CloudMunch, a provider of SaaS based DevOps tools, is in attendance here at DeployCon in Santa Clara and is using the event as an opportunity to launch its DevOps platform a continuous delivery platform that covers the vertical stack. The idea is to provide a developer hub in the cloud orchestrating the application lifecycle into a single flow that allows plug & play with the tools a particular developer may use.

CloudMunch already has Jenkins features, and today is announcing new integrations with both Github and Opscode Chef to package the entire application development and deployment process. In essence with CloudMunch developers have a “one click” path to depoly directly from Github to the cloud using Chef.

The stated benefits that CloudMunch brings to the development process include:

  • Get to Market Faster – GitHub-to-Cloud with 1 Click: CloudMunch enables sign-in with a GitHub ID to enable developers to get started with continuous integration, testing and continuous deployment in minutes. With one click, import code repos, automatically detect test settings and set up for a wide range of web apps. Developers simply enter Chef keys and CloudMunch automatically imports environments and nodes.
  • Reduce Deployment Complexity: CloudMunch integrates with Chef to import Chef environments and deploy to Chef nodes. Developers can use and extend more than 800 existing Chef cookbooks or use their Chef recipes and build and validate them continuously using Foodcritic. Also, developers can easily create Chef nodes by launching pre-configured CloudMunch Chef images.
  • Improve Collaboration and Decision Making: Developers can tap into the full capabilities of the CloudMunch DevOps Dashboard.  Its collaboration features facilitate discussion across development QA and Ops teams, while in-context, real time analytics deliver intelligent build metrics and real time infrastructure monitoring via AWS Cloudwatch and Nagios. It is also plug and play with a broad range of developer-favorite open source and industry standard tools.

MyPOV

Anything that helps efficiencies in the development to deployment process is a logical step. The entire deployment process “should” be automatic and allowing developers to deploy directly from their work location of choice (Github) is a logical step. However there are other steps I the application lifecycle (load testing being one logical example, automated security checks another) and if a developer has to move off platform to enact these steps, only to move back on to deploy, a degree of dissonance opens up that is sub-optimal. In an ideal world, CloudMunch would encapsulate the entire development process all the way through and deliver on that. It has to be said that CloudMunch supports some intermediate step frameworks (JUnit and PHPUnit for testing for example) but this is different from on-platform integrations with third party deep testing providers.

There is also the distinction between application lifecycle visibility and application lifecycle enablement – I’d be interested to see a partnership between a deployment process provider like CloudMunch and a visibility tool like Appsecute (disclosure – I’m an investor) some kind of integration between those two areas could deliver interesting value as developers both gain visibility and collaboration utility across their entire tool belt, but also gain process automation across the stack.

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

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