Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Friday, March 29, 2024

GitOps Upgrade Targets Observability 

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Efforts to improve software development and reliability are focusing on standardization around new tools that can sustain continuous integration and delivery goals, resulting in shipping better code faster.

The response as more code is delivered by Kubernetes infrastructure are upgraded platforms designed to help DevOps teams cope with multiple development environments while improving observability, or the ability to debug systems. Tool vendors stress observability as a way of spotting patterns and properties in software development not specified in advance.

That measure of how the internal workings of a development platform can be inferred based on its output is emphasized in the latest upgrade of a DevOps automation platform designed to support GitOps. That’s a reference to a set of practices that allows software developers to perform tasks previously reserved for IT teams.

Codefresh, the Kubernetes-native DevOps tools startup, is releasing an upgraded version of its GitOps platform that incorporate the initial components for improving observability into production workloads. The company said Monday (Nov. 16) the upgraded developer platform seeks to address current limitations in the GitOps framework while promoting best software development practices.

The tool vendor based in Mountain View, Calif., said it seeks to define GitOps patterns, then push standard approaches to delivering enterprise software—"whether on Kubernetes or not.”

The shift to GitOps responds to increased automation in software development pipelines. While reducing DevOps workloads, developers also require greater visibility into what code changes are deployed in production, workflow details and the general status of the supporting runtime environment.

Codefresh promotes its approach as a way of defining Kubernetes applications, tracking pipelines and monitoring code changes.

The enterprise shift to microservices and the automation tools deployed in response have come with tradeoffs. “Questions that were difficult to answer about monolithic services can be impossible to answer after moving to large microservice stacks,” said Dan Garfield, chief technology evangelist at Codefresh. “This is why our first pillar of GitOps 2.0 is observability.”

The update also includes a logic framework for scheduling code rollouts. The feature addresses requirements like deploying code in different geographical regions or the need to keep humans in the deployment loop. To address those needs, the upgraded platform includes deployment steps for pipelines that can trigger “Git synchronization.”

Garfield noted that improved observability is a first step. “The goal is to work together to define those patterns that will help mainstream and standardize approaches to delivering software, whether it’s on Kubernetes or not,” he noted in a blog post.

About the author: George Leopold

George Leopold has written about science and technology for more than 30 years, focusing on electronics and aerospace technology. He previously served as executive editor of Electronic Engineering Times. Leopold is the author of "Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom" (Purdue University Press, 2016).

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