How Developers Can Improve Deployment Workflows

Developer workflows directly influence deployment timelines — for good or bad. At the enterprise level, developer teams can be large, and every part of the software development lifecycle needs to be accounted for to maximize efficiency. 

That’s easier said than done because each team and deployment workflow comes with a bundle of monotonous (yet necessary) tasks often spread between several different tools. Combine these with large teams and clunky workflows, and it impacts your time to market and often creates slowdowns for other departments. 

How can developer teams respond? By automating DevOps workflows in a single tool. 

That tool is finally here.

Meet Acquia Cloud Actions, a new feature in the Acquia Cloud Platform UI available only on Acquia Cloud Next. Specializing in DevOps workflow automation, it’s pre-defined to match best practices for Drupal, the CMS it was built for — all from one place. 

Let’s explore how that’s helpful.

The typical development workflow

Though you might argue that a development workflow is anything but typical, there are several common elements that enter into the development lifecycle. Common tasks include database updates, configurations, cache clearing, etc. 

This usually calls for a person (or persons) running terminal commands and/or scripts specifically developed for a code repository (a whole job in and of itself). These manual tasks take time, personnel, and can be error-prone across an organization. The more moving parts there are across a large enterprise, the easier it is for unwitting mistakes to occur — a potentially perilous journey from point A to point B. Look at the usual DIY approach to the development lifecycle versus the Cloud Actions version:

Cloud Actions automates these tasks so that you don’t have to do any manual fiddling between code deployments. This automation makes website changes and updates faster than ever while implementing a secure process that standardizes and governs all pre- and post-deployment tasks. 

Automate deployment with Cloud Actions

There are few solutions in the market that automate DevOps workflows. Like I mentioned before, most development lifecycles are littered with manual tasks spread across a bunch of different tools. Cloud Actions changes that. It bundles and automates DevOps processes in a pre-defined order that aligns with Drupal best practices. 

Let’s look at what it does best. 

• Governance: Maintain full control over who has access to your code, website, and development workflow. 
• Automation: Cut the manual tasks out of the development lifecycle in one fell swoop. Automate deployment tasks and customize that deployment automation to match your organization’s goals.
• User experience: Non-technical users, rejoice! You can perform common DevOps tasks without needing a CS degree, and you don’t have to bug developers. 
• Installation: What installation? Enable Cloud Actions with a couple of clicks in the Acquia Cloud Platform UI and start working on day one.
   

Bundling a whole bunch of development tasks into Cloud Actions and making it a snap to set up and easier to use is a huge time saver for current and future Cloud Platform users. 

Keep in mind, though, that Cloud Actions is currently only available as a feature for Cloud Platform users. It isn’t its own standalone product (yet). That said, the Drupal Cloud suite offers so much more. If you fancy a look around, we’re great tour guides.

What’s on your DevOps wishlist?

We’re excited about this feature because smoother website deployment means faster time to market, better customer experience, and more efficient internal processes. 

And with no manual tasks, no code, and no command line required, Cloud Actions stands to kick your entire development lifecycle into high gear without a steep learning curve. We’d like to show you how it works. Get in touch, and we’ll walk you through a demo.