Our experience from using Azure DevOps so far

by Admin

Tools

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Posted on 15/07/2020

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Following the rebranding of Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) to Azure DevOps, we had our first look at the latest improved build tools. Now called Azure DevOps Pipelines, the web interface seamlessly allows developers, integrators and build engineers alike to customise the build process to their requirements.

Using the predefined configuration is enough to take a web application from a git repository and deploy it to an Azure website within a matter on minutes. With some help from additional tasks - used as the building blocks that make up an entire pipeline; you can select the appropriate components that meet your particular requirements.

Third-party tools also publish pipelines tasks to the integrated marketplace for use in your builds.These include some of the most well-known names in tech such as the AWS toolkit, SonarCloud, SonarQube, Kubernetes, Terraform, Octopus, Bower, Yarn.It even includes mobile app-specific tasks for iOS and Android builds. The number of customisations available is endless.

Alongside all of the new features are those tried and tested fundamentals used in countless.Net based projects, including MS Build, Nuget package restore options and execution of unit tests.

In summary, Azure Pipelines are a simple yet powerful mechanism for customising your builds.The latest iteration of Microsoft's tooling has cemented its place as an industry leader in the DevOps tool area. Our favourite point is that the build's are straightforward to set up but allow purpose-built extensions to enhance your build.