GitLab Expands Its DevOps Platform with New Observability and Security Tools
GitLab, the popular open-source DevOps service, has announced version 15 of its platform. This release cycle is packed with exciting features that will transform the way developers work, from observability to security, enterprise planning, and workflow automation.
Observability: Bringing Context to Developers
One of the first new features GitLab plans to launch is based on its acquisition of Opstrace last December. According to Kenny Johnston, product leader at GitLab, "We’re going to continue to integrate not just an observability platform — available by default for developers to store their observability data and easily instrument their apps — but bring really great experiences that no other DevOps platform can create by showcasing that information in the right context for developers."
Think about it: developers writing code and being aware of recent incidents or errors related to that specific part of the code. This is exactly what GitLab aims to provide with its observability features.
Contextual Insights for Developers
In addition to giving developers more context around how their code performs (or fails), the new release will also give teams more insights into their overall DevOps process. Since teams are doing all of their DevOps work on GitLab, the service can provide metrics like:
- Time to merge
- Change failure rates
- Deployment frequency
GitLab is now expanding its support for all DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA4) metrics.
What’s Important in DORA4 Metrics
"What we’re realizing is that it’s not just one number," Johnston said. "It’s also important how you slice that number, so you need that number by an individual team, for example. [ … ] You can get a kind of team-based score for each one of those teams and then organizations can say: What’s that team doing that these other teams should be doing?"
Security Features in GitLab 15
On the security side, GitLab is adding new software supply chain security features in this cycle. Teams will soon be able to automatically generate a Software Bill of Materials with a signed attestation for build artifacts.
Security teams will also be able to set group-level security policies soon, and the company is adding next-gen security testing tools to its scanners.
Planning Tools: More Flexibility
Also new in this release are additional features in GitLab’s planning tools. These tools provide teams with more flexibility as to which frameworks they want to use.
Quality-of-Life Changes
And, for the sake of quality-of-life changes, GitLab is introducing:
- Saves views and queries
- Automatic selection of code reviewers and next workflow steps
Collaboration between Developers and Data Science Teams
More importantly, though, GitLab is launching new tools to make it easier for developers and data science teams that are building ML models to work together. According to Johnston, "We’re seeing this very common pattern of a mix between application, software data, and models — and the DevOps process for that is that we write new code that’s going to take advantage of this new model."
However, he noted, "But we have a really hard time ensuring that the changes we’re making in the model and the code are combined together because the model is in a different application than where the code is."
What’s Next for GitLab 15?
The release cycle for GitLab 15 will be packed with exciting features, from observability to security, enterprise planning, and workflow automation.
With this release, GitLab aims to provide developers with more context around their code performance and failures. The company is also expanding its support for DORA4 metrics, which will give teams valuable insights into their overall DevOps process.
On the security side, GitLab is adding new software supply chain security features, including automatic generation of Software Bills of Materials with signed attestations for build artifacts.
And, finally, the company is launching new tools to make it easier for developers and data science teams that are building ML models to work together.
Conclusion
GitLab 15 promises to be a game-changer for developers. With its focus on observability, security, enterprise planning, and workflow automation, this release cycle will transform the way teams work together.
Whether you’re a developer or a DevOps engineer, GitLab 15 has something for everyone. So, get ready to experience the future of DevOps!
