Incredibuild this week revealed it has acquired Garden, a provider of an open-source framework that makes it simpler to track the relationships between software components as DevOps teams build applications.
Founded in 2018, Garden has been primarily focused on eliminating bottlenecks within continuous integration (CI) pipelines that slow the pace of application development and waste infrastructure resources. The Garden framework makes it possible to both spin up remote development environments running on Kubernetes clusters on demand from anywhere as needed and keep track of the dependencies that exist between software components using graph technology the company developed.
The Incredibuild platform, meanwhile, already accelerates the compilation of code using a combination of caching, observability tools and orchestration software without requiring DevOps teams to change code, tools, or processes.
Incredibuild CEO Tami Mazel Shachar said when the Garden framework is combined with its namesake tool for accelerating how C and C++ code overall developer productivity will substantially improve.
There is now more focus on streamlining CI workflows than ever in an era where generative artificial intelligence (AI) platforms are making it easier for developers to write code faster than ever, said Shacher. The challenge is that all that code will only further exacerbate existing CI bottlenecks unless some effort is made to streamline workflows, she added.
Longer term, as part of that effort Incredibuild also plans to more tightly integrate testing within CI pipeline to provide a better end-to-end experience for application developers, noted Shacher.
It's not clear just yet how much pressure organizations are under to improve DevOps workflows, but a Techstrong Research survey finds 60% of respondents work for organizations that plan to boost investments in DevOps tools and platforms in the next two years, with 20% planning significant budget increases in areas such as testing, code artifact repositories, observability, automated deployment platforms, internal developer portals (IDPs) and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools.
Just under a third (32%) are planning to replace or upgrade their continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform in the next 12 to 18 months, while 23% are currently assessing their future requirements. However, only 16% are planning to transition to an integrated DevOps platform in the next 12 to 18 months, compared to 37% that already have.
One certain thing is that as organizations build and deploy cloud-native applications, DevOps workflows are becoming more complex to manage. In many cases, CI pipelines have become sluggish to the point where they are adversely affecting the overall application developer experience, noted Shacher.
The more difficult those processes are to navigate the more challenging it naturally becomes to attract and retain the best application developer talent available.
Of course, getting developers to agree to standardize a set of tools is never easy. Developers are prone to experiment with new tools as they see fit. One way or another, however, DevOps workflows will need to be modernized if application developer productivity is going to be substantially improved. The only thing left to be determined at this point is to what degree and how soon.