The DevOps Tools List You Need To Know About

DevOps combines software development and IT operations under a single roof. Working together to build and release software, both teams take responsibility for developing and producing software. Managing these teams, the projects they work on, and the processes behind them is not easy, so many teams choose to utilize a range of DevOps tools and services to help them. Listed below are the top DevOps tools from across the entire spectrum of development and production that we think are worth knowing about.

Kubernetes 

Kubernetes is an open-source system originally developed by Google for managing and automatically deploying containerized applications. Its purpose is to automate many of the tasks and processes required to deploy, manage, and scale containerized apps.

Kubernetes clusters allow you to run and manage groups of hosts that can be spread across on-premises, public, private, and cloud servers, making it a particularly good choice for apps that require rapid-scaling capabilities.

Pros

• Built initially by Google, it’s an industry-standard tool with widespread support and is popular among both developers and DevOps
• Relatively future-proof – supported by all major cloud vendors and well-incorporated into the broader DevOps ecosystem

Cons

• Kubernetes is complex and you’ll need staff familiar with it to get the most out of it
• It may be overkill depending on your individual use cases – for smaller projects, and there are less expensive and less complicated solutions

Docker 

Docker is a containerization service that allows developers to bundle their applications into containers with configurable environments. This makes websites and apps much easier to deploy, as Docker apps can easily be automatically deployed on virtualized servers instead of manually building and configuring the environment prior to deploying an application.

Pros

• Docker enables standardized programmable containers that ensure your application will run on any system, regardless of the underlying server environment or operating system.
• It massively simplifies the deployment process and works well as part of an automated deployment pipeline

Cons

• While a lot of developers and DevOps teams are familiar with Docker, it can be quite a steep learning curve for those that aren’t
• The documentation does not keep pace with the development, often requiring developers to hunt for answers within the community

Guide-Rails_® 

Guide-Rails_® is a software and value stream delivery platform. Guide-Rails_® offers an ‘all-in-one’ solution to cloud & infrastructure management, DevOps administration, CI/CD pipeline integration with test automation, and plenty more. All of this is served through one platform, massively simplifying what can otherwise require a range of different services to achieve the same functionality.

Pros

• Hugely simplifies the development and management of software through an ‘all-in-one’ platform
• Provides a wide range of services and solutions to cover nearly all aspects of software development and delivery, while easily integrating into existing projects

Cons

• The comprehensive tooling and services on offer may be overkill for smaller projects
• While customer support is on-hand to deal with any issues that may arise, there is currently a lack of community resources

Slack

Communication doubtlessly plays a vital role in any DevOps team. Slack is a communication tool that integrates private and team-based chats with a near-endless variety of API extensions. Deployments, production monitoring tools, and plenty more can all integrate into chat rooms that keep all team members in the loop. It’s also effective as a general purpose team communication platform, with all the features you’d expect, from file transfers to reactions.

Pros

• Very user-friendly UI with many different customization options. Organizations can have multiple channels split into separate rooms for each department or client.
• Connects with many external APIs and can automatically respond to triggers as part of broader automated workflows

Cons

• Messages older than 14 days get deleted, so it’s less useful for long-term team communication needs
• Slack can become a distraction for some teams, with notifications pinging throughout the day

Git

Some form of version control is necessary for teams to effectively work on the same codebase. Git is a distributed version control system that enables developers to create, share, and deploy software repositories. Git supports many industry-standard features for version control software, allowing developers to commit code, merge branches, and keep a full history of application development that can be deployed or rolled back to with ease.

Pros

• The industry standard for version control software, with many widely-used services like Github and Gitlab built on top of it
• It’s fast with a small footprint and allows developers to work on their local machines whether or not they have an Internet connection

Cons

• Built primarily for Linux, works well on Macs but Windows support is lacking
• Requires teams to be comfortable with CLI to extract maximum benefit or the use of third-party GUIs

Jira

An issue and project tracking tool, Jira uses Kanban boards to help keep track of projects. It was initially built to assist developers with bug tracking, but its range of use cases has expanded since then. It can be used as a planner to support project development and task distribution, and as a project tracker, highlighting key issues and providing context with full project visibility.

Jira also connects to various other tools and services, including others on this list, such as Slack and Github. You can easily connect and build automated workflows for project management and issue tracking based around events in your other tools using Jira.

Pros

• Clean UI that makes it easy to create tasks and visualize them on timescales and roadmaps
• Highly customizable and easily integrates with many other DevOps tools

Cons

• Graphical reports produced by Jira cannot easily be exported or downloaded to be used outside of Jira
• The wide range of ways to create, track, and display tasks can be overwhelming for inexperienced users and potentially confusing for teams that don’t standardize how they choose to work with Jira

Nagios

Nagios is an open-source infrastructure monitoring service that offers several types of monitoring for different use cases and operating systems. From Windows and Linux monitoring to server, application, and log monitoring, Nagios represents a tool that can be used to monitor your entire tech stack.

Pros

• Nagios Core is open-source and easily extensible, making it relatively easy to integrate and customize for virtually any project
• Supports monitoring across a huge variety of protocols, including HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, SSH, and more

Cons

• Support services are minimal and largely community-driven, unless you are willing to upgrade to a (paid) hosted solution
• Advanced reporting and other useful tools and features are locked behind the premium Nagios XI

Snort

Part of keeping your app and infrastructure secure is knowing when attempted breaches have occurred. Snort is a free, open-source network intrusion detection system originally released over 20 years ago. Few free open-source tools last that long, which demonstrates the pedigree of Snort. Snort is trusted by many in the industry to develop rules that define malicious network behavior and then use those rules to actively seek out incursions to those rules. It is flexible and can be used simply as a packet sniffer, a packet logger, or a full-blown network intrusion prevention system.

Pros

• Considered an industry veteran tool that has been in active use and development for over two decades
• The provided rulesets are generally of very high quality, with a high malicious behavior detection rate and low false positives rate

Cons

• While the tool is free, only the ‘Community Ruleset’ that helps define malicious network behavior is free. Users who wish to use the ‘Snort Subscriber Ruleset’ must either pay or wait 30-days (an eternity in network security) for it to become available to registered users
• Sometimes alerts can lack detail and be too generic, resulting in additional research being required for certain flagged alerts

Querysurge

Querysurge is a data testing solution that helps track, validate, and test ETL (extracted, transformed, loaded) data. For apps that rely on big data or import large datasets, Querysurge enables teams to automatically test and validate that data remains intact between the source and target destination. Differences are automatically flagged so that teams can be quickly alerted to precisely what went wrong and where, which represents a huge timesaver when dealing with sufficiently large datasets.

Pros

• Integrates well into automated DevOps pipelines and provides assurances about data robustness
• Supports a wide variety of data formats for input

Cons

• Large datasets can take a while to process, which can result in delays if integrated into automated pipelines
• Many features are locked behind tiered premium subscriptions. Depending on your team and use-cases, it could be expensive

DevOps Tools and Services for Software Development

There are many different DevOps tools and services available for all aspects and niches of software development. The tools that work best for you will depend on your individual needs and circumstances, but chances are that you will be able to make good use of at least some of the tools mentioned above. If you’re unsure about making these different types of tools work together, then get in touch with Guide-Rails_® today. Our team can help assess your situation and walk you through how the platform can easily manage integrating them into your software development and delivery process.