17 Best DevOps Tools Every DevOps Engineer Should Know in 2024
When teams operate independently, it creates communication gaps that can lead to disorder. In contrast, when teams collaborate, they tend to be more efficient.
Introduction
By 2025, more than 85% of businesses will adopt the cloud-first strategy, predicts a Gartner study.
DevOps is essentially a cultural revolution, but its implementation requires the necessary tools to be successful. Collaboration between software development and operations teams is one of the most notable features of DevOps. Not to be overlooked is its emphasis on automating building, testing, incident handling, release, and other software development processes. This focus results in less software failures and rollbacks, quicker time-to-market, and better product quality.
However now, DevOps is more than just an automation approach and collaborative culture. Cloud computing, IoT, AI, and ML technologies are now included. Build management, version control, configuration management, project management, and incident handling have all seen the development of numerous DevOps technologies.
What are DevOps Tools?
What are DevOps tools? it encompasses a suite of solutions designed to streamline collaboration and automate workflows, and operations processes. Configuration management tools in DevOps play a pivotal role in maintaining consistency and efficiency across development, testing, and production environments. DevOps is more of a cross-functional way of working with concepts. The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) can be completed faster by utilizing Devops services, which also guarantee the continual delivery of reliable, excellent products. To reduce manual labor, these cultures encourage the adoption of a DevOps toolchain to automate software development processes including build, deployment, dependency management, and conflict resolution. Developers, operations, security, and business teams may trade technical duties and share information efficiently to generate a high-quality product by using these technologies.
Software development (Dev) and software operation (Ops) are intended to be unified by the software engineering culture and practice known as DevOps. DevOps automation is a transformative approach, focusing on improving the software development process through streamlined workflows, efficient collaboration, and accelerated delivery, ultimately enhancing overall development efficiency and product quality.
The primary feature of the DevOps movement is its ardent support of DevOps automation tools and monitoring throughout the whole software development lifecycle, from deployment and infrastructure management to integration, testing, and release. Using the appropriate DevOps tool can assist you in:
- Quicker Development
- Monitoring in real-time
- Increased Efficiency in Operations Accelerated Release
- Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration (CI/CD)
- Regular Utilization
- Quicker Time to Recovery
- Greater cooperation
- Increased Innovation Rate
- Smooth Transfer Throughout Value Chain
Why Using DevOps Tools is Important for Business?
DevOps fosters a culture of collaboration and efficiency by breaking down silos between development and operations teams. The emphasis on automation within DevOps not only accelerates development cycles but also significantly reduces the likelihood of errors, ensuring a smoother and more reliable deployment process. The implementation of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines enables businesses to achieve a rapid and consistent software delivery cycle, minimizing downtime and enhancing overall application reliability. 86% of organizations see the value of DevOps as important to have (Harvard Business Review) top DevOps tools.
Beyond speed, top DevOps tools contribute to improved quality assurance through automated testing, allowing for the early identification and resolution of issues. The integration of robust monitoring and feedback loops provides real-time insights into application performance, facilitating prompt issue resolution and continuous improvement. With cost-efficiency, scalability, and security integration as additional benefits, DevOps tools have become indispensable for businesses aiming to navigate the complexities of the digital era successfully.
Top 17 DevOps Tools You Need to Know
Navigating the dynamic landscape of DevOps requires the right set of tools to streamline workflows and enhance collaboration between development and operations teams. Here’s a curated top 17 DevOps tools list you need to know:
1. AWS
Because AWS (Amazon Web Services) Cloud Computing and Storage offer DevOps principles with scalable, adaptable, and affordable infrastructure, they are essential to the field. Numerous services provided by AWS, such as databases, serverless computing, container orchestration, and computational resources, are ideal for meeting the needs of contemporary software development and deployment.
DevOps is used by organizations to expedite software delivery. With the use of tools like AWS Cloud-formation, infrastructure provisioning can be automated, and applications can be quickly deployed and scaled. Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines are also supported by AWS.
2. Jenkins
Its function as a potent automation server that supports pipelines for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) accounts for its significance. Jenkins ensures that software is supplied promptly and with high quality by automating operations like developing, testing, and deploying code updates. Modern applications are becoming more and more complicated, making effective CI/CD processes even more crucial.
Jenkins applies to a variety of development contexts because it offers flexibility, extensibility, and a large library of plugins that support a wide range of technologies and tools. Jenkins is a key technology that helps teams achieve smooth automation and effective software solution delivery as more businesses value speed, dependability, and cooperation in their software development processes.
3. Prometheus
Metrics from your apps are gathered by Prometheus, a monitoring system, and are then kept in a time series database. You can track the effectiveness of your apps over time with Prometheus.
Prometheus’s capacity to run more intricate queries over time series data than other monitoring systems permit is one of its most distinctive features.
For example, Prometheus can easily do tasks that require no effort on your part, like calculating the CPU usage of a specific application over a week on all hosts in your cluster.
Because of this versatility, it’s simple for operations teams and developers to extract exactly what they need from data without having to pay someone else to design new scripts or pay someone else for it.
4. Datadog
The Datadog tool is an excellent DevOps tool for obtaining comprehensive data about the performance metrics of your servers, including CPU, memory, and disk space utilization.
Additionally, you may configure alerts so that, if any of these statistics surpass a predetermined level, a notification will be sent via email or SMS. This way, the issue can be addressed promptly and prevent significant harm from occurring!
APM is another feature that lets you monitor what code is running on each server, enabling developers to swiftly roll back changes by only hitting a button that starts an automated rollback procedure in case something goes wrong.
5. Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps tools provide a comprehensive suite for end-to-end development, enabling seamless collaboration, continuous integration, and deployment on the Microsoft Azure platform. By 2024 and beyond, Azure Cloud Computing and Storage will play a major role in DevOps processes. With the help of Azure’s extensive cloud ecosystem, businesses can effectively scale their infrastructure, roll out apps, and store data. Automation, security, monitoring, and continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) are all made possible by Azure. Because of its cloud computing features, resources can be provisioned on demand, making testing and development environments easily accessible.
The data-driven elements of DevOps are supported by Azure’s storage solutions, which include Azure Blob Storage, Azure Files, and Azure SQL Database. These solutions enable secure data storage and retrieval. Additionally, the software development life cycle is streamlined by Azure’s connection with DevOps technologies, such as Azure DevOps tool Services, improving automation and collaboration.
6. Google Cloud
Reliable cloud computing and storage solutions are provided by Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The scalable, dependable, and highly available infrastructure that GCP offers is crucial for contemporary DevOps procedures. DevOps teams can simply create, deploy, and manage applications with the help of GCP’s extensive suite of services, which includes Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Google Compute Engine, and Google Kubernetes Engine. Its focus on the orchestration of containers, automation, and infrastructure as code is in perfect harmony with the ideals of DevOps.
Furthermore, DevOps practitioners may use GCP’s cutting-edge tools for monitoring, analytics, and automation, thanks to its AI and machine learning capabilities. This makes it a great option for enterprises looking to enhance their software development and delivery processes.
7. Vagrant
Vagrant is a game-changer in the realm of DevOps, revolutionizing how development environments are managed. This open-source tool provides a consistent and reproducible environment for software development, ensuring that developers work in identical conditions across various machines. With Vagrant, teams can create and share development environments effortlessly, eliminating the notorious “it works on my machine” dilemma. Its simplicity and versatility make it an invaluable asset for streamlining collaborative development, reducing deployment issues, and enhancing overall project consistency.
8. Mercurial
Mercurial, a distributed version control system, is a versatile and user-friendly tool designed to streamline collaboration and version control in software development projects. Offering simplicity without compromising functionality, Mercurial allows developers to work independently and merge changes effortlessly. Its commitment to data integrity ensures the reliability of version control, making it an ideal choice for projects of various scales. With an intuitive design and efficient branching and merging capabilities, Mercurial fosters a collaborative and organized development process, providing a reliable foundation for teams to manage source code seamlessly.
9. Git
Git, the ubiquitously distributed version control system, has revolutionized collaborative software development. Offering speed, flexibility, and a decentralized structure, Git empowers development teams to work seamlessly, regardless of geographical dispersion. Its branching and merging capabilities facilitate parallel development, enabling teams to work on features concurrently while maintaining code integrity. Git’s distributed nature ensures robust version control, allowing developers to work offline and synchronize changes effortlessly.
GitLab CI/CD is important because it can automate the whole software delivery process inside an integrated environment, from code modifications to deployment. Software changes are delivered quickly and reliably thanks to GitLab CI/CD. By automatically creating and testing code changes, it facilitates continuous integration (CI), which enables teams to identify problems early in the development cycle.
Moreover, the release and deployment process is automated by the continuous deployment (CD) function, which lowers the possibility of human error and enables businesses to confidently and quickly provide users with new features and upgrades. The significance of GitLab CI/CD is further highlighted by the need for organizations to maintain a competitive edge through effective and automated software delivery procedures, quickly adapt to shifting market demands, and expedite digital transformation initiatives.
10. Puppet
Puppet stands as a stalwart in the realm of configuration management, empowering organizations to automate the provisioning and management of their infrastructure. This open-source tool ensures consistency across servers and environments by defining infrastructure as code. Puppet’s declarative language allows system administrators to describe the desired state of their systems, automating tasks from initial server setup to ongoing maintenance. With Puppet, organizations achieve scalability, efficiency, and reliability, streamlining operations and reducing manual intervention.
Because it enables administrators to define infrastructure as code, Puppet is crucial for streamlining the management and orchestration of complex IT systems. It guarantees configuration uniformity and repeatability throughout servers, cloud instances, and containers. Diverse, dynamic, and hybrid infrastructures are becoming more and more important to businesses.
The value of Puppet is found in its capacity to simplify provisioning, configuration, and ongoing compliance; this reduces operational complexity, minimizes errors, and speeds up the delivery of software. Puppet is an essential tool for DevOps teams since it keeps enabling enterprises to scale and manage their infrastructure effectively while upholding high security and compliance standards.
11. Jira
Jira, developed by Atlassian, is a leading agile project management tool that has become synonymous with streamlined collaboration and project tracking. Offering a comprehensive suite of features, Jira facilitates agile methodologies, enabling teams to plan, track, and release software efficiently. From issue tracking to release planning, Jira empowers teams to navigate complex projects seamlessly, fostering transparency and enhancing the overall agility and productivity of the development process.
The value of Jira is found in its capacity to consolidate and streamline several development lifecycle processes while providing an integrated platform for teamwork, project planning, and issue tracking. Jira facilitates task prioritization, task management, and development team transparency.
Jira is a tool that helps teams develop high-quality software quickly, facilitate agile approaches, and adjust to changing requirements. Its larger features include customized workflows, reporting, and integration possibilities. It is still unavoidable and helps teams complete projects successfully, on schedule, and with better teamwork, which makes it a vital tool for businesses.
12. Kubernetes
Kubernetes, often referred to as K8s, has emerged as the de facto standard for container orchestration in the world of DevOps. This open-source platform automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, providing a robust and scalable solution for container orchestration. Kubernetes abstracts the complexities of container management, offering features such as automated load balancing, self-healing, and rolling updates. Its declarative configuration and vast ecosystem of extensions make it adaptable to a wide range of use cases, from microservices to legacy applications. Kubernetes empowers organizations to embrace a cloud-native approach, ensuring efficient resource utilization, high availability, and seamless scaling as applications evolve, thus revolutionizing the deployment and management of containerized workloads.
13. Ansible
Ansible, a powerful automation tool, orchestrates and streamlines IT processes with remarkable simplicity. Leveraging a declarative language, Ansible enables teams to define the desired state of systems, automating configuration management, application deployment, and task execution. Its agentless architecture eliminates the need for client installations, enhancing scalability and minimizing potential security vulnerabilities. Ansible’s “playbooks” encapsulate automation tasks in human-readable scripts, making them accessible to both developers and system administrators. This tool’s efficiency, versatility, and minimal learning curve position it as a cornerstone in the DevOps toolkit, fostering collaboration and accelerating the delivery of reliable and scalable software solutions.
14. Progress Chef
An open-source automation software called Progress Chef aids IT companies in better managing the infrastructure in their data centers. The software and infrastructure lifecycle, from development to production, is automated with Chef.
Advancement Chef is adaptable to any setting because it is compatible with all operating systems, including Linux and Windows. Chef is a tool that may be used to execute scripts, packages, commands, and many other operations in addition to configuring and managing the operating system and applications on a host computer or server during boot-up
15. Slack
According to CNBC, Salesforce makes its biggest move yet, acquiring Slack for a whopping $27 billion in the most substantial deal ever for the cloud software vendor.
Slack is an essential tool for companies and organizations all around the world. It is important since it makes teamwork and communication easier, whether they are working together in the same workplace or remotely. Slack’s integration features, file sharing, and real-time chat let teams stay connected across time zones and geographies while streamlining processes and increasing productivity.
With more businesses adopting remote and hybrid work patterns, Slack is becoming an indispensable hub for sharing knowledge, coordinating projects, and making quick decisions as the workplace changes. Slack is at the vanguard of contemporary workplace communication with an ever-expanding ecosystem of connectors and capabilities. This makes it crucial for organizations to remain competitive, nimble, and efficient.
16. Kibana
Elasticsearch is compatible with the open-source analytics and visualization tool Kibana. You can use it to perform data analysis, build custom dashboards, and visualize data stored in Elasticsearch indices.
Popular open-source full-text search and analytics engine Elasticsearch is the foundation around which Kibana is built. It enables users to view their log data in timelines, maps, tables, and charts.
Using any combination of the fields you have indexed, you may use Kibana to examine your logs. If necessary, you can even build new fields.
17. Splunk
Splunk stands as a powerful platform for unlocking insights from machine-generated data, revolutionizing how organizations analyze and interpret their operational data. As a leading solution in the field of data analytics, Splunk aggregates and correlates data from diverse sources, providing real-time visibility into critical aspects of IT infrastructure, security, and business operations. Its search and reporting capabilities, combined with machine learning functionalities, make Splunk an indispensable tool for organizations seeking proactive monitoring, threat detection, and business analytics. With Splunk, organizations can turn raw machine data into actionable intelligence, empowering them to make informed decisions, enhance security postures, and optimize operational efficiency.
How to Choose a Top DevOps Tool?
Choosing a top DevOps tool is crucial for maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of your development and operations processes. Recognizing the DevOps importance in achieving seamless collaboration, selecting a tool that aligns with your specific needs and promotes continuous integration, delivery, and deployment is paramount to achieving a successful and streamlined DevOps workflow. A DevOps implementation’s success depends on the use of DevOps tools. The ones you select should be in line with your objectives and needs. Here are some pointers to assist you in selecting the appropriate DevOps tools. DevOps security tools are essential for safeguarding the software development lifecycle and ensuring robust protection against potential threats and vulnerabilities.
Whether you want a commercial or open-source solution should be your first consideration. Although open-source software is frequently not as feature-rich as commercial tools, it may still be downloaded for free. While commercial DevOps solutions may be more expensive than open-source alternatives, they typically come with more functionality and better support.
You must choose the degree of automation that your tool should provide. You will be able to use manual methods with ease if your workflow is simple. But if many steps in your process require human intervention, then automated tools may be more appropriate for your needs.
Common Challenges of Implementing DevOps Tools
Implementing DevOps tools can be transformative, but it comes with its set of challenges. Organizations often face hurdles like resistance to cultural change, integration issues, and the need for skilled workers. Navigating these challenges is crucial for successful DevOps adoption.
Selecting the Right DevOps Tools
Choosing appropriate DevOps tools is a critical decision. The vast array of options can be overwhelming, requiring organizations to carefully assess their specific needs, scalability, and compatibility. The challenge lies in selecting tools that align with the organization’s goals and promote seamless collaboration among teams.
Cultural Resistance to Change
One of the most significant challenges in DevOps adoption is cultural resistance. Shifting from traditional workflows to a collaborative, agile environment demands a cultural shift. Resistance to change, often rooted in established practices, can hinder the successful implementation of DevOps methodologies.
Integration Issues
Integrating diverse tools into a cohesive DevOps toolchain poses a challenge. Ensuring smooth collaboration between different tools and platforms is crucial for seamless workflows. Overcoming integration issues requires strategic planning and a thorough understanding of the organization’s existing infrastructure.
Lack of Skilled Workers
The shortage of skilled DevOps professionals is a persistent challenge. Organizations may struggle to find or develop talent well-versed in DevOps practices, automation, and collaboration. Investing in training programs and fostering a culture of continuous learning becomes imperative to bridge this skills gap.
DevOps Security
Security is a paramount concern in DevOps. Balancing the need for speed and agility with robust security practices requires careful consideration. Implementing security measures throughout the DevOps lifecycle, from code development to deployment, is essential to mitigate vulnerabilities and ensure a secure software delivery process. DevOps security is an integral aspect of the software development lifecycle, ensuring that robust measures are implemented to safeguard code repositories, deployment pipelines, and infrastructure, thereby fortifying the entire development and operational ecosystem against potential security threats.
Start your DevOps Services Journey with IntellicoWorks
At IntellicoWorks, we understand the unique challenges organizations face in today’s fast-paced digital landscape. Whether you’re aiming to streamline workflows, enhance automation, or improve collaboration between development and operations teams, our comprehensive suite of DevOps services is designed to meet your specific needs. Start your DevOps journey with IntellicoWorks, where innovation meets efficiency. Our DevOps services are tailored to elevate your software development and IT operations, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. Join hands with IntellicoWorks and unlock the potential of DevOps, accelerating your software delivery, improving reliability, and staying ahead in the ever-evolving world of technology.
The Final Thought
Integration of Development and Operations is a novel approach to software development that has emerged recently. To fully utilize your SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) and transform it into a strategic asset for your company, DevOps is all about bridging the gap between development and operations teams. Using the appropriate DevOps tools is essential to achieving this goal. DevOps offers observable advantages such as accelerated time to market for your goods and services, enhanced productivity, and transparency.
Numerous DevOps technologies that support development and cooperation have been developed as a result of technological advancements. It can be hard to decide which DevOps tools are best for you if you’re new to the practice or want to improve your present methods. To choose which DevOps technology best suits your unique requirements, test and experiment with a variety of options contact a scalable organization to assist you in selecting the best DevOps tools for your company, we at intellicoWorks have put up a list of the best ones and categorized them. Ultimately, everything hinges on your objectives and the resources at your disposal.
Talk with Our Expert to Implement the Best DevOps Strategy!
Frequently Asked Questions
DevOps is a collaborative approach that integrates software development and IT operations, emphasizing communication, collaboration, and automation. It enhances efficiency, accelerates software delivery, and promotes a culture of continuous improvement, making it crucial for businesses aiming to stay competitive in the digital landscape.
Choosing the right DevOps tools is crucial for ensuring compatibility, scalability, and efficiency within an organization’s specific workflows. The right tools contribute to seamless collaboration, faster delivery, and improved overall performance.
Staying informed involves actively participating in the DevOps community, attending conferences, and keeping an eye on official releases and updates from tool vendors. Following industry blogs, forums, and engaging with user communities are excellent ways to stay abreast of new developments in the DevOps tools landscape.
IntellicoWorks DevOps Services are designed to streamline your software development and IT operations. By fostering collaboration, automating workflows, and implementing best practices, we empower your organization to achieve faster, more reliable software delivery, improved efficiency, and enhanced overall performance.
Security is a top priority for us. IntellicoWorks integrates robust security practices throughout the DevOps lifecycle, implementing measures such as code analysis, vulnerability scanning, and secure deployment strategies to mitigate risks and safeguard your software delivery process.
