7 Best DevOps Tools for Developers

In recent times, the software has developed a lot. Won’t you agree? Developers are more and more enjoying the journey of integrated development and operations.

However, we must add, being new to DevOps is not easy. In other words, you need to know the best tools out there. After that, of course, you will have to select the best one that suits your requirement.

So, in this article, we have put together the best DevOps tools. In addition, we will list down their pros and cons.

Hence, read our list to discover the 7 best DevOps tools right away.

Oh, wait! Before that, for those who don’t have a detailed idea of DevOps consulting services, you will find out soon.

Here are things we will cover:

  1. What is DevOps?
  2. What are DevOps Tools?
  3. The 7 Best DevOps Tools
  4. Which Tool is Best for You?

Let’s start!

What is DevOps?

We will try to understand this as simply as possible.

As you might have got a hint, the term DevOps has come from 2 terms.

  • Development
  • Operation

As you know an application development life cycle involves different steps. Besides, this includes development, testing, deployment, and monitoring.

DevOps just allows a team this entire process efficiently. In short, it reduces the duration of the development cycle without compromising the quality. ‘

What are DevOps Tools?

DevOps tool is an application that automates the software development process.

In fact, the processes that DevOps automates are build, management, deployment, conflict, dependency management.

All these, in less time, and that’s the reason it has been on trend for a while.

The 7 best DevOps Tools:

Finally! We have arrived at the point where we can discuss the best DevOps tools. Trust us, we have picked each one in this list thoroughly.

1) Jenkins

You might be wondering, why is Jenkins on top of our list? Well, let us explain.

In DevOps, there are various stages of development. Besides, the most important one is continuous integration.

And my friend, Jenkins is the best one for this task.

Pros:

  1. It is a free and open-source tool.
  2. Moreover, the plugins allow for customization.
  3. Jenkins supports a wide range of languages and platforms.
  4. It is an embedded and distributed mode.

Cons:

  1. You will face problems at the learning curve.
  2. It is not easy to use for first-timers without understanding the internals.
  3. Does not provide work distribution among team members.

2) Slack Slash Commands

We bet you might have heard about the Slack Slash command. Here is why it is so popular.

Slack Slash Commands allows developers to integrate custom slash commands to automate tasks.

Moreover, they do it by fetching things to your chat window rather than opening many sites.

In addition, Slack has opened up its API for developers.

Pros:

  1. It is simple to use.
  2. Moreover, the tool integrates with existing tools like GitHub.
  3. It is Open-source.

Cons:

  1. You will face problems at the learning curve.
  2. Moreover, Slack might have changes in policies that will affect the way the tools work in the future.
  3. Besides, it works only with the Slack team.

3) Ansible

It is an awesome open-source tool to automate software

In fact, Ansible does not need any agents running on remote clients.

Moreover, this implies no extra fees!

Pros:

  1. It is simple to use.
  2. Besides, the tool easily integrates with existing tools like GitHub.
  3. It is open source.

Cons:

  1. You will face problems at the learning curve.
  2. The tool provides limited support for teams.
  3. It is harder to create your own followings (new) unless already a brand name.

4) Docker

Docker containers wrap up a piece of software in a complete filesystem.

This includes code, runtime, system tools, and system libraries.

Hence, achieving higher density than using virtual machines (VM).

Moreover, this allows for quick, consistent, and portable deployments of applications.

Pros:

  1. It has faster provisioning that is startup time.
  2. The tool has a cleaner environment for development.
  3. It has improved security.

Cons:

  1. New users need to learn new technology, new patterns to use.

5) GitHub

GitHub is a web-based Git repository hosting service resulting in developers using both public or private repositories.

Besides, It offers all the distributed revision control and source code management functionality.

Moreover, It helps in integrating code between forks, pulls requests for code review, commits history views, etc.

Hence, this makes it easier to collaborate on projects without having access to the complete codebase.

Pros:

  1. You can integrate it with Docker images.
  2. The tool allows for team collaboration.
  3. Of Course, it is open source.

Cons:

  1. Can be very confusing to use for first-timers.

6) Vagrant

Vagrant is a tool used for building and distributing virtualized development environments.

Besides, It helps in configuring, provisioning, and operating Development environments, etc.

They do it by utilizing the same configuration definitions across all environments.

Pros:

  1. We must say, this tool is very dynamic.
  2. It is open source.
  3. The tool is Command-line.
  4. It has faster provisioning that is startup time.

Cons:

  1. It is limited support for automation tools that Only work with VirtualBox.
  2. VMWare is hard to set up on Windows.
  3. The tool may cause conflicts with existing infrastructure management solutions.

7) Ansible Tower

Ansible Tower provides a web interface, REST API as well as command-line tools for managing Ansible projects.

An IT administrator can also use it to delegate tasks among their team members using role-based access control (RBAC).

Pros:

  1. The best part is, it has centralized management for different teams.
  2. The tool is open source.
  3. It has a Command-line interface.

Cons:

  1. You will face problems at the learning curve.
  2. There is no GUI support yet for managing nodes or machines.
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Key Takeaways:

The best DevOps tools for developers are the ones that give the developers full control over application deployment.

Moreover, Some of the most popular DevOps tools include Docker, GitHub, AWS CodeDeploy, docker-compose, Pipelines, and Vagrant.

Besides, these help in enhancing team collaboration among developers by reducing manual tasks like validating code or deploying an app.

DevOps provides a unified development or deployment flow in order to build better software faster.

Hence, It is all about automation which makes it possible to deploy frequently with fewer errors.

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Wrapping it up:

In conclusion, we would like to add that, you need to choose the tool that fits best for your team. Hence, it is important that you take the opinion of each and every team member working on the tool.

Besides, the tool should be able to resolve the issues too in less time.

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About the Author

Ronan Healy

Hi everyone. I'm part of the EuroSTAR team. I'm here to help you engage with the EuroSTAR Huddle Community and get the best out of your membership. Together with software testing experts, we have a range of webinars and eBooks for you to enjoy and we have lots of opportunities for you to come together online. If you have any thoughts about the community, please get in contact with me.
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