In recent years, the adoption of agile development practices and the increasing complexity of software applications have made it essential to implement effective tools and processes to manage the software lifecycle. In this context, Azure DevOps emerges as a complete and integrated solution, offering a series of services and tools designed to optimize every phase of the application development and deployment process.
Azure DevOps is the Microsoft Azure platform for building, testing, releasing and monitoring applications. This platform, conceived as a unified work environment, revolutionizes the way in which organizations approach the software development cycle, adopting an agile approach that aims to maximize efficiency and collaboration.
Let's learn more about how Azure DevOps works: it is configured as a integration and continuous distribution (CI/CD) service, offering all the functionality necessary to orchestrate the activities of IT teams, coordinate their efforts, facilitate collaboration on the code and optimize the delivery of products to end users.
This service combines development (DEVELOPMENT) and IT operations (OPERations), integrating people, processes and technology in a single environment dedicated to the creation of new applications. A crucial aspect of Azure DevOps is its ability to break down traditional barriers between the various phases of the development cycle, such as development itself, quality engineering and security, providing integrated collaboration tools that promote constant interaction between developers, the company and end users.
In this way, we are witnessing a radical change in the software lifecycle, where the planning, development, delivery and start-up phases are no longer tied to specific roles, but are based on continuous interaction and on the “Agile” approach promoted by DevOps. The latter, in fact, underlines the importance of a new operating culture that places flexibility and collaboration at the center of development activities, ensuring a greater capacity to adapt and respond to market needs.
Azure DevOps offers a new paradigm for software and application development. The Agile approach is based on Close relationship between the different IT teams in an organization, as well as between individual developers and the recipients of their applications.
This deep collaboration leads not only to the coordination of activities that were previously well separated and distinct, but also to aExtreme operational flexibility. In fact, DevOps provides very short release cycles, to collect constant feedback from end users and allow developers to make quick and precise changes. Both collaboration and flexibility are further reinforced by two other key aspects: scalability and integration.
The DevOps environment is designed to accommodate a diverse and vast set of operations. Team members can track their activities using boards and tasks, which can be shared and structured on multiple levels based on type and priority. There is no limit to the number of items that can be assigned, thus simplifying the management of projects of any size.
As far as possible integrations are concerned, DevOps can be combined with other Microsoft Azure services for create an end-to-end workflow. An example is the integration between Azure Pipelines (which we'll talk about in the next chapter) with Azure Container Registry, with which it is possible to optimize the process of testing and distributing container-based apps.
Or, Azure Pipelines can connect to Azure Functions to automatically compile and deploy functions following certain trigger events. However, it is important to emphasize that DevOps can also integrate with third-party tools and languages. Among them, we cannot fail to mention:
We have created the internal Infrastructure & Security team, focused on the Azure cloud, to better respond to the needs of our customers who involve us in technical and strategic decisions.
In addition to configuring and managing the tenant, we also take care of:
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Azure DevOps is much more than just a CI/CD platform. It is a complete ecosystem of services that integrate synergistically to optimize the entire life cycle of the application, from the design phase to the final release. Let's look at them in detail.
Let's conclude our Azure DevOps overview by exploring the crucial role of its APIs. These represent a fundamental element of the platform, allowing for a wide range of automation and integration capabilities that amplify the capabilities of DevOps services.
The APIs are divided into six categories, five of which correspond to the main DevOps services, while one is dedicated to personalized notifications. Let's see below the APIs provided by Azure DevOps for its services:
Azure DevOps presents itself as a solid and complete software lifecycle management platform, offering a wide range of integrated tools and services that support developers at every stage of the application development and deployment process.
From project management with Azure Boards to version control with Azure Repos, from the automation of builds and releases with Azure Pipelines to full testing with Azure Test Plans, to package management with Azure Artifacts, the platform offers an end-to-end solution for modern software development needs.
With high scalability, security, and reliability, Azure DevOps stands out as a reliable option for businesses of any size looking to improve the efficiency and quality of their software development.
Harnessing the full potential of this platform can lead to greater collaboration, speed, and agility in application development, allowing businesses to remain competitive in a changing market.
The Infra & Security team focuses on the management and evolution of our customers' Microsoft Azure tenants. Besides configuring and managing these tenants, the team is responsible for creating application deployments through DevOps pipelines. It also monitors and manages all security aspects of the tenants and supports Security Operations Centers (SOC).
