The Crucial Role of Automation in DevOps

Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices have become the bedrock of today’s successful DevOps practices. These however require exceptional speed, consistency and reliability in order for software professionals to deliver high-quality applications at scale. Automation offers a powerful aid to DevOps engineers involved in CI/CD activities, freeing them from repetitive and menial tasks. By leveraging automated solutions, it is therefore possible to streamline workflows, eliminate bottlenecks and speed up project progress. 

In this article, we discuss with Abdul Rahim, Release Automation Engineer at Payara, key DevOps automation tools as well as how they can support software application development and management.

Note: parts of this article appeared on The CTO Club.

DevOps and the CI/CD methodology are now used by multiple organizations to improve their applications by maintaining a continuous cycle of software development, fixes and updates. As applications grow, the principles behind DevOps and CI/CD can help decrease complexity, increase efficiency and streamline workflows, especially when combined with effective automation.

In effect, software specialists can benefit from higher speed, as it is possible to accelerate repetitive tasks while delivering consistency, speeding up delivery cycles and freeing up time for more strategic activities. Even more, automated tools can handle increasing workloads effortlessly, making it easier to scale operations without lengthening development cycles.

The first aspect to consider when looking at automating DevOps activities is select a suitable CI/CD tool that can support integration with the system, testing, development and deployment as well as delivery to end users. Tools like Jenkins are therefore indispensable in this regard, transforming how businesses offering or relying on applications operate and deliver value.

Selecting the right DevOps automation tools

In effect, Jenkins, an open-source automation server that is broadly used for CI/CD, automates the process of building, testing and deploying code. As such, it can support seamless integration of changes into the main codebase. More precisely, it offers real-time visibility into the status of builds and deployments through monitoring and reporting capabilities. These functionalities can also help to catch issues early in the development cycle, improving software quality while supporting fast-paced projects.

Key features of Jenkins include its compatibility with a variety of tools and services through a vast array of plugins and the ability for users to define Jenkins pipelines in code for easy maintenance and version control. In addition, it can distribute builds across multiple machines to run multiple pipelines simultaneously, greatly enhancing project delivery timelines.

In addition to CI/CD automation, software specialists should also look at implementing a tool for automating dependency updates, such as Dependabot. By continuously monitoring and updating dependencies, a such solution can help companies ensure that your projects remain up to date with the latest features and patches. This is achieved through the automatic generation of pull requests for dependency updates that simplify the monitoring, review, management and integration processes.

In addition, it is possible to enhance security, as Dependabot can help to promptly identify and address vulnerabilities in dependencies. Therefore, it can help organizations to maintain the integrity of their software while delivering robust and resilient applications.

Payara’s approach to DevOps automation

At Payara, we leverage automation to enhance our development processes and deliver a superior software platform for our users’ applications. In particular, as we are committed to offering regular Payara Platform monthly releases that deliver valuable new features, updated, security and bug fixes, we require quick CI/CD turnarounds. Our engineers utilize Jenkins and Dependabot to streamline such processes.

Before implementing these tools, the manually implemented release process required approximately seven to ten days. Thanks to valuable DevOps automation, Payara’s engineering team was able to slash delivery times by half, as it now takes only three days to complete CI/CD activities related to a specific release. Even more, it was possible to eliminate any unpredictable delays associated with the process. In particular, while technology compatibility kit (TCK) testing used to take up to four days, it can now be completed in a day.

By drastically reducing build time, Payara is not only improving resource use and productivity. It is also enabling its teams to focus on infrastructure improvements that benefits its users as well as slashing the time spent on customer support-related improvements.  

This, in turn, boost satisfaction while quickly adding value to the Payara Platform and its users, even as the application environment grows. Even more, it empowers the developers of applications running on Payara Platform to enhance the robustness, security and scalability of their software.

Conclusions

Automation is key for DevOps engineers looking to optimize application upgrades and new releases as well as overall productivity. Automated tools, such as Jenkins and Dependabot, are enhancing DevOps as well as CI/CD activities, reshaping the way we develop, test and deploy software. By embracing DevOps automation as well as software solutions that are based on such tools, such as Payara Platform, businesses can make sure their applications remain competitive, innovative and secure in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.