Difference Between Azure Devops and Devops

DevOps is a set of practices that we follow to deploy code from development to production in a swift and smooth manner. The term “DevOps” came into existence to describe the commonalities between Development and Operations. From creating the source code to deployment and monitoring in production, DevOps involves a number of different tools or “dots”. A good DevOps Engineer connects all these dots to make the code deployment efficient. Some of the most common open-source tools include Git, GitHub, Maven, Nexus, Kubernetes, AWS, Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, etc.

Pre-requisites: DevOps, Azure DevOps 

DevOps

Code is created -> it is committed from “Git” and pushed to “Github” -> An artifact or executable is made from the code after it is built and tested using “Maven” -> It is uploaded to an Artifact repository like “Nexus” -> It may be deployed to a “Kubernetes” cluster after creating an image using “Docker“, an “AWS” machine, etc -> to make the deployment faster, you may use an IAC tool “Terraform” or configuration management tool “Ansible“-> the whole process of picking up the source code, building the same, deploying to production may be done via a CI tool like “Jenkins“.

In the above deployment example, whatever I have mentioned as a word under double quotes are the so-called Tools or the dots in this case. And if you are a DevOps Engineer, you are probably connecting them at this time! The above are a few of the most common open-source tools and in no way, they are limited to these many alone. There are a lot more and the specific usage depends on your business requirement.

Azure DevOps 

Microsoft wanted to create a set of tools that would reduce the number of “dots” involved in DevOps. They combined the popular term “DevOps” and “Azure” to create “Azure DevOps”.  Azure provides its own set of tools to cover each of these dots, such as “Azure Repos” for source code management (instead of Github), “Azure Artifacts” for artifact management (instead of Nexus, JFrog), and “Azure Pipelines” for continuous integration and deployment (instead of Jenkins, Travis CI, CricleCI, etc). These tools (Azure Repo, Pipeline, Artifact, Boards)  are collectively referred to as Azure DevOps and can be accessed through an account on dev.azure.com. Note that Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, Ansible, Maven, etc are not part of the Azure DevOps tools. These are open-source tools and technologies which Azure DevOps can integrate with its existing set of tools.

 Azure DevOps advantage Open Source DevOps

Azure DevOps is closely integrated with the Azure cloud. However, it has a few major advantages over Open Source DevOps. For example, when you build your pipeline in Open Source DevOps, you need to create an agent machine from your end where the pipeline would be built.  However, you don’t have to worry about this in Azure Pipelines as Azure creates a Microsoft-hosted agent machine on which the build will be running. You get ready-made YAML templates in Azure DevOps when you create a pipeline for build or release. When it comes to Open Source DevOps, you will have to usually write the pipeline script from scratch. There are many such hassle-free configurations in Azure DevOps which makes your life easier and would allow you to concentrate on the actual tasks instead of the configurations.

In addition, you don’t have to worry about the integration between Azure Repo, Pipeline, Boards, and Artifacts. When it comes to normal Devops, you will have to do all integration by yourself. For example, you need to integrate Github with Jenkins, Jenkins with JFrog, etc.

Key elements in Open Source DevOps and Azure DevOps

By now you would have understood that Azure DevOps reduces your burden with the configuration of tools involved in the CI/CD process, but at the same time would give the maximum benefits only when the cloud infrastructure in use is Azure. The Open Source or regular DevOps, although has an initial configuration burden, comes with zero limitation on the integration part. The learning curve in normal DevOps hence is more. Note that AWS also has its suite of similar DevOps tools and it is referred to as AWS DevOps.

Scope 

Now that is a hard question to answer. The final choice boils down to your underlying infrastructure. If you have Azure in your infra, then go for Azure DevOps. With AWS, the majority of the time you end up going with the normal DevOps. Azure DevOps makes your CI/CD implementation easier but with integration more aligned to your Azure Infra. Both are equally efficient and there is no expertise difference between the engineers who work on either of the technology.

So the next time you hear DevOps, Azure DevOps, and AWS DevOps, understand that they are all part of the same story. They all help you with faster code deployment using different tools, although the way they do it may differ slightly. And finally, in a nutshell, let’s assume there is 8-10 popular tools/technology in DevOps. Here, Azure came up with a suite to replace 3-4 tools with “Azure DevOps” to make the job a bit easier. However, the underlying CI/CD process remains the same and they are all part of “DevOps”.

Comparison table between Azure Devops and Devops

Criteria	Azure DevOps	DevOps
Definition	Microsoft’s set of tools to reduce the number of “dots” involved in DevOps	A set of practices to deploy code from development to production in a swift and smooth manner
Tools used	Azure Repos, Azure Artifacts, Azure Pipelines, Azure Boards	Git, GitHub, Maven, Nexus, Kubernetes, AWS, Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, etc.
Integration	Closely integrated with Azure cloud	No limitations on integration with any cloud service
Agent machines	Microsoft-hosted agent machine provided by Azure for builds	Need to create an agent machine on your own
Configuration	Ready-made YAML templates provided by Azure DevOps	Pipeline script needs to be written from scratch
Learning curve	Less compared to DevOps	More compared to Azure DevOps
Infrastructure	More aligned to Azure infra	No limitations on the infrastructure used

Learn DevOps from industry experts to enhance your workflow efficiency and master the rapid release of high-quality software. Checkout: DevOps Engineering – Planning to Production