Gain Efficiency with a GitOps Workflow

This blog will be the second in a two-part blog series where we explore the benefits of the GitOps practice and how to get the most from GitOps. Here is an overview of the series: 

• Part 1: What is GitOps? Examples, Use Cases, and More — The start of our series and introduction to the concept and inner working of GitOps. 
• Part 2: Gain Efficiency with a GitOps Workflow — Once you’ve implemented the Four Principles of GitOps, learn about how a standardized workflow adds consistency and efficiency to your plan.

We’ll dive into the practice of GitOps in this blog, defining and understanding what an efficient workflow can produce. Here you’ll put the principles of GitOps into practice, exploring how infrastructure as code (IaC) can help you get more done with fewer resources. 

Table of Contents: 

• What is a GitOps Workflow? 
• GitOps Workflow vs. Standard Workflows 
• Efficient GitOps Workflows in Action 
• How Puppet Supports GitOps Workflows 
• Summary 

What is a GitOps Workflow? 

Unlike other continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflows (a “push” model), a GitOps workflow changes deployment and onward by identifying and then updating or replacing old container images with new versions within the cluster (a “pull” model). The main difference is that GitOps agents automatically ensure synchronization. 

As we’ve explored in the first blog of our series, GitOps is a framework within the development pipeline intended to make the entire process more efficient — all accomplished buy a set of four principles (summarized below). 

GitOps was coined by Alex Richardson and popularized by reports from Gartner to spread the framework into broad use: 

1. Declarative Desired State: Define the desired system outcome rather than the steps to achieve it. 
2. Immutable Desired State: Treat configurations as immutable, versioned artifacts. 
3. Continuous Reconciliation: Automatically align the actual system state with the desired state. 
4. Operations Through Declaration: Manage the system by modifying the desired state configuration. 

The Git repository is the central hub of a GitOps workflow. It houses a declarative description of the desired infrastructure and application state. This description, often in YAML or JSON format, is essentially a blueprint for your infrastructure. 

When changes are detected, they automatically adjust the live environment to match the desired state outlined in the repository. This offers consistent roll outs and lets you track changes over time using Git's version history — it’s also why this is known as a “pull method,” since it uses information from agents to sync changes from Git repositories rather than “push” out automated deployment pipelines when code changes. 

By treating infrastructure as code, stored within Git repositories, you reduce the manual work (and errors) often involved with CI/CD — Git is the single source of truth for infrastructure and application configurations. 

GitOps Workflow vs. Standard Workflows 

We’ve seen what a GitOps workflow looks like from a high level, but let’s get into the specifics: 

One word stands out in this comparison: the word “manual.” For smaller organizations, manual configuration management may be the more feasible option to manage due to fewer, infrequent changes.  

When you’re a large organization working at scale, the GitOps workflow makes the most sense.

It can automatically prevent drift, provide clear version control for auditing, and is much easier to roll back across your entire infrastructure. 

Efficient GitOps Workflows in Action 

Let’s walk through an example story to show how exactly implementing a GitOps workflow can drive efficiency. In this case, we have Company Z — a large eCommerce platform that sells specialty computers. Business was good: Company Z expanded their servers, grew into a hybrid cloud environment, and started adding an AI assistant experience to their website for users with questions. 

Automation scripts that used to work perfectly well at 40 lines are now 1000 lines of script. It was hard to keep track of changes, especially when something went wrong. Searching through different clusters was time consuming and a huge frustration, and the custom code initially written to help deployment became too custom — no one could update or change it for fear of breaking something. 

A Git repository was rolled out for Company Z to start delivering a GitOps workflow. With this new workflow, Company Z didn’t have to struggle through code written by mystery developers at the start of a small business, they now experienced: 

Increased Deployment Velocity: By automating infrastructure provisioning and deployment, deployment times were slashed from days to minutes. 

• Improved Reliability: GitOps made sure that the production environment always matched the desired state, reducing mistakes and downtime. 
• Enhanced Collaboration: Teams could collaborate effectively on infrastructure changes through code reviews and pull requests. 
• Stronger Security: Automated security checks and controls helped mitigate risks. 
• Cost Optimization: Infrastructure resources were efficiently managed and optimized through IaC. 

When it’s time to scale, it’s time to start a GitOps workflow that can help prevent the confusion and chaos that inevitably happens when a company grows. 

How Puppet Supports GitOps Workflows 

The core of GitOps (infrastructure and policy as code) are exactly what Puppet does best. GitOps relies on automation to deploy directives through a “pull” method, which Puppet was made to support. To support your workflow, Puppet provides: 

• Always-On Policy Enforcement — Even during network interruptions, Puppet’s secure agent-based policy enforcement makes sure that you’re in a desired state and compliant. 
• Configuration Management — Enforcing desired state configuration means that manual work is eliminated when you need to add servers and scale; everything is already ready to go. 
• Desired State Automation — It doesn’t matter how many different operating systems or deployment environments you’re using; Puppet provides secure infrastructure management that acts exactly like you planned.

In short: Puppet supports a Declarative Desired State, Continuous Reconciliation, and Operations Through Declaration — three out of the four principles of GitOps. 

Summary 

If you want to streamline development and operations, you need the powerful efficiency of a GitOps workflow. Using a pull-based model and supported by infrastructure as code, policy as code, and automation — GitOps outweighs other workflows for speed and reliability. 

In short: 

• GitOps is a declarative, pull-based approach to managing infrastructure and applications. 
• A GitOps workflow offers increased efficiency, reliability, and collaboration. 
• Puppet is a valuable tool for implementing GitOps, providing automation and policy enforcement. 

Don’t miss the rest of our two-part series on GitOps best practices, including how to develop and maintain a mature GitOps strategy with tips you can use: 

• Part 1: What is GitOps? Examples, Use Cases, and More 
• Part 2: Gain Efficiency with a GitOps Workflow 

Setting up a GitOps workflow in your environment? You can try Puppet for free to see how it effortlessly supports the bulk of your GitOps needs: 

TRY PUPPET FOR GITOPS