U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS

EBOOK GITOPS
Copyright 2023 Akamai Technologies. All rights reserved.
Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03

What is GitOps? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04

GitOps and DevOps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05

Automating Pipelines with IaC and CI/CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07

GitOps Principles and Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09

Using GitOps with Akamai Cloud Computing Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
Copyright 2023 Akamai Technologies. All rights reserved.
Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
 Introduction | 03

Introduction
GitOps is an operational framework that aims to streamline and automate the deployment and management
of applications and infrastructure using Git as the single source of truth. GitOps is popular in the cloud-native
ecosystem, particularly in Kubernetes-based environments, where managing Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
is crucial.

In this ebook, you will learn:

• what GitOps is and the core principles that support it;
• why it’s compatible with DevOps;
• how it automates pipelines with IaC and Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD); and
• what a GitOps workflow looks like.

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
Copyright 2023 Akamai Technologies. All rights reserved.
Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
 What is GitOps? | 04

What is GitOps?
GitOps is an operational framework that aims to streamline and automate the deployment and management
of applications and infrastructure using Git as the single source of truth. The term “GitOps” combines the version
control system Git with operations (Ops), emphasizing using Git principles and workflows for managing
infrastructure and applications.

In GitOps, the system’s desired state (including the application code, configuration, and infrastructure)
is defined and stored in a Git repository. This repository serves as the central source of truth for the entire
system. Any changes to the system are made by modifying the Git repository, which triggers an automated
process to reconcile the current state with the desired one. GitOps is possible due to IaC tools that allow you
to create and manage your infrastructure using declarative configuration files.

GitOps is a paradigm that empowers developers to manage tasks that operations might otherwise handle.
Traditionally, a company’s IT department oversees operations processes and services, including:

• technology and infrastructure management (including software);

• quality assurance;
• network administration; and
• device management.

In that model, developers are siloed from these activities. GitOps aims to remove those silos, and enable
operations to employ the same tools and methodologies developers use for efficient collaboration.

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
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Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
 GitOps and DevOps | 05

GitOps and DevOps

To those familiar with DevOps methodologies, GitOps may sound familiar. While they share similarities,
they focus on different aspects of the software development lifecycle.

DevOps is an approach that combines development and operations practices to foster collaboration and
efficiency throughout the software development lifecycle. It emphasizes automation, continuous integration
and continuous delivery (CI/CD), and cross-functional teamwork. DevOps aims to break down silos between
development, operations, and other teams to enable faster and more reliable software delivery.

GitOps is a specific implementation of DevOps that emphasizes using Git as the single source of truth for
declarative infrastructure and application code. As we learned, it focuses on managing the entire software
delivery process using Git repositories. In GitOps, the system’s desired state is versioned and stored in a Git
repository, and a reconciliation loop continuously monitors and enforces that desired state.

DevOps assists in the automation of the software development lifecycle,

while GitOps contributes to the automation of infrastructure.

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
Copyright 2023 Akamai Technologies. All rights reserved.
Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
 GitOps and DevOps | 06

Write Automated
Code Testing Deploy

GitOps
Pipeline
Version Control Image Kubernetes
Repository Repository

Code Commit
(Multiple Unit & Integration Functional Configure Deployment
Developers) Tests Testing Automation (Containers, VMs)

DevOps
Pipeline
Build Create User Acceptance Load
Image Testing Testing

GitOps borrows best practices from DevOps and applies them to infrastructure automation,
including version control, collaboration, compliance, and CI/CD.

Tools like Kubernetes support software development lifecycle automation. Because many businesses
containerize deployments to scale applications and services, they often depend on third-party, cloud-based
services to host their infrastructure. This dependence has led to the rise of infrastructure automation to achieve
a level of elasticity not practical with traditional, or on-premise, infrastructure.

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
Copyright 2023 Akamai Technologies. All rights reserved.
Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
 Automating Pipelines with IaC and CI/CD | 07

Automating Pipelines with IaC and CI/CD

As you learn more about GitOps, it is also important to better understand two core DevOps practices:
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and CI/CD.

IaC is a technique for deploying and managing infrastructure through portable configuration files instead
of a manual or interactive process. This approach is not limited to just infrastructure primitives or managed
cloud services–it is applicable to all manageable aspects, such as resource deployment, software installations,
and network and security policies, among others. This type of unified management is commonly referred
to as “X as Code,” which provides a templated and documented desired state for your deployment. It allows
infrastructure provisioning and management to be treated as code, thereby enabling automation, version
control, and reproducibility. In GitOps, the system’s desired state is versioned and stored in a Git repository,
and a reconciliation loop continuously monitors and enforces that desired state.

Iterate . Test . Repeat .

At a high level, GitOps enables iterative development.

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
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 Automating Pipelines with IaC and CI/CD | 08

CI/CD is a methodology and set of best practices allowing developers to rapidly and reliably deliver quality and
securely coded applications. Continuous Integration (CI) is the process of automatically validating the changes
by building, testing, and packaging the updated application code reliably and consistently. Triggering a CI
workflow on every push event provides a smoother, faster development process. Developers can discover bugs,
security vulnerabilities, and conflicts before changes are deployed to an environment.

A Continuous Delivery (CD) workflow takes over after successfully completing the CI workflow. This is the
automated and consistent process of delivering the updated application code to a selected environment.
This workflow can facilitate deploying the application directly onto staging or production servers, or shipping
a new release to a container registry or mobile distribution platform.

Write Version Unit Integration

Code Tests Tests Image Deploy
Control Repo Repo Orchestrator

CI CD
Contiguous Integration Contiguous Deployment

A GitOps approach puts these core DevOps practices of IaC and CI/CD into operation. GitOps utilizes IaC to define
infrastructure as code and CI/CD practices to automate the deployment process. This results in more efficient,
reliable, and scalable infrastructure and application management.

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
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Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
 GitOps Principles and Workflow | 09

GitOps Principles and Workflow

While DevOps is a broader philosophy that encompasses the entire software development lifecycle and
promotes collaboration and automation, GitOps is a specific implementation of DevOps that relies on Git as the
single source of truth and focuses on managing the system’s desired state using declarative infrastructure and
continuous deployment. GitOps can be seen as a specialization or extension of DevOps.

Here are the five core GitOps principles:

Declarative Infrastructure
The desired state of the infrastructure and applications is declared in a Git repository using
declarative configuration files. These files describe the desired state of the system rather than
specifying the steps to reach that state.

Version Control
Git is used as the version control system, providing a history of changes made to the system over time.
This enables rollbacks, auditing, and collaboration among team members.

Continuous Deployment and Automation

GitOps promotes automation by using CI/CD pipelines to automatically apply changes to the system
whenever there is a change in the Git repository. This process eliminates manual intervention and
ensures consistency between the desired and actual system states.

Reconciliation Loop
A GitOps tool or operator continuously monitors the Git repository for changes. When a change
is detected, the tool reconciles the system’s current state with the desired state defined in the
repository. It applies any necessary updates or rollbacks to achieve the desired state.

Observability and Auditing

GitOps emphasizes observability by providing real-time visibility into the system’s state and changes.
This allows teams to monitor and troubleshoot issues more effectively. Additionally, since all changes
are recorded in Git, it is easy to meet auditing and compliance requirements.

Within the GitOps workflow, there is a high level of automation, and a much higher probability that your
deployment will work exactly as expected.

In addition to deployment efficiency, using Git as a single source of truth allows you to rely on in-depth version
control in case you need to roll back changes. Historical information is readily available to see what change
caused a bug or other problems. This ultimately improves your reliability posturing and provides additional
security guardrails.

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
Copyright 2023 Akamai Technologies. All rights reserved.
Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
 Using GitOps with Akamai Cloud Computing Services | 10

Using GitOps with Akamai Cloud

Computing Services
Akamai cloud computing services make it easy to get started with IaC tools that are integral to GitOps.
Get a jump start with our Try IaC ebook and on-demand course by instructor Justin Mitchel of Coding for
Entrepreneurs.

Here are other resources to help you get started with Git to create your own GitOps pipeline.

Resources
• Set up Git (GitHub documentation)
• Install GitLab with Docker
• Resolve Merge Conflicts in Git
• View all Git guides in Akamai’s documentation library

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
Copyright 2023 Akamai Technologies. All rights reserved.
Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
 Conclusion | 11

Conclusion
You can see that while GitOps and DevOps share many of the same core components, GitOps focuses more
on tools and frameworks to enable the culture changes of DevOps. With GitOps, you’ll accelerate DevOps
practices and apply them to automation and deployment cycles, enabling developers to work in code
repositories they’re familiar with while empowering operations to build automated and efficient environments.

U N D E RSTANDI NG G I TOPS
Copyright 2023 Akamai Technologies. All rights reserved.
Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.
 About | 12

About Akamai Cloud Computing

Akamai accelerates innovation with scalable, simple, affordable, and accessible Linux cloud solutions and
services. Our products, services, and people give developers and enterprises the flexibility, support, and trust
they need to build, deploy, secure, and scale applications more easily and cost-effectively from cloud to edge
on the world’s most distributed network.

www.akamai.com
www.linode.com

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Cloud Computing Services
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Any trademarked names and logos are property of their respective companies.