The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a crucial element of the success of most software projects. As teams push out new versions of the application, they need reliable tools that allow them to quickly and easily integrate, test, and deploy their code. Moreover, the rise and adoption of DevOps practices have led to a greater demand for automated software delivery.
This is where continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery/deployment (CD) tools come into play. CI/CD tools are essential in helping teams automate the software development process, enabling them to deploy software faster and more reliably.
This article will explore the different types of CI/CD pipeline tools, their respective features and capabilities, and how to select the best option for your engineering team.
CI/CD Pipeline Tools
CI/CD tools are software development tools that enable automated development and delivery. The main concepts behind CI/CD tools are:
- Continuous integration process (CI): CI is a software development practice that enables teams to quickly and easily integrate new code into their version control system (VCS). CI tools will monitor the VCS for new code and then execute a series of tests to ensure the code is ready to be deployed.
- Continuous deployment/delivery process (CD): CD is the process of automating software deployment to production.
Together, these concepts make up the CI/CD pipeline. CI/CD tools are designed to automate this pipeline, enabling teams to quickly and reliably deploy new software versions.
How CI/CD Tools Help DevOps Engineers
As the DevOps culture continues to become more popular and teams must deploy software faster and more regularly, CI/CD tools are necessary for engineers. Here are some of the reasons CI/CD tools are beneficial for DevOps engineers.
Decreases Spending
CI/CD tools allow teams to automate their development and delivery process, which can lead to significant cost savings. By automating the process, teams can reduce the amount of manual work needed, resulting in fewer software development and delivery resources. Moreover, automation reduces the time it takes to deliver software, resulting in fewer delays and faster delivery.
Minimizes Backlog
Backlog is a common problem with software projects. This is because teams can quickly become overwhelmed with work, resulting in lengthy delays between releases. CI/CD tools help minimize backlog by automating the integration, testing, and deployment process. These tools monitor the codebase for changes, run automated tests, and deploy code to production once it passes all the tests. This, in turn, allows teams to quickly and reliably deploy new versions of their software, reducing the time it takes to get code into production.
Makes Code Modification Easier
When multiple developers work on the same codebase, tracking down and fixing issues can take time. Continuous integration tools can make code modification easier by monitoring the VCS for changes and automatically running tests to check whether the code works correctly. This helps teams identify and fix issues before deploying to production.
Best CI/CD Tools for DevOps Teams
Now that you understand what CI/CD tools are and why they are necessary for DevOps engineers, let’s look at some of the top tools available for CI/CD. Below are some of the most popular CI/CD DevOps tools for engineering teams.
Jenkins X
Jenkins X is a newer version of Jenkins specifically designed for cloud-native applications. It enables teams to quickly and easily create docker containers for their applications, which can then be deployed in multiple environments. Jenkins X also provides automated CI/CD pipelines, allowing teams to quickly and reliably deliver software to production by integrating and deploying code with minimal effort.
Some features that make Jenkins X stand out are:
- Its controller and integrations come with many plugins, including docker-based build tools, automated tests, and analytics tools, which makes its user interface easy to use.
- Its Kubernetes support makes working with Kubernetes easier than ever, allowing teams to quickly and reliably deploy their applications.
- Its scalability lets it scale up or down as needed, making it ideal for larger projects.
- Virtual Machine hypervisors such as VMware and Virtual Box are supported, which is helpful for teams who prefer to deploy their applications on virtual machines.
Bitbucket
Bitbucket is another popular CI/CD tool for DevOps engineers. It has powerful features like pull request automation, automated pipelines, and access control. Bitbucket has many integrations, allowing teams to connect their applications to other services such as JIRA, Slack, and GitHub.
Its ability to smoothly manage multiple projects makes Bitbucket stand out. It also provides detailed insights into your builds and deployments, enabling teams to identify potential issues immediately.
Some key features that make Bitbucket stand out include:
- Its branch protection options allow teams to protect their branches from accidental changes and merge conflicts.
- Its access control enables teams to control who has access to the source codebase and what levels of permissions they have.
- Its built-in source code review tools help teams quickly detect and fix bugs before deployment to production.
Circle CI
Circle CI is among DevOps engineers' best CI/CD tools due to its scalability, flexibility, and high-security levels. It has many features that help teams deploy their applications, such as:
- Automated build processes: Easy to build, test, and deploy applications with its automated pipelines and scripts
- Cross-platform support: Compatible with all major operating systems, making it easy to use on any platform
- Flexible deployment options: Supports multiple deployment options, including Kubernetes and other container-based solutions
- Pull request automation: Can automatically merge pull requests, allowing teams to quickly and reliably deploy their open-source projects
In addition to these features, Circle CI is the only CI/CD tool certified by FedRAMP and SOC II compliant. This ensures that all the data in the platform is protected from malicious attacks and unauthorized access.
Buddy
Buddy is an intelligent open-source CI/CD tool for web developers. It provides teams with powerful features for automating their open-source projects, such as:
- Automated delivery pipelines: Enables teams to create automated pipelines for delivering their applications to production
- Docker-based builds: Provides teams with powerful build tools so they can create Docker containers for their applications
- Integrated tests: Comes with integrated tests and code coverage tools, enabling teams to detect and fix any potential issues before deployment
- Tight integrations: Offers a wide range of tight integrations, allowing teams to easily connect their applications to other services such as Slack, GitHub, and Jira
TeamCity
TeamCity is a powerful, flexible continuous integration server that helps development teams build and deliver applications faster. It seamlessly integrates various development tools, including IDEs and version control systems. TeamCity's intuitive UI makes it easy to set up complex configuration settings. It also offers sophisticated tools for monitoring, testing, and optimization. With TeamCity, teams can improve the quality and speed of their software development.
TeamCity’s key features include the following:
- Automated builds and deployments: Automates the process of building and deploying projects so that teams can focus on developing code
- Continuous integration: Enables teams to set up automated builds and tests that run regularly
- Metric tracking: Gives teams valuable insights into their development process with visual data about build times, test results, and code quality
- Flexible scalability: Can be scaled to meet the needs of small or large development teams
- Seamless integration with various build tools: Integrates with popular IDEs, version control systems, and build tools
- Cloud support: Teams can use TeamCity in the cloud, such as Google Cloud, for easy deployment and scalability
- Robust reporting: Teams can quickly get insights into their software development with TeamCity's comprehensive reports
- Parallel execution: Supports parallel execution of tasks on different environments, enabling teams to quickly and reliably deliver applications
AWS Pipeline
AWS Pipeline is a serverless CI/CD service for building and delivering software applications on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) single-source platform. It allows developers to quickly set up automated workflows to build, test, and deploy applications on AWS. With AWS CI/CD tools, teams can quickly create pipelines with an intuitive web interface, configure triggers and tasks, automate deployments, and monitor their pipelines’ performance.
AWS Pipeline supports various source control systems and integrates with popular developer tools like Jenkins, Kubernetes, and Docker. It also offers advanced features like serverless code execution, automatic scaling, and support for custom actions.
Provide Your Development Teams With the Best CI/CD Tools
The demand for automated software development and delivery is increasing. To quickly and reliably deploy their applications, teams need the right CI/CD tools to help automate the process. By leveraging tools for CI/CD, teams can save time and money while improving their software development process and meeting development goals.
If your team is looking to adopt CI/CD tools, then you need the right professionals to leverage the full potential of these tools. At Revelo, our marketplace has a wide selection of experienced DevOps professionals who can help you and your team implement CI/CD tools and strategies that best suit your needs. Contact Revelo today to get started.
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