DevOps Tools in AWS

Today, let’s look at some of the DevOps tools provided by AWS to its customers to build and deploy software in the cloud. These tools help you build, test and deploy your source application promoting continuous integration and continuous delivery within AWS.

AWS CodeCommit

AWS CodeCommit is a highly scalable and secure source control service that is managed by AWS. The service is used to host git repositories.

AWS CodeCommit enjoys an end-to-end security feature that ensures data is secure both in transit and at rest.

With CodeCommit, you don’t have to worry about how your infrastructure will scale or how you will manage your source control system.

CodeCommit also supports standard git functionalities and can store anything from code to binaries.

Advantages of AWS CodeCommit

1. AWS CodeCommit uses a highly scalable, durable and redundant architecture that ensures there is high availability.
2. With AWS CodeCommit, there is support for existing tools. It supports all the git commands and you may continue using the development environment of your preference
3. AWS CodeCommit is fully managed just like CodeBuild hence eliminating the need to host, maintain, backup and scale your source control servers.
4. You can collaborate on code with your teammates via pull requests, merging, & branching. Also, within your workflows, you can add code reviews and feedback.
5. CodeCommit assures you the security of your code both in transit and at rest. User access is also taken care of using AWS identity and access management.
6. The software development life cycle is much faster as CodeCommit keeps your repositories close to your build, staging and production environments.

AWS CodePipeline

First on the list is AWS CodePipeline. This fully managed continuous delivery service is used to build, test and deploy application code in a fast and reliable way using any of the desired process triggers.

AWS CodePipeline can easily integrate with other third-party services such as Github or with your custom plugins.

Advantages of using CodePipeline:

1. Enables your development teams to deliver software from development to production rapidly.
2. You can get started immediately and begin to model the process of your software release since you don’t have to set up or provision any servers.
3. The workflow used is highly configurable using either AWS management console, AWS CLI, AWS Cloudformation and AWS CDK or Terraform IaC tools.
4. Easy to integrate with the prebuilt AWS plugins or your custom plugins. E.g you can use Github for your source code, use an “on-premise” Jenkins build server or run load tests using third-party services.

AWS CodeBuild

AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed cloud service that enables an IT developer to automate and manage server builds by compiling the source code, running tests and producing software packages that are ready for deployment.

It also has an auto-scaling feature embedded and can process multiple builds at the same time. In this case, your builds will not be lined up behind in a queue.

To get started, you can use custom build environments or you can use packaged build environments provided.

When you use CodeBuild, you are charged per minute based on the number of resources that you use.

Advantages of using CodeBuild:

1. Just like CodeCommit, CodePipeline or CodeGuru CodeBuild is a fully managed service hence eliminating the need to set up, patch and update your build servers
2. With CodeBuild there is continuous scaling
3. CodeBuild is highly extensible meaning you can integrate it with your tools and programming runtimes.
4. CodeBuild enables continuous integration & delivery of software. CodeBuild can also be integrated into an existing CI/CD workflow.
5. Highly Secure. CodeBuild enjoys the robust security feature offered by AWS to provide encryption for your artefacts. AWS CodeBuild is also integrated with identity and access management for user-specific permission allocation.
6. Pay as you go payment model helps you to eliminate hidden charges, and upfront subscriptions and only pay for the resources you have consumed.

AWS CodeDeploy

AWS CodeDeploy simply deploys your code to a variety of instances such as AWS EC2, AWS Fargate, AWS lambda or on your on-premise server using a client agent architecture.

AWS CodeDeploy helps to reduce downtime during the application development period and handle the major task of updating your application.

With CodeDeploy, you can deploy software automatically and eliminate any manual operation which may be prone to either human or technical errors.

The service can also scale to suit any desired deployment needs.

Advantages of CodeDeploy

1. Reduced Downtime. When using AWS CodeDeploy, you are guaranteed high application availability during the software development and deployment process. You’ll also enjoy rollback features in the event an error occurs.
2. Central control and access of an application deployment through the AWS management console or AWS CLI.
3. Deployments are automatic, allowing you to deploy rapidly and reliably. Any scaling requirements for your infrastructure will be facilitated automatically.
4. CodeDeploy can be adopted quickly since it is well aware of other platforms and languages. It can integrate with existing software release processes or continuous delivery toolchains.

AWS CodeGuru

Amazon CodeGuru is a machine learning service that helps developers to streamline their applications and improve the quality of code.

The service consists of:

• CodeGuru Reviewer identifies code quality issues such as deviation from best practices and security vulnerabilities and provides recommendations on how to remediate them.
• CodeGuru Profiler does a search for application performance optimizations, identifies the most expensive lines of code and recommends ways to fix them to reduce CPU overutilization, cut compute costs and improve application performance.

Advantages of Amazon CodeGuru include:

1. Automation of code review process
2. Fast and reliable code issue detection
3. Understands the runtime behaviour of applications

Here at Boldlink, we can help you kick start your AWS DevOps journey today. Do not hesitate to book a call with us here and we will be happy to help you.

Happy cloud computing 🙂