The DevOps ecosystem continues to evolve. In 2024, tools have consolidated, new trends have emerged, and automation has reached unprecedented levels. This is our guide to the tools that really matter.
CI/CD: The Heart of DevOps
GitHub Actions
It has become the de facto standard for open source and enterprise projects:
- Native integration with GitHub (repository, issues, releases)
- Marketplace with thousands of reusable actions
- Matrix builds to test multiple versions simultaneously
- Self-hosted runners for greater control and costs
- Simple and expressive YAML
- 2,000 free minutes per month for free accounts
Ideal for: Any project on GitHub, especially open source
GitLab CI/CD
A complete all-in-one platform:
- Integrated DevSecOps with SAST, DAST, dependency scanning
- Auto DevOps for automatic configuration
- Container registry included
- Native Kubernetes integration
- Automatic review apps
- Self-hosted with full control
Ideal for: Companies looking for a complete and self-hosted solution
Jenkins
The veteran that remains relevant:
- Massive plugin ecosystem (1800+)
- Maximum flexibility and customization
- Pipelines as code with Jenkinsfile
- Blue Ocean for better UX
- Fully open source
Ideal for: Complex and legacy workflows, very specific needs
CircleCI
Speed and simplicity:
- Extremely fast builds with intelligent caching
- Automatic test parallelization
- Orbs for configuration reuse
- Docker layer caching
- Direct SSH debug in containers
Containerization and Orchestration
Docker
The universal standard for containers:
- BuildKit for faster builds and intelligent cache
- Multi-stage builds for optimized images
- Docker Compose for local development
- Buildx for multi-architecture images
- Integrated security scanning
Best Practices 2024:
- Use distroless images for production
- Multi-stage builds always
- Scan vulnerabilities with Trivy or Snyk
- Semantic tagging (do not use :latest in prod)
Kubernetes
The dominant orchestrator:
- Horizontal and vertical autoscaling
- Automatic rolling updates and rollbacks
- Service mesh with Istio or Linkerd
- Operators for complex applications
- GitOps with ArgoCD or Flux
Popular Distributions:
- EKS (AWS), GKE (Google Cloud), AKS (Azure)
- K3s for edge computing and development
- OpenShift for enterprise
- Rancher for multi-cluster management
Complementary Kubernetes Tools
- Helm: De facto package manager (charts for everything)
- Kustomize: Configuration management without templating
- kubectl plugins: kubectx, kubens, stern for logs
- k9s: Exceptional terminal UI for management
- Lens: Visual IDE for Kubernetes
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Terraform
The undisputed leader in multi-cloud IaC:
- Provider for virtually any service (AWS, Azure, GCP, Cloudflare, DataDog...)
- Declarative and readable HCL
- State management with remote backends
- Terraform Cloud for team collaboration
- Reusable modules in Terraform Registry
What's New in 2024:
- Terraform 1.6+ with more powerful import blocks
- Better error handling and validation
- OpenTofu as an open source fork
Pulumi
IaC with real programming languages:
- Uses TypeScript, Python, Go, C#, Java
- Testing with standard frameworks
- Type safety and autocompletion
- Reuse with standard libraries
- Components for high-level abstractions
Ideal for: Teams that prefer imperative code over declarative
Ansible
Configuration management and automation:
- Agentless (SSH only)
- Readable YAML playbooks
- Guaranteed idempotency
- Ansible Galaxy for reusable roles
- AWX for web interface
Usage in 2024: Mainly for server configuration, less for provisioning (Terraform dominates there)
Observability and Monitoring
Modern Observability Stack
Prometheus + Grafana
- Prometheus: Pull-based metrics, powerful PromQL, service discovery
- Grafana: Beautiful dashboards, alerting, multiple data sources
- Free and open source stack
- De facto standard in Kubernetes
Loki
- Log aggregation designed for Kubernetes
- Like Prometheus but for logs
- Seamless integration with Grafana
- More efficient than ELK for many cases
Tempo
- Scalable distributed tracing
- Compatible with OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, Zipkin
- Efficient storage in object storage
- Completes the Grafana stack
Managed Observability Services
Datadog
- All-in-one: metrics, logs, traces, RUM
- Excellent APM for applications
- Integrations with everything
- Expensive but very complete
New Relic
- One price, all inclusive (after 2020)
- Powerful APM and distributed tracing
- AI for anomaly detection
Elastic (ELK Stack)
- Elasticsearch + Logstash + Kibana
- Powerful full-text search
- Security analytics (SIEM)
- Cloud managed or self-hosted
Security (DevSecOps)
Vulnerability Scanning
Trivy
- Ultrafast vulnerability scanner
- Containers, IaC, code, filesystems
- Open source and free
- Easy integration in CI/CD
Snyk
- Developer-first security
- Dependencies, containers, IaC, code
- Automatic vulnerability fix
- Integration with IDEs
Secrets Management
HashiCorp Vault
- Centralized secrets
- Dynamic secrets with TTL
- Encryption as a service
- Full audit
Sealed Secrets (Kubernetes)
- Encrypted secrets in Git
- Controller decrypts in cluster
- GitOps friendly
Policy as Code
Open Policy Agent (OPA)
- Policies as code in Rego
- Kubernetes admission control
- Verification of Terraform plans
- API authorization
GitOps: The Evolution of CD
ArgoCD
Declarative continuous delivery for Kubernetes:
- Git as source of truth
- Auto-sync of desired state
- Excellent web UI
- Multi-cluster management
- One-click rollback
- Sync waves for deployment order
Flux
Native Kubernetes GitOps operator:
- Lighter and Kubernetes-native
- Integrated Helm controller
- Notification controller for alerts
- Image automation for updates
Testing and Quality
Pipeline Testing Tools
- Jest/Vitest: JavaScript/TypeScript unit testing
- Pytest: Python testing
- Testcontainers: Integration testing with real containers
- Cypress/Playwright: Modern E2E testing
- K6: Load testing with JavaScript
- SonarQube: Code quality and coverage
Platform Engineering
Backstage
Spotify's developer portal:
- Service catalog
- Software templates for scaffolding
- TechDocs for documentation
- Plugins for everything (K8s, CI/CD, monitoring)
Internal Developer Platforms
- Humanitec: Platform Orchestrator
- Port: Developer portal
- Kratix: Framework for building platforms
Cloud Providers and Services
Serverless and PaaS
- Vercel: Perfect frontend deployment
- Netlify: Similar to Vercel, excellent for Jamstack
- Railway: Simple PaaS for full-stack apps
- Fly.io: Deploy apps close to users globally
- AWS Lambda: Functions as a Service
Productivity Tools
Terminal and CLI
- Warp: Modern terminal with AI
- Fig: Visual autocomplete for terminal
- k9s: Kubernetes TUI
- lazygit: Simple Git TUI
- HTTPie: Friendlier cURL
Collaboration
- Notion: Wiki and documentation
- Linear: Modern issue tracking
- Slack/Discord: Communication with alert bots
Emerging Trends in 2024
FinOps
- Tools: Kubecost, Infracost, CloudHealth
- Cloud cost optimization
- Spending visibility by team/service
AI in DevOps
- GitHub Copilot for IaC and pipelines
- AI for anomaly detection (Datadog, New Relic)
- ChatGPT for debugging and troubleshooting
- Automatic incident resolution
Edge Computing
- Cloudflare Workers, Deno Deploy
- K3s and MicroK8s
- CDN as a compute platform
Recommended Brixato Stack 2024
For Startups/Small Projects:
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions
- Hosting: Vercel/Netlify (frontend), Railway/Fly.io (backend)
- Monitoring: Vercel Analytics + LogRocket
- IaC: Terraform only when necessary
For Medium Enterprises:
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions or GitLab CI
- Containers: Docker + Kubernetes (EKS/GKE/AKS)
- IaC: Terraform
- GitOps: ArgoCD
- Monitoring: Prometheus + Grafana + Loki
- Security: Trivy + Snyk
For Enterprise:
- CI/CD: GitLab CI (self-hosted) or Jenkins
- Containers: Kubernetes + Istio
- IaC: Terraform + Ansible
- GitOps: ArgoCD multi-cluster
- Monitoring: Datadog or Prometheus + Grafana
- Security: Vault + OPA + Snyk
- Platform: Backstage
Conclusion
The DevOps ecosystem in 2024 is more mature than ever. Tools have consolidated, and there is consensus on what to use for each need.
The key is not to use all the tools, but to choose the appropriate ones for your context. Start simple and add complexity only when it brings measurable value.
At Brixato, we constantly evaluate new tools but maintain a stable core stack. GitHub Actions, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and Prometheus/Grafana are our foundation. On top of this, we add specific tools according to project needs.