Aging hardware is one of the common causes of trouble for any enterprise. Maintaining its own data center and updating it periodically to stay with advanced technology is a cost-intensive task. One way to reduce the cost and complexity, and also reduce the junk of aging hardware is to move to cloud services.
But, moving a custom business system to a cloud data center is no small task. That is because the existing systems were developed for a certain technology, while the cloud works differently. The data and system integrations must be designed for the cloud. Any misstep in this process can prove to be very costly for the enterprises.
It is recommended to use the services of companies which specialize in providing the migration services. They are experienced in dealing with the technicalities and complexities of the process and will handle the task effectively.
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service created to build, test, deploy, and manage application services through Microsoft-based data centers. It is one of the most famous cloud service providers and helps in smarter planning, better collaboration, and faster shipping of DevOps services.
Azure DevOps Services will help the companies in planning, analyzing, and providing the best way to move the business system to the cloud platform. Let us take a look at all the DevOps service Azure offers in making the process easier.
1. Azure Boards
- The Kanban boards are flexible and easy to plan the work so that enterprises will also have an idea of how the process works.
- Make a list of the ideas and track them as they reach the development stage. This will help the team working on the process to be aligned with the changes in the code.
- The planning tools and scrum boards are in-built and can be used to run sprints and plan team meetings.
- The board acts as an interactive dashboard and will provide up to date information about the progress, by using powerful and advanced analytical tools.
2. Azure Pipelines
- The pipelines are used to automate the builds and deployments to any cloud. It can be used to build mobile, desktop, and web applications.
- Use any language and any platform to build and deploy the code. Run in parallel on Windows, Linux, or macOS.
- Implement a wide range of build, test, and deploy tasks along with various extensions. Also, implement Continuous Delivery (CD) of the software to any cloud, and visualize the deployment in any stage.
- Build and push images to container registries, and take advantage of the multi-phased builds.
3. Azure Repos
- The private Git repositories can be used to securely connect and access code from any IDE.
- Webhooks and REST APIs can be built or used from marketplaces with the help of extensions.
- Use the semantic code search to find what the team is looking for without spending hours scrolling through the huge chunk of data.
- Promote collaborations with inner source workflows so that the code can be reviewed and changed.
- Maintain and protect the quality of the code by customizing the branch policies.
- Automate the Azure Repo with CI/ CD to trigger the build and deployments.
4. Azure Test Plans
- Use the testing services to improve the quality of the code. Ensure that the code is perfectly delivering the results expected from the software.
- Discover the defects by using rich scenario data to execute the tests.
- Test the desktop and mobile applications by executing the tests to see how they are working on various systems.
- Use the end to end traceability to make sure that the quality of the features of the software is maintained.
- Plan, execute and track tests manually throughout the development life cycle to understand how the application works on the web or desktop.
Or, go for exploratory testing where you can simultaneously design and execute tests to maximize the quality.
Either way, Azure Test Plans is used to ensure that the application meets the required quality standards at all stages and runs perfectly when executed.
5. Azure Artifacts
- Azure Artifacts is one of the Azure DevOps Services which is used to create and share Python, NuGet, npm, and Maven package feeds from public and private sources, irrespective of the team size.
- The code can be easily shared between teams of the enterprises of any volume. Use the built-in CI/ CD versioning and testing or add fully integrated CI/ CD pipelines.
- Instead of storing the binaries in Git, store them in Universal Packages and simplify the code-sharing process.
The companies have helped many enterprises move the complex business systems to the cloud and helped them achieve greater levels of stability and security using Azure DevOps.
