Imagine a world where your development team spends less time on tedious tasks and more time driving innovation. DevOps automation makes this possible by automating routine, repeatable tasks, reducing human error, and accelerating release cycles, resulting in reliability across the systems development lifecycle (SDLC).
Pairing DevOps automation with a cloud-based infrastructure takes it a step further—offering cost efficiency, scalability, and the ability to pay only for what you use. Automating server provisioning, CI/CD pipelines, testing, and monitoring eliminates repetitive work and optimizes your team's time and budget, paving the way for reliable, efficient growth.
All kinds of DevOps processes can be automated, including infrastructure provisioning; continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD); testing; security controls; and monitoring. In this roundup, you'll learn about some of the most popular DevOps automation tools that can help you reduce operational costs. You'll assess each tool based on its features, ease of use, integration capabilities, pricing, and support options.
Terraform
Terraform is an open-source infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tool that helps users safely and efficiently build, change, and version infrastructure across multiple cloud providers and on-premise environments. It's useful for simplifying the management of complex infrastructures.
Features
Terraform's features enable teams to manage infrastructure efficiently, from defining configurations as code to seamlessly supporting multi-cloud environments. The following are some of Terraform's most notable features:
- IaC: Terraform uses declarative configuration files to define infrastructure that can be checked into source control and reused.
- Multi-cloud support: Terraform allows teams to provision resources across various cloud providers Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and on-premise environments.
- State management: Terraform lets users maintain the infrastructure state using a state file, which serves as the source of truth for the environment and helps track changes and manage updates to ensure the infrastructure aligns with the desired configuration.
- Modular design: Terraform supports reusable modules, which define customizable collections of infrastructure to promote best practices and reduce duplication. You can use publicly available modules from the Terraform Registry or create your own.
Ease of Use
Terraform has a user-friendly syntax that uses the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) or JSON. This makes it relatively easy for users to write and understand the infrastructure code.
Integration with Other Services and Applications
Through its extensive ecosystem of providers and modules available in the Terraform Registry, Terraform seamlessly integrates with various cloud providers; configuration management tools, like Progress Chef and Puppet; and CI/CD platforms, including GitHub and Jenkins.
Pricing
Terraform provides multiple pricing tiers:
- The Free tier supports up to 500 resources per month.
- The Standard tier starts at $0.00014 USD per hour per resource with enterprise support.
- The Plus tier offers custom pricing for enterprises managing infrastructure automation.
- The Enterprise tier features tailored solutions with specific security and compliance needs and includes enterprise support.
Support and Documentation
Terraform has extensive documentation that covers installation, configuration, and best practices. Community support is available through forums and discussion groups.
For users of Terraform Enterprise, HashiCorp provides professional support options, including dedicated customer service and training resources.
Terraform development and CLI
DuploCloud
DuploCloud's DevOps Automation Platform simplifies and speeds up the deployment and management of cloud-native applications through a no-code/low-code interface. This enables developers and DevOps teams to provision infrastructure and implement security and compliance with minimal coding effort. It's likely the only comprehensive solution that includes a full observability platform, compliance features, CI/CD integration, compatibility with all major cloud providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and hybrid on-premise), and developer self-service tools, such as predefined configurations, IaC templates, and customizable alerts.
Features
DuploCloud delivers a comprehensive suite of features designed to simplify cloud management and application deployment. Some of its features include the following:
- IaC (low-code): DuploCloud supports IaC and includes its own Terraform provider. This allows users to programmatically manage cloud resources for greater consistency and reduced manual effort. DuploCloud offers full support to convert your existing Terraform code base to use the DuploCloud Terraform provider. With DuploCloud’s Terraform provider, the lines of code required are reduced by a factor of 10 for those who want to stay in the IaC world.
- No-code solution: DuploCloud offers a no-code web portal that simplifies infrastructure provisioning and application deployment for beginners. With simple drop-down menus, a secure and compliant infrastructure can be provided in a few hours.
- Automated CI/CD: DuploCloud takes a brand-agnostic approach to CI/CD, supporting various platforms, like GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and GitLab. It features its own built-in CI/CD platform, Katkit, designed for building, testing, and deploying applications directly from GitHub. DuploCloud also offers many pre-written script templates for common tasks such as updating a Kubernetes service, uploading to an S3 Bucket, or updating a Lambda function.
- Monitoring and observability: DuploCloud offers robust built-in monitoring and logging tools that provide real-time insights into your applications and infrastructure. It includes customizable charts and reports for data metrics, along with logging features that aid in troubleshooting and optimizing infrastructure. With the addition of the Advanced Observability Suite add-on, leveraging open source OpenTelemetry, you can custom configure dashboards and widgets to diagnose issues down to their root causes, with rich, intuitive graphics and extensive logging and metrics.
Ease of Use
The user interface for DuploCloud is designed with the user in mind. It's easy to navigate and manage cloud resources. Additionally, the no-code/low-code approach simplifies onboarding and makes adoption quick.
Integration with Other Services and Applications
As mentioned, DuploCloud seamlessly integrates with major cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, including hybrid environments. It's a comprehensive solution that combines real-time observability, compliance frameworks, and CI/CD integration to optimize the software development lifecycle.
Pricing
DuploCloud offers several tiers of service to meet diverse needs in application deployment and compliance. The plans range from $300 USD to $6,500 USD per month. The Enterprise option offers scalable solutions tailored to specific requirements, with pricing available upon request.
Support and Documentation
DuploCloud provides extensive documentation for setup, configuration, and troubleshooting, along with various support options, such as online resources and community forums. Additionally, it offers 24/7 hands-on support via Slack or email for all customers as part of the subscription.
Ansible
Ansible is a robust automation tool for configuring systems, deploying software, and orchestrating workflows. The tool uses a YAML, a declarative language, and an agentless architecture. This simplifies setup and management by eliminating the need for installing additional software on target machines.
Features
Anisble's powerful features, mentioned as follows, make it an efficient choice for automation, enabling easy setup and consistency in configuration:
- Agentless architecture: Ansible uses SSH for communication and doesn't require agents on target machines. This simplifies setup and reduces maintenance overhead.
- Idempotency: Tasks in Ansible are designed to run the same configuration multiple times and result in the same state. This ensures consistent and predictable outcomes.
- Modules and playbooks: Ansible uses YAML-based playbooks to define automation tasks while offering a large library of modules for various functions, like managing packages and services. Users can also create custom modules in any programming language to meet specific requirements.
Ease of Use
Ansible's playbooks are user-friendly for all skill levels, and its agentless model simplifies setup, allowing users to get started quickly.
Integration with Other Services and Applications
Ansible integrates well with a wide range of cloud providers, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as various DevOps tools, CI/CD pipelines, and configuration management systems. It supports a variety of modules that facilitate connections to databases, like PostgreSQL; network devices, such as Cisco; and containerized applications using Docker and Kubernetes modules.
Pricing
Ansible is open-source and free to use. However, Red Hat also offers a commercial version called Ansible Automation Platform. This version provides additional features like hardened security and automation analytics. Pricing for the commercial version varies based on deployment size and requirements.
Support and Documentation
Ansible provides comprehensive documentation, including guides and tutorials to assist users, along with community support via the Ansible Forum or GitHub Issues. If you're using the Ansible Automation Platform, you can access professional support from Red Hat, which includes training resources and dedicated customer service.
Jenkins
Jenkins is a CI/CD automation server that automates building, testing, and code deployments.
Features
Beyond Jenkins's extensive customization abilities, other notable features include the following:
- IaC and pipeline as code (PaC): Jenkins supports IaC and PaC, allowing users to define build, test, and deploy stages that are stored in a Jenkinsfile and versioned with the code.
- Extensive plugin ecosystem: With thousands of plugins available, Jenkins's plugin ecosystem allows it to integrate with various tools and services from version control systems, like Git, to issue-tracking systems, like Jira, and artifact repositories, like Artifactory.
- Distributed builds: Jenkins supports distributed architectures, allowing builds to be executed across multiple machines, which improves performance by distributing the workload to various agent nodes that can operate in different environments for each build.
Ease of Use
Jenkins is a self-contained, platform-agnostic Java-based application that can run on Windows, macOS, and Unix-like systems. It can be easily set up and configured via a web interface that is equipped with error checks and built-in help features. It's user-friendly, particularly for teams familiar with CI/CD, and its PaC feature enables advanced customization for experienced developers.
Integration with Other Services and Applications
Jenkins is self-contained, so it can run on multiple operating systems. Its extensive plugin ecosystem allows for seamless integration with CI/CD tools and customization.
Pricing
Jenkins is an open source, automation tool that's suitable for organizations of all sizes. However, users need to consider the potential costs of hosting infrastructure since the core software requires a server.
Support and Documentation
Jenkins provides comprehensive documentation, including installation guides and user manuals, along with community support through forums and mailing lists. Commercial support is also available via third-party vendors, such as InfraCloud.
Tekton
Tekton is an open source framework for creating CI/CD pipelines within Kubernetes environments. It offers reusable building blocks for software delivery and consists of components like Tekton Pipelines, Tekton CLI, and Tekton Catalog. These components are all accessible via the Kubernetes CLI (kubectl) and API calls, just like pods and other resources.
Features
Tekton offers several powerful features that are designed to streamline and enhance CI/CD processes within Kubernetes environments:
- PaC: With PaC, users can define CI/CD pipelines using Kubernetes custom resources, allowing for version control and easy modification.
- Reusable tasks: Tekton's modular and scalable design enables the creation of reusable tasks for different pipelines, enhancing consistency and minimizing duplication. Custom tasks and integrations allow users to build on existing functionality easily.
- Integration with Kubernetes: Tekton can be fully integrated into existing Kubernetes environments, extending its functionality with robust CI/CD capabilities.
Ease of Use
Tekton is geared toward developers familiar with Kubernetes, and its abstractions may be complex for newcomers. Once configured, it effectively automates CI/CD processes within Kubernetes using clear, albeit challenging, YAML-based workflows.
Integration with Other Services and Applications
Tekton seamlessly integrates with built-in Kubernetes tools and services, effectively collaborating with various CI/CD tools, like Jenkins, Jenkins X, Skaffold, and Knative, across different vendors, languages, and deployment environments.
Pricing
Tekton is an open source tool, making it a cost-effective choice for organizations implementing CI/CD pipelines in Kubernetes. However, expenses can be incurred from the underlying Kubernetes infrastructure or cloud services used to host it.
Support and Documentation
Tekton offers extensive documentation, including guides and tutorials. Community support is also available through forums, GitHub discussions, and Slack channels. Additionally, enterprise-level support can be obtained through third-party services like Red Hat.
Drone
Drone is a container-native CI/CD tool designed with a container-first architecture, using simple YAML configuration files for pipelines. It integrates well with Docker and Kubernetes, automating the building, testing, and deployment of applications to streamline developers' workflows.
Features
Drone offers a streamlined approach to CI/CD, combining simplicity with flexibility to support scalable, isolated, and customizable build pipelines. Its most notable features include the following:
- Container-first architecture: Drone is lightweight, and all components run as Docker containers. Every build step is executed in a Docker container, ensuring consistency and isolation across different platforms.
- Pipeline configuration: Pipelines are defined using simple YAML files, allowing for easy readability and version control.
- Extensible plugin ecosystem: A wide range of plugins are available to extend functionality, enabling integration with various tools and services. Plugins are simple to develop because they can be created in any programming language and run in isolation within a container.
- Scalability: Drone is built for high scalability, effortlessly handling concurrent builds and distributing workloads across multiple servers or agents.
- Web UI and API: Drone offers a sleek and modern user-friendly web interface for monitoring builds, which focuses on simplicity and ease of use. It also offers an API for interacting with the Drone server.
Ease of Use
Installing and maintaining Drone is relatively simple; it can be deployed as a single Docker container or directly on a server. The use of YAML for pipeline configuration makes it accessible to both beginners and experienced developers.
Integration with Other Services and Applications
Drone seamlessly integrates with popular version control systems, like GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and various cloud services, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Its extensible plugin architecture allows for further integrations with testing, notification, and monitoring tools, such as Slack and Grafana.
Pricing
Drone is open source, making it a cost-effective solution for CI/CD. However, Drone also offers an Enterprise Edition, with features such as advanced security and support. The price for this ranges from $300 USD up to $3,000 USD per month based on the requirements.
Support and Documentation
Drone offers extensive documentation, including setup guides and user manuals. It also offers community support through forums and GitHub discussions. Enterprise users can access professional support options via commercial plans.
Conclusion
This article explored several popular DevOps automation tools and highlighted their features, ease of use, integration capabilities, pricing, and support options. Each of these tools plays a vital role in automating DevOps processes, leading to faster and more efficient deployments.
Among these tools, DuploCloud stands out as likely the only tool that includes a full observability platform, compliance features, CI/CD integration, and compatibility with all major cloud providers. It automates various aspects of DevOps by offering features like IaC through its own Terraform provider, a user-friendly no-code/low-code interface for easy application deployment, and automated CI/CD capabilities with its built-in platform, Katkit.