From DevOps to GitOps: The Next Evolution in Continuous Delivery
Spot the difference: a world where software deployment isn’t a headache, where the latest version of your app isn’t stuck waiting for manual sign-offs and patching, and where delivery isn’t held up by combining development and operations—versus the world we live in now. What a dream, eh?
But it’s not entirely fictitious. In the past, the practice known as DevOps was hailed as a step in the right direction. It did actually speed up delivery by combining development and operations (hence the name DevOps). But now, DevOps itself is evolving into something new: GitOps. It’s a method that takes the principles of DevOps and aligns them even more closely with modern development demands, and it’s putting automation in the driver’s seat. By letting developers deploy, roll back, and manage with precision, GitOps is reshaping the meaning of continuous delivery. Let’s get into what this all means and more.
What is Git?
Let’s start with the core of it, Git. Git is a version control system that tracks changes in code, letting developers save, review, and manage different versions of their work. Developed by Linus Torvalds in 2005, Git has become an industry-standard tool that developers use to manage and collaborate on projects of all sizes. Think of it as a record keeper for code, storing each update so your team can go back to any previous version if needed.
When you work with Git, you’re working with a repository (or “repo”) that contains all the files, folders, and historical data of a project. This makes collaboration easier, as multiple developers can work on the same project without overwriting each other’s changes. Git also acts as the foundation for GitOps, where it functions as a sort of “pit boss,” automating deployments and keeping everything consistent across environments.
GitOps vs. DevOps: The Evolution
Great, now let’s look at how we got to GitOps from DevOps. DevOps started out by introducing the idea that development and operations should collaborate rather than work in silos, leading to faster deployment cycles, continuous delivery, and better overall quality. But with that came complexity, especially as microservices, containers, and cloud-native architectures emerged. DevOps needed something more—a way to manage these components with even more precision and minimal human error.
That’s where GitOps came in. GitOps today builds on DevOps practices but pushes for an even deeper integration between code and operations by managing infrastructure and application code together through Git. Simply put, it uses Git repositories as the source of truth for both infrastructure and app states, allowing teams to automate deployments based on changes in code.
Benefits of GitOps
1. Automation
GitOps enables automation on a level DevOps alone can’t quite reach. With Git as the single source of truth, you get seamless automation where changes in code automatically trigger deployments. This reduces the back-and-forth approval steps that can slow DevOps workflows and instead gives a direct, trackable path from code change, all the way to deployment.
For example, using tools like Flux or ArgoCD, you can monitor Git repositories for any new commits, then automatically apply those changes to the entire infrastructure. A single push to Git can trigger an entire deployment pipeline—without a single manual step. That’s why we use Git.
2. Version Control and Rollbacks
But the perks of GitOps go deeper than deploying code; they’re about maintaining absolute control over your historical code. With Git’s built-in version control, you know exactly what was deployed, when, and by whom. This gives you the ability to roll back changes instantly if needed, making troubleshooting much easier and safer.
Think of it like this: your infrastructure is now versioned, just like your code. So, if an update causes an issue, GitOps lets you roll back to a previous version with a simple Git command, saving you the hassle of manual reconfiguration or emergency fixes.
3. Enhanced Security and Compliance
With GitOps, every change is logged in Git, creating a comprehensive, audit-friendly record of what was modified and when. Since each update has to go through the Git repository, it provides a secure and directly traceable path of your deployments, aligning well with security and compliance standards.
4. Consistency
One common challenge in DevOps is the “environment drift” that happens when development, staging, and production environments fall out of sync. GitOps tackles this by ensuring that infrastructure configurations match the state declared in the Git repository, reducing the risk of configuration drift.
Now, that’s a lot of big words. Simply put, this means that all environments pull from the same configuration, leading to consistency across the board. This standard of consistency means fewer bugs, smoother rollouts, and faster troubleshooting.
5. Aligning Dev and Ops Closer Than DevOps
DevOps started as a way to bridge the gap between developers and operations. GitOps takes that bridge a step further by simplifying the process down to something both sides of the aisle understand: Git. This shared language means developers can manage deployments without needing deep infrastructure knowledge, and ops teams can monitor everything in Git without diving into code.
The Future of Continuous Delivery with GitOps
Deployment and development will never be easy, but it has been getting less terrible, which is all we can really hope for. In that vein, GitOps isn’t a replacement for DevOps, just the natural next step in its evolution. By rooting all deployment actions in Git, it brings automation, security, and precision to every step, making sure deployments happen smoothly and predictably. This is especially powerful in today’s particularly heartless development environments, where teams need to deliver updates frequently, reliably, and without hiccups.
So, if you’re considering the benefits of GitOps, think of it as the logical next phase. And as companies continue to demand faster, more consistent delivery, GitOps is set to become the standard approach to continuous delivery. It’s a new era for development, and GitOps is leading the way.