What is GitOps?
GitOps is an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) methodology that treats changes to infrastructure in the same way as code changes. It emphasizes version control, synchronization, and declarative configuration definitions for deploying and managing applications and infrastructure.
Core Principles of GitOps
Here are the core principles of GitOps:
- Git-Centric: By version-controlling everything in Git, GitOps enables teams to manage their environment using standard software development lifecycle (SDLC) practices. Using Git enables collaboration, conflict resolution, and traceability.
- Declarative Infrastructure: Using YAML, JSON or other data serialization syntax, development and operations teams configure or describe what infrastructure to provision and manage in the environment, rather than specifying precisely how to reach that desired end state.
- Continuous Synchronization: GitOps practices involve systems that monitor changes to ensure the environment’s desired state, defined in the Git repository, matches the production state. An automated control system applies changes to the environment, keeping it in sync with the Git repository.
Advantages of GitOps
Here are the advantages of GitOps:
- Improved Collaboration: Development and operations teams work together on shared Git repositories.
- Version Control: Changes to infrastructure are more easily tracked, audited, and rolled back if necessary.
- Automation: Reduction of human error and configuration drift ensures systems remain stable, secure, and consistent across environments.
What Is DevOps?
DevOps is a model for enhancing collaboration and communication between the software development and IT operations teams. This unification encourages breaking down traditional organizational barriers, improving cooperation, and sharing responsibilities and workflows.
The goal of DevOps is to deliver software faster and more reliably, with increased quality and fewer defects.
Core Principles of DevOps
Here are the core principles of DevOps:
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Like GitOps, DevOps leverages IaC principles to manage infrastructure programmatically. IaC is typically used within a continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline to provision and configure resources.
- CI/CD: CI/CD pipelines automate application build, testing and deployment across environments. CI/CD improves reliability and quality of software releases, while lowering potential DevOps risks, such as errors introduced via manual processes.
- Monitoring and Feedback Loops: A primary goal of DevOps is to optimize software delivery. To accomplish this, team members gather input from stakeholders, along with implementation of continuous monitoring and feedback loops. These practices enable early identification of problems and streamlined improvements to processes.
Advantages of DevOps
Here are the benefits of DevOps:
- Faster Deployment Cycles: Use of automated testing, integration, and deployment processes reduces the lead time for changes.
- Improved Collaboration: Increased focus on communication between teams helps establish a culture of sharing knowledge and responsibility.
- Increased System Reliability: Improvements to the testing, monitoring, and feedback loops help more quickly discover and address issues.
6 Key Differences Between GitOps and DevOps
Now you know why DevOps and GitOps are important, but what are the differences? Which one is the right solution for you?
We’ll start with the biggest differences between them and in the section, you’ll learn which one to choose.
#1. Security Practices
- GitOps: Use of automated rollback and recovery procedures in the event of a failed deployment or security incident. Relies on Git version control features like tags and releases for infrastructure changes, improving security vulnerability tracking. Encrypted secrets and access controls may also be managed through the Git repository.
- DevOps: Manual approval gates tend to exist for critical updates, resulting in stricter control but also potentially introducing delays. DevOps may rely on diverse tools and processes for vulnerability management, patching, and secret management. The recommended DevSecOps approach “bakes in” security at every stage of the SDLC.
#2. Approach to Deployment
- GitOps: Pull-based deployments where Git operators pull and apply changes from a centralized Git repository. Automated synchronization ensures the production environment is always in sync with a desired state defined in Git.
- DevOps: DevOps tends to favor push-based deployments, where changes are pushed to the target environment after manual approval.
#3. Source of Truth
- GitOps: Uses the Git repository as a single source of truth for both application code and infrastructure configuration. Because all changes are versioned and tracked, security audits benefit from superior compliance and traceability.
- DevOps: Application code and infrastructure configuration have separate sources of truth, and rely on different sets of tools to interact with each codebase. Because changes are spread across multiple systems, DevSecOps tools dedicated to in-depth compliance management may be necessary.
#4. Workflow Automation Differences
- GitOps: Automation is used in deployments based on changes in the Git repository, ensuring the desired state is continuously applied. Uses controller systems to monitor Git and apply detected changes automatically.
- DevOps: The CI/CD pipeline is used to automate deployment workflows triggered by predefined schedules or events such as code commits or manual approvals.
#5. Role of Humans and Automation
- GitOps: Heavier emphasis on automation and autonomous systems, reducing the need for human intervention in routine tasks. However, the GitOps focus is on developers providing instructions or configuration for the broader system, rather than exclusively committing code.
- DevOps: A balanced approach with both automated workflows and manual approvals to maintain control and visibility during critical deployments.
#6. Tooling and Integration
- GitOps: Git-focused version control tools and CI/CD pipelines integrate well with GitOps. Specialized tooling in the form of controllers to monitor changes to Git repositories is also necessary.
- DevOps: A wide range of CI/CD, IaC, and monitoring tools are used across different stages of the software delivery cycle. Due to this diversity, a higher toolchain complexity is commonplace.
Which one to Choose?
Still not sure which solution is better for your organization? In this section, we’ll help you choose the right one, so you can maximize efficiency and get ahead faster.
Security Policies and Compliance
- GitOps: Enforces policies through version-controlled, automated deployments. Minimizes human intervention and thus the opportunity for human error. Preferred for compliance-heavy industries due to its detailed, auditable change history.
- DevOps: Emphasizes collaboration between developers and operations teams. Manual interventions like approval gates improve control, but introduce delays and human error. Understanding DevSecOps procedures which further enhance development security is a key factor in choosing the right approach.
Compliance and Regulatory Requirements
- GitOps: Strict regulatory requirements, such as those found in finance or healthcare, may benefit from the strong enforcement of IaC version control and automated deployments.
- DevOps: Broadly capable of meeting most compliance requirements through transparency, automation, and traceability in the software delivery process.
Existing Tooling and Workflows
- GitOps: Requires tooling or custom scripts that specifically supports GitOps workflows. Ideal for Kubernetes environments due to compatible pull-based approaches.
- DevOps: Can be implemented using a wide range of existing tools, and supports both traditional virtual machine (VM)-based infrastructure and containerized environments.
Team Structure and Collaboration
- GitOps: Emphasis is on automated deployment of version-controlled configuration, reducing the need for manual intervention. Ideal for organizations that want to minimize manual tasks and enforce strict change controls.
- DevOps: Higher emphasis on collaboration between teams, and uses manual intervention points. Better suited for organizations that prefer more human control over deployments.
Target Infrastructure
- GitOps: Originally designed for managing Kubernetes clusters, but can be adapted to other infrastructures by adjusting the tooling.
- DevOps: Can be used with a wide variety of infrastructure types, including VMs, containers, and orchestration platforms.
DevSecOps with CloudGuard from Check Point Software
GitOps and DevOps are similar approaches to streamlining the SDLC. GitOps emphasizes the reduction of human intervention through the use of version-controlled configuration and automated synchronization systems. DevOps, on the other hand, focuses on collaboration between teams and balancing human decision-making and intervention with automated deployment processes.
Not sure how to best approach DevOps security?
Infinity Global Services can help shed light on the automation, implementation, and deployment of secure development practices.
Check Point CloudGuard is a cloud-native security platform made to seamlessly integrate strong security practices into standard DevOps methodology. Featuring a broad array of security controls, threat detection capabilities, and compliance reporting features, CloudGuard is a powerful tool for implementing DevSecOps. The Buyer’s Guide to DevSecOps Cloud Security explores the available options in greater detail.
To explore CloudGuard’s increased productivity and security capabilities in-depth, book a free demo of CloudGuard right away.
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