Microsoft Azure provides a stable software development platform in the cloud that handles every step of the application development process. It’s a vital component of your workforce and keeps your operations moving at an efficient pace, but you should be aware of some important elements in DevOps.
Azure Cloud Pillars
Every aspect of your Azure DevOps experience is impacted by one or more main points of Azure. These applications help you build and manage operating systems, source codes, data storage, and much more. Whether you’re working with Azure PaaS, IaaS, or any other part of Azure, these pillars still have a definitive impact on your Azure Cloud experience. While many different pieces make up Azure DevOps, these six are the main components.
Azure Boards
Azure Boards is a convenient way to manage and organize all the work you do. You can create multiple functions in Boards, including events, features, user stories, and more. Team capacity planning is another option, enabling you to determine who should be on which project and how many members the project should house. While projects are ongoing, you have access to a real-time work item progression board to keep up with each element of the project, where additional help is needed, and to better allocate time for different teams.
Azure Repos
Azure Repos supports multiple functions including Azure Git, Public GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, and External Git. Repos lets you use each of these repositories to begin the development process, with complete access to the source code and features of each. Once the development process has wrapped up, you can still make requests for changes, review coding, and generate a more collaborative work environment by involving anyone necessary. Clarity and cohesion between different groups in the development process are made easier and more accessible than ever before.
Azure Pipelines
Continuous integration and delivery are possible through Azure Pipelines, which helps you build and release pipelines to ship code from the repos development side of the project to the building agent. Once in a successful build, the pipeline triggers a release that publishes your application into the intended environment. Whether you’re testing sample applications or putting the real thing to the test, Pipelines ensures your applications are set up in a streamlined process.
Azure Test Plans
When planning to test a manual, automated, or load test case, Azure Test Plans is the ideal solution. Once a build succeeds, engineers run tests for validation and verification of the intended functions. Any defects or mistakes are logged and stored for future reference, as well as failures. Stress points are highlighted in a failed project, so the development team can pinpoint what went wrong and how to fix it. This works for any project, be it web application or otherwise. Failure is only the beginning of a perfect product, with Test Plans to keep track of all the necessary factors.
Failure is only the beginning of a perfect product with Test Plans to keep track of all the necessary factors.
Azure Artifacts
Azure Artifacts manages your packages in a private feed. You can also integrate this feed into any of your favorite integrated development environments and restore packages from it during development. This feed can also restore packages and build pipelines from a private repository, meaning you won’t have to manage extensive hosting options. If multiple packages in an application need to be handled, Azure Artifacts is the best answer for your team.
Azure Overview
Azure Overview gives you accurate, real-time insights into your Azure DevOps server, including all the project parameters, team metrics, defects highlighted and how many of those were solved, and more. Risk and quality metrics are a vital component in the success of any project, so Azure Overview makes sure you have all the information you need at all times.
Whether you’re working with data centers, virtual machines, or cloud computing, Microsoft Azure offers the complete development package for your business. Azure DevOps provides everything you need to succeed in creating an amazing application, and each of these pillars offers you the tools necessary to guarantee a winning product.
