Scaling GitOps in 2023 - Emerging Developments & Predictions

[weaveworks]

As the digital transformation of business continues to take off, organizations must find ways to keep up with market demands while ensuring a successful launch and deployment of their applications. GitOps - an operational framework that combines automation, collaboration, and version control using Git as the single source of truth - is instrumental to the success of every software business.

In 2023, scaling GitOps will be essential for businesses that want sustained long-term success in the ever-changing landscape. Alexis Richardson, CEO and Co-founder of Weaveworks, recently presented the keynote at the Mastering GitOps 2023: GitOps Emerging Developments and Predictions. In his talk, he shared insights on GitOps and what’s coming next, how to scale, GitOps beyond Kubernetes, and fleets and stacks, and more.

In this blog, we will explore some of the highlights and insights on scaling GitOps in 2023.

GitOps: A Cloud-Native Favorite

From fast-paced startups to established enterprises, GitOps is proving itself as an indispensable tool to make configurations more concrete and deployments more reliable. The recently released CNCF survey revealed that nearly 84% of respondents have adopted practices and tools that adhere to GitOps principles.

Figure: CNCF Annual Survey 2022 - Source

Richardson highlighted the growing popularity of GitOps. Proof of that is how analysts such as Gartner are attesting and promoting the adoption of GitOps the Kubernetes ecosystem. For example, the research published in late 2022 lists “Adopt GitOps Practices to Achieve Scale” as one of the key steps to scaling DevOps workflows.

Figure: Schematic of Managing Multiple Clusters at Scale - Source

Flux, the CNCF project built by Weaveworks that powers Weave GitOps solutions, has recently achieved Graduated Status and has over 1 billion downloads. All in all, GitOps as a whole is proving to be indispensable to organizations looking to make configurations more concrete and deployments more reliable.

Scaling GitOps in 2023

Scaling GitOps is not only about using larger applications and deployments. According to Richardson, a key aspect to scaling GitOps is simplifying and abstracting the use of Kubernetes for both developers and operators to use. To use his exact words, making it “big, easy, and boring”.

Easy enough for new developers to learn and grasp, and boring enough for operators to use. He then goes on to talk about scaling GitOps for people and what that entails [watch min: 8.38].

“If we can get GitOps to scale those classes of applications (cloud-native applications) and deployment scenarios, then we have an operating model that can work for all applications. Which means all of those developers on that exponential curve will be able to control and operate applications automatically using GitOps.” - Alexis Richardson, Mastering GitOps 2023

Additionally, he touched upon various concepts that are particularly useful to organizations looking to scale GitOps. They include [watch min: 13:05]:

• Databases and caching and how GitOps is a transaction system with a Git backend and Open Container Image (OCI) cache.
• How OCI combined with Flux can help organizations scale.
• Open Component Model (OCM) and Software Bill of Delivery (new OSS project from SAP & Weaveworks).
• Cooperative orchestration, GitOps use cases, and Weave GitOps.

Weave GitOps: A GitOps-based Platform

Organizations that have adopted GitOps-based solutions have seen tremendous benefits: increased productivity, improved stability, stronger security, higher reliability, and many more. All of these benefits are available with Weave GitOps solutions as mentioned in the keynote speech.

Weave GitOps, a full-stack GitOps platform, empowers organizations to deploy software more frequently and predictably. Built on Flux, the popular CNCF project which has garnered more than 1B downloads, Weave GitOps has numerous features, benefiting both Platform and Developer Teams. Some of the features include templates, GitOps Sets (coming soon), Fleet scale, Flagger 2.0, and green and sustainable GitOps.

Watch the full video here and view the full presentation here.

Interested to learn more about Weave GitOps? Request a Demo and we will gladly walk you through all of our enterprise-grade features.

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