Skip to main content

GitOps Fundamentals

If you're looking to begin your GitOps journey, BuildPiper is here to help!

GitOps is a process that makes deployments, updates or any changes in the apps, as simple as making a commit, raising a pull request or adding a comment to the Git repo. Learn all about GitOps - and how BuildPiper can help!

What is GitOps?#

GitOps is an approach for enterprises looking to simplify the management and auditing of cloud-native applications. Whether it’s adding a firewall rule, defining a VPC, fixing a UI bug, or adding a new feature in your app, all of these can be managed via GitOps. GitOps uses Git repositories as a single source of truth for all related actions and approval audit trails.

The main goal of adopting GitOps is to have a development-centric methodology for releasing updates and changes. GitOps is a code-first approach which allows developers to manage the complete application life cycle. Right from build, to quality validation and ultimately releasing the source code to the production through a well-established governance model centered around git workflow and events.

GitOps is one of the best approaches for improving developer experience and productivity.

By using Git-based workflows and events, GitOps enables developers to manage and monitor the complete application life cycle which includes everything from packaging to deployment. Every change throughout the application life cycle is traced in the Git repository and is auditable.

Benefits of Adotpting GitOps#

A GitOps framework makes infrastructure automation possible. Organizations that embrace GitOps leverage other benefits that include.

  • Improved Access Control: There's no need to give credentials to all the application components since changes in the Git repo are automated (only CI/CD needs access).
  • Less Risk: All new updates in the Git repo are tracked through merge requests, and changes can be rolled back to a previous state ensuring there are no risks.
  • Faster Time to Market: Execution via code is faster than manual clicks. Test cases are automated, so stable and secured environments can be delivered rapidly.
  • Simplified Auditing: Using GitOps tools such as GitHub and GitLab, all changes to environments are stored in the git log which makes audits simple and faster.
  • Reduced Costs and Downtime: Automation eliminates manual tasks, boosts productivity, and reduces downtime due to rollback capability allowing teams to better manage cloud resources and reducing cloud costs.
  • Less Error-Prone: With regular code reviews and collaboration in merge requests, errors can easily be identified and corrected, before production.