Automated Deployments with GitOps: Simplify DevOps Now

Agile principles, established in 2001, enabled teams to iterate development processes and shorten feedback loops. In 2009, DevOps emerged to bridge gaps and foster collaboration for business advancement. However, challenges persisted in delivering applications to their destinations, particularly regarding automated deployments with GitOps. This could be in virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, or serverless environments. Each application had a unique deployment process, making it hard for businesses to find a simple flow.

Often, they reverted to operations managing orchestration tools, which lost the benefits of teamwork and fast feedback loops. Automation tools like Puppet and Ansible helped streamline deployments, yet writing automation still took time and care. As a result, the “shift left” in crucial deployment elements often lagged. Eight years of trial and error were necessary for companies to find a viable solution.

Weaveworks pioneered the GitOps model, detailed in a 2021 blog post. In 2017, Weaveworks hosted applications on their SaaS platform using Kubernetes. A configuration change caused a system-wide outage. Fortunately, their DevOps team restored the platform in just 40 minutes using their GitOps process. They stored and versioned everything in Git. They also implemented infrastructure as code while leveraging Kubernetes’ declarative configurations. This combination transformed the industry.

Why automated deployments with GitOps are so powerful: Streamlining deployments and accelerating time to market

GitOps provides a declarative approach to infrastructure and application deployments. It allows teams to define their desired state in Git repositories while using tools to reconcile the actual state. Consequently, this automation ensures the deployment process is repeatable, auditable, and reliable.

Deploy as close as possible to the application code

To better understand GitOps, deploy application code as closely as possible to its execution. The key advantage of GitOps lies in unifying teams around a single deployment approach. Remarkably, it requires minimal manual intervention, making it a hands-off process.

How automated deployments with GitOps close the last mile gap: Faster iterations

“The last mile” in the DevOps journey refers to deploying applications for end users. Unfortunately, many enterprises struggle with getting applications to users quickly. Lengthy release cycles hinder the overall experience and frustrate users. GitOps solves this by enabling faster, smaller iterations. Rather than deploying numerous changes simultaneously, GitOps advocates for fixing one issue at a time. This approach minimises the risk of multiple issues arising. By shortening deployment cycles, teams ensure users receive timely updates and bug fixes.

Automated deployments with GitOps: Easy roll-back to previous versions

GitOps allows teams to roll back changes easily to previous versions if issues arise. This improves resilience and recovery time. Since everything is defined in code, it promotes collaboration and transparency across teams. Consequently, this reduces silos and knowledge gaps.

Faster time to market

By embracing GitOps, you close the last mile gap and accelerate your time to market. You will deliver applications faster, delighting users while boosting overall efficiency. Therefore, say goodbye to lengthy release cycles and welcome the streamlined power of GitOps into your DevOps workflow. You can take your automated deployments with GitOps to new heights and leave competitors behind.

Automated testing and continuous integration/delivery

GitOps leverages automated testing while emphasising continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD). Continuous integration involves building and testing code to ensure integrity. At the end of this factory line, you obtain a trusted package ready for deployment. Continuous delivery focuses on the automated testing flow. Once code passes all tests, it produces a reliable package ready for the end user without manual intervention. By automating delivery, GitOps eliminates unnecessary delays and reduces the risk of human errors during deployments.

Pushing limits: Seamless continuous deployment

Continuous deployment naturally extends GitOps. When code successfully passes through the CI/CD process, it automatically deploys to the target environment. This ensures approved changes reach users without manual steps. GitOps provides the foundation for seamless, hands-off deployment processes. By defining infrastructure and application configurations in code, teams achieve greater reliability, collaboration, and transparency. In the event of issues, GitOps enables easy rollbacks, enhancing resilience and minimising recovery times.

An example of how GitOps can significantly improve your software delivery process

Many companies lack standardised deployment approaches, leading to time-consuming and complex processes. Each deployment becomes unique. GitOps eliminates the manual ticket shuffle by empowering teams to execute deployments independently. Standardisation occurs through clear guidelines, ensuring every deployment follows consistent steps. GitOps leverages Git’s change-tracking capabilities, providing a logbook of all changes and authors. This allows for easy rollback procedures and simplifies compliance with auditing requirements. Over time, GitOps enables seamless auditing for ISO and security purposes, helping to demonstrate system evolution and track changes.

The rise of automated deployments with GitOps in the industry

GitOps has gained significant traction over the past few years. ArgoCD and Flux have emerged as popular tools. Both have achieved CNCF Graduated status, indicating maturity, stability, and adoption. Moreover, many products, including Istio, OpenShift, and GitLab, have integrated ArgoCD, showing the industry’s commitment to embracing GitOps.

How does GitOps contribute to improving the security and reliability of software deployments?

Security

While GitOps may not directly improve security, it plays a crucial role in auditing. By implementing a CI/CD pipeline that encompasses building, testing, and security testing, you ensure your software stays updated. Whenever a package update occurs, the pipeline triggers automatically, allowing you to swiftly deploy the updated version. This reduces risks associated with delayed security updates.

Reliability

GitOps improves reliability by managing infrastructure and application configurations through version control. By using Git as the single source of truth, GitOps ensures consistency, traceability, and reproducibility of changes. This eliminates manual intervention and reduces human errors, resulting in more reliable deployments and easier rollback capabilities.

Is the industry rapidly adapting GitOps?

GitOps has rapidly gained popularity. High demand for GitOps-related talks and workshops at events like KubeCon illustrates this trend. At Kubecon 2023 in Amsterdam, attendees lined up to learn more, showcasing strong interest in the topic. Many organisations seek expertise in implementing GitOps, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down.

What are the downsides of GitOps?

While GitOps offers many advantages, it has challenges. Scalability concerns arise, with some users reporting issues with ArgoCD in large-scale environments. Additionally, strict access controls are necessary to ensure only authorised personnel access the Git repository, reducing the risk of unauthorised changes. These challenges can be addressed. The biggest hurdle is trusting the process, as it automatically deploys changes in Git or updated application images by your CI system.

Change management is crucial

GitOps challenges the habit of manual interventions. It encourages trust in the system and making changes on the repository side. For example, if a customer wants a rapid change showcased for just an hour, it won’t be possible since GitOps overwrites any changes. However, if you need a manual change, you can communicate this to the GitOps controller and request a hold on sync until given the green light. Understanding the system and its flow is essential to avoid repeated breakages.

Change management becomes critical to address this challenge. By training people on GitOps implementation, they learn to use the system and understand its outcomes. The key question in change management is, “What’s in it for me?” Once individuals grasp the GitOps flow, they can develop processes around it. For example, they can create strategies for rapidly restoring a failed service if needed.

Conclusion

Agile and DevOps have paved the way for faster development and collaboration, but challenges in streamlined deployments remain. Weaveworks’ GitOps model addresses these challenges with a declarative approach to infrastructure and application deployments. GitOps offers a more automated, repeatable, and auditable deployment process. The popularity of GitOps is clear, with ArgoCD and Flux among the most widely used tools. While GitOps has advantages, scalability and access control present potential challenges. However, with growing interest and adoption, the industry will likely find solutions to these issues.