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Get started with autoworX

In a Nutshell
What will I learn?The approach and key features of autoworX
Difficulty

What you'll need​

Software & Services​

Permissions & Access​

  • A GitLab account and repository.

What is autoworX then?​

autoworX is our library of modular workflow automation. We have taken the concept of Pipeline-as-Code and built a modular automation library that can be used as part or all of your CICD pipelines.

autoworX is a comprehensive set of best practices designed for CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) workflows. Our solution aims to simplify and streamline the process of implementing CI/CD pipelines, particularly for those using modern CI. By providing an extensive library of pre-built "Lego bricks," autoworX enables users to build their own customized workflows with ease.

pipeline

Figure: autoworX the automation library

Key features​

  1. Modular Design: an extensive library of jobs, making it easy for developers to pick and choose the components that best fit their specific use case.
  2. Best Practices: Developed by industry experts, autoworX integrates tried-and-tested best practices, ensuring your CI/CD workflows are robust and effective.
  3. Seamless Integration: Designed to work seamlessly with GitLab CI, allowing users to import jobs effortlessly and start building pipelines in no time.
  4. Customizable: Built with flexibility in mind. Users can customize the pre-built jobs to meet their unique needs, ensuring optimal performance for every project.
  5. Scalable: Allows developers to scale their CI/CD pipelines as their projects grow, making it easy to add or remove jobs without disrupting the entire workflow.

Traditional CICD Pipelines​

In traditional CICD, the most common pattern is that a collection of separate tools and services are combined as a logical pipeline, with each tool and service configured, managed and governed independently.

  • Each tool in the pipeline determines How to handle the code/component
  • Each artifact is compiled differently
  • Each artifact is deployed differently
  • Changes to how artifacts are compiled, packaged and deployed reside with Who has access to the tool-chain control (not the developer)
  • Changes to how artifacts are compiled, packaged and deployed are not always tracked or visible to developers

pipeline

Figure: Traditional CICD Pipeline

Modern Pipelines as Code​

By adopting a Pipeline-as-Code approach to CICD we can codify the pipeline itself as a collection of automation tasks that reside with the workload code. By putting the workflow back in the hands of the developers we can let developers select the best tools for each stage in the workflow.

pipeline

Figure: Transforming CICD with Pipelines as Code

We also get to take advantage of all the benefits the approach brings;

  • Configuration for compiling, packaging and deploying each artifact resides within the code itself
  • Artifacts are by default, compiled and packaged as containerized assets
  • Full audit trail of changes to compilation, packaging and deployment
  • Can leverage existing RBAC present in Git services to manage control (who can change, who can deploy)
  • Provides CICD that is compatible with AWS/Azure and existing on-prem environments
  • Paves the way to future containerization by providing artifacts compatible with AWS containerization services; ECS, EKS, Fargate, Kubernetes, Lambda
  • Allows the tools and software selected for individual stages to be replaced with much less disruption

Pipeline Integrations​

We can combine these modular components to enable automation pipelines for developer, operations and security workflows on AWS.

pipeline

Figure: autoworX pipeline integrations

Workflow Integrations​

We can also use the automation to create workflow integrations that service both end users and engineering teams.

pipeline

Figure: autoworX workflow integrations

autoworX empowers user to mix and match these building blocks to create efficient, scalable, and reliable workflows that suit their unique project requirements.


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