Creating and deploying software is becoming increasingly complicated. With new languages, tools, and requirements constantly emerging, there is an urgent need to embrace the latest DevOps trends and strengthen the DevOps pipeline. Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers several capabilities that can be leveraged to implement a DevOps pipeline.
In this blog, we will evaluate the benefits of the AWS DevOps pipeline and shed light on some best practices.
Benefits of the AWS DevOps Pipeline
For DevOps practitioners, AWS delivers a comprehensive set of flexible services that can be used to build and deliver products rapidly and reliably. The platform simplifies infrastructure provisioning and management, enabling teams to accelerate code deployment. By automating software release processes, it empowers organizations to better serve their customers and more effectively compete in the market. The top benefits of the AWS DevOps pipeline include:
Stronger Code Repository
Setting up a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline on AWS allows teams to initiate automatic builds and then deploy them to Amazon EC2 instances. By building, testing, and deploying code every time there is a change, teams can ensure a stronger code repository.
Simplified Infrastructure Provisioning and Management
An AWS DevOps pipeline paves the way for simplified infrastructure provisioning and management. Teams can quickly and immediately take advantage of AWS resources and not worry about setting up, installing, or operating the underlying infrastructure.
Automated Code Deployments
AWS DevOps automates code deployments, allowing teams to build and deploy applications faster. Such automation can also be extended to development and test workflows, container management, and configuration management, allowing for faster time-to-market.
Seamless Scalability
The AWS DevOps pipeline is built for scalability. Teams can seamlessly scale their single instance to thousands using AWS. They can make the most of flexible compute resources and simplify provisioning and configuration along the way.
Robust Security
With AWS DevOps, teams no longer need to worry about security. With robust Identity and Access Management (IAM) capabilities built-in, the platform enforces strict user permissions and policies. Teams can get granular control over who can access resources and how they access those resources.
Implementing an AWS DevOps pipeline – Top tips
Although AWS offers several benefits for teams looking to set up a robust DevOps pipeline, there are some tips to keep in mind.
1. Automate Code Deployment
Automating code deployment using tools like AWS CodePipeline or AWS CodeDeploy is a great way to accelerate the delivery pipeline. Such automation can aid in the rapid release of new features while also allowing teams to iterate on feedback. Automation can also help catch bugs faster and enable fast and reliable infrastructure updates.
2. Embrace Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Embracing IaC is another great way to streamline the implementation of the AWS DevOps pipeline. By managing, configuring, and provisioning IT infrastructure through code, IaC tools like Chef automate time-consuming, error-prone manual processes. Such tools also help make infrastructure consistent and repeatable for teams, increasing the organization’s adaptability to change.
3. Enable Seamless Version Control
A robust version control approach is necessary to track and manage changes made across the DevOps pipeline. Using tools like GitLab, GitHub, and Bitbucket, software teams can effectively track and monitor edits to source code over time, thus reducing development time and increasing the chance of successful deployments. By keeping track of every modification, teams can tackle issues, prevent concurrent work from conflicting, and minimize disruption.
4. Ensure Continuous Integration
While implementing an AWS DevOps pipeline, it is also advisable to invest in tools like Jenkins to enable continuous integration. Being an extensible automation server, Jenkins offers a simple way to set up a CI/CD environment for any combination of languages and source code repositories. Using Jenkins, DevOps teams can enjoy a faster way to integrate their entire chain of build, test, and deployment activities.
Also Read: AWS DevOps tools you need to know about
Streamline Configuration Management
Using tools like Ansible, Puppet, and Chef can help teams streamline configuration management. For example, using Ansible, they can automate storage, servers, and networking, making them more repeatable and less vulnerable to error. Similarly, Puppet can allow teams to automate infrastructure configuration and deployment and scale their products for future growth. Likewise, Chef helps teams enable infrastructure consistency even in the most complex and heterogeneous environments.
Leverage Container Platforms
Leveraging container platforms like Docker and Kubernetes can also help strengthen the AWS DevOps pipeline. Using Docker, DevOps practitioners can enable consistent and reproducible builds, improving application portability across different environments. Similarly, using Kubernetes, they can simplify deployment and rollback processes and enhance collaboration between development and operations teams.
Wrapping up
As more and more teams embrace DevOps to build and deliver applications at high velocity, there is a collective need to move away from traditional software development and infrastructure management processes. Implementing a robust AWS DevOps pipeline can enable organizations to serve their customers better.
Explore enreap’s AWS DevOps consulting services today to automate manual tasks, improve deployment speed, and manage complex AWS environments at scale.
