For DevOps to be successful in any organization, automation, scaling, and workflow tasks and processes have to be running well. And, for that to happen, DevOps has to have a solid support system. As the bridge that connects the development and operations team, it unifies the workflows from either source, building a shared toolchain and infrastructure that is governed by the concept of pipelines. This is where Kubernetes can help make a difference.
DevOps defined
DevOps refers to a set of guidelines and practices that aim to enhance the productivity of software development. In the Information Technology (IT) and software industry, it automates and integrates the efforts of software development (or Dev) and IT operations (or Ops) to shorten and make better the life cycle of systems development. With automated DevOps and automated DevOps tools, toolchains can be integrated, allowing for the seamless and smooth submission, evaluation, testing, checking, and revision of code.
With the help of automated DevOps and automated DevOp tools, organizations can provide better customer service and higher quality products and services. They can also reduce bugs and other issues, and have better efficiency and performance. Because DevOps’ key principles are workflow automation, ownership, and rapid feedback, it focuses on improving aspects that are crucial to the growth and development of an organization. Among its most important benefits are speed, reliability, scalability, improved collaboration, security, and CI/CD.
The different components of the DevOps lifecycle
The goal of the DevOps lifecycle is to optimize an organization’s development processes from start to finish. With its help, delivery times can be shortened and development can be continuous. To learn about what goes on in the DevOps lifecycle, below is some information about the main components of this process:
- Continuous development – This includes software planning and coding. For the DevOps team to have an easier time accelerating the entire software development process, it is split up into smaller cycles. This plays a critical role in mapping the objectives and the end goal for the development cycle, which allows the developers to have a full grasp of project expectations.
- Continuous integration – This includes all the steps necessary to execute the test process. Usually, it is at this point when most of the changes in the source code occur. Because the old and existing source codes and new code features and functionalities are integrated continuously, it allows for the seamless integration of the updated code within the system.
- Continuous testing – This is when the developed code goes through bug and error testing. It relies on quality analysis (QA) to examine and evaluate the usability and serviceability of the developed software. Once the QA process is successfully completed, it means that the software has met the specifications of the client.
- Continuous deployment – This is the step that ensures that product deployment does not affect the performance of the application. It focuses on making sure that the deployment is executed precisely and accurately on the available servers, so that scheduled releases can be avoided and the feedback mechanism is accelerated.
- Continuous monitoring – This is crucial in determining the efficacy of the developed app. It includes collecting important information through continuous monitoring. It gives opportunities for developers to spot gray areas, general patterns, and other issues in the app that require more time and effort until its overall efficiency meets the requirements.
- Continuous feedback – This is critical to the evaluation and analysis of the end product. To know whether or not to improve the current version and come out with a new and better version, it takes into consideration stakeholder feedback.
- Continuous operations – This is the final stage. It is also the easiest to understand and takes the shortest time. Through continuity, it helps developers detect issues right away, create improved versions of the software, and support the automation of release processes. It is key in eliminating diversions and other hindrances, helping organizations market their product and attract new customers faster.
Some basic information on Kubernetes
Kubernetes is an open-source platform used for the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Launched in 2014 by Google, it has become one of the most popular tools for container orchestration in years because of the many benefits it offers. It allows you to execute deployment and enhance the management of multi-container applications using a variety of abstractions and concepts. Some examples of its key features are:
- Automation – It helps software teams automate updates to their applications, reducing the time for deployment.
- Scaling – It scales applications up or down, depending on the demands and requirements of the project.
- Lifecycle management – It is designed to be able to roll back to past versions in case the rolled-out changes cause issues. It also has the ability to temporarily stop and resume a deployment process.
- Persistent storage – It supports different kinds of persistent storage, including local storage devices, databases, and cloud storage services.
- Self-healing – It is capable of auto-scaling, auto-restart, auto-placement, and auto-replication, making it resilient.
Examples of key benefits that Kubernetes can offer for DevOps
There are many good reasons why DevOps teams should consider adopting Kubernetes to help develop and maintain processes that enhance the agility of software systems. They can also optimize their container systems, improving their efficiency and performance. For DevOps, Kubernetes can offer the following benefits:
Automated operations – Kubernetes features several built-in commands that can help automate a wide range of day-to-day tasks and processes, streamlining the management of applications processes and other operations. It promotes efficiency and high performance, which are two things that are valued in the industry.
Eliminate deployment downtime – Disruptions can do a lot of damage to an organization. They can cause delays and result in losses. By implementing Kubernetes, developers can carry on with their updates without the risk of downtime. Thanks to Kubernetes’ automation and self-healing features, they have a fail-safe in case issues arise.
Scalability – Container ecosystems are not all the same. They can differ in their resources, burdens, and demands. Fortunately, Kubernetes offers scalability, helping teams scale their applications to meet requirements.
Collaboration – If there are different teams working on one application, communicating, sharing, and other tasks can be quite a challenge without an effective platform that links them. With Kubernetes, they can have easy access to shared resources. They can also be assigned role-based access controls so that only those who are authorized can perform actions on certain processes.
Build and manage infrastructure and configuration as code – Developers can use Kubernetes to develop and create the infrastructure as code and help them manage the environment configuration. Because of this, there is no need to continuously execute scripts when a new environment is deployed. With Kubernetes, they can just prepare the source repository and link it with the right configuration files.
Flexibility – There really are no restrictions when it comes to the kinds of scenarios in which Kubernetes can perform and run effectively. Whatever type of underlying infrastructure or container runtime there is, it will be fine. Whether on-site servers, public cloud infrastructures, or private cloud infrastructures, it can perform. It also offers portability, making its deployment hassle-free on different types of environment configurations and infrastructures.
