provisioning.
- Extensive user support
The AWS platform supports customers at multiple levels, which helps simplify user adoption among organizations. For example, users can read thematic articles on the AWS Official Knowledge Center, visit AWS re:Post to get expert advice from the community or complete the AWS DevOps Engineering Learning Plan, a specialized training program designed by AWS experts.
- Optional AWS hosting
Last but not least, teams can use AWS DevOps tools without using AWS hosting services. This can be a good option for those teams that have experience with AWS cloud and tools and can relatively easily implement them into work but do not require AWS as a hosting provider.
Essential AWS DevOps tools
AWS DevOps tools can be divided into multiple categories based on their purpose and use in the software development lifecycle:
Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD)
AWS CodePipeline is a critical service in the AWS DevOps tool stack, as it allows teams to automate the main software delivery stages. Specifically, IT specialists can use the solution’s graphical interface to set up and configure CI/CD pipelines.
One of the benefits of AWS CodePipeline is the ability to upload custom templates in JSON format which specify the release workflow and its key steps so that a tool can automatically suggest an appropriate pipeline structure. In addition, since the service can be integrated with GitHub, AWS CodePipeline is able to extract source code from a GitHub repository and transfer it to an AWS S3 bucket, thus ensuring continuous delivery.
AWS CodeBuild is another solution that allows teams to create fully automated CI/CD pipelines tuned toward build and test automation. For instance, AWS CodeBuild can compile the source code and run tests for this build in a pre-configured environment. As a result, teams can get software packages faster.
Another service, AWS Code Deploy, simplifies and speeds up the deployment process. For example, it can help a team automatically deploy code to thousands of instances simultaneously, including Amazon EC2 and those running on-premises. This way, the tool reduces the time for software updates and mitigates human errors that almost inevitably arise during manual deployment.
Microservices
Combining DevOps practices with a microservices architectural style when developing software can bring multiple advantages. Reduced build, testing, and deployment cycles, improved software reliability (since an error in a microservice does not affect the entire app), and increased scalability are just a few of them. AWS provides two essential tools to help teams build and manage microservices-based apps.
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) allows teams to deploy and manage Docker containers on AWS without administering virtual machines and container environments. Teams can deploy containers manually (for one-time tasks) or use a scheduler to distribute containers across clusters automatically (for long-running tasks).
Another service, AWS Lambda, helps teams tap into serverless computing as it allows running code for different types of apps without administering servers. Moreover, since the lambda code (function) launches automatically by a trigger and turns off later on, teams can consume fewer resources, meaning a company can cut cloud costs.
Infrastructure as Code
AWS DevOps tools also help companies manage their IT infrastructures and resources, including networks, VMs, databases, and load balancers, by using templates and code to avoid manual setup and updating. For example, teams can use AWS CloudFormation to generate templates (to describe the demanded AWS resources) and stacks (to manage these resources). In addition, teams can leverage AWS OpsWorks to automate server management and configuration.
Security and monitoring
Tools like Amazon CloudWatch and AWS X-Ray facilitate the monitoring and optimization of DevOps infrastructures. Amazon CloudWatch provides centralized access to app performance logs, and if necessary, it can also be configured to redistribute computing resources automatically. In turn, AWS X-Ray helps track the behavior of even smaller software components like microservices, which makes it suitable for monitoring distributed architectures.
Version control
Version control tools are also critical to the effectiveness of DevOps practices as they allow teams to collaborate on the code more securely and effectively. According to the 2022 Accelerate State of DevOps Report from Google, teams combining continuous delivery and version control show 2.5x better software delivery performance than those focusing on only one of these aspects. In this regard, such services as AWS CodeCommit can come in handy with code review, access control, and automated repository encryption.
Final thoughts
Shifting to AWS DevOps practices is a natural step for many companies opting for accelerated product and service delivery. Despite all the potential benefits, implementing AWS DevOps can be difficult, especially if companies do not have all the required qualifications, such as cloud engineers or automation architects well-versed with the AWS tool stack. To close the skill gap, a company can nurture the required talent in-house or expand the existing workforce with the help of AWS DevOps consultants.
