Cycloid StackForms: enable end-users to safely create and maintain environments
Paris, July 1, 2020 - Cycloid announces an addition to its DevOps framework, StackForms. StackForms allows end-users to automate operations without the need for code. By offering a visual interface - a form - StackForms allows users to select variables pre-configured by your DevOps team. This new feature offers an additional degree of simplicity and governance in the creation and management of environments.
Our observations
In other tools, variables are generally hard-coded and often inaccessible to DevOps. This prevents engineers from using these tools with the flexibility they need - the hard-coding is a barrier to adoption.
Other team members also have a problem. It’s useful and efficient for all team members to be able to independently create environments, but when not all members of the team are expert in configuration management, they often have to submit help tickets or resort to the advice of their more seasoned colleagues to be able to complete their task. This wastes time - both theirs and the experts’.
The solution?
StackForms allows the selection of variables defined upstream by DevOps engineers and solution architects but only ever via a user-friendly form. This approach is both permissive and restrictive, depending on your point of view, and can be used by end-users without needing to understand the code or technologies behind it.
StackForms' variables apply to both the design phase of an environment (combining configuration files such as Ansible, Terraform, and YAML-based CI/CD pipelines like Concourse), as well as the operational phase, when users might want to change the size of instances, add disks, replace a variable, etc. Moreover, unlike NoOps, DevOps engineers have access to the code at all times and can directly modify the configuration files.
StackForms is agnostic in terms of both cloud providers and underlying technologies, which suits many companies' desire to control their own automation and data.
Cycloid wants to simplify the daily life of IT teams and increase collaboration between its members. StackForms is an additional asset to achieve this goal: it offers accessibility, autonomy, and simplicity for non-experts; governance and best practice for DevOps; and time savings for all. The direct consequence: DevOps engineers save time and no longer have to give access to their config files to allow users independence when creating and maintaining environments.
To learn more, read the StackForms blog article or visit the web page.
About Cycloid
Cycloid is a DevOps framework that simplifies the rollout of DevOps and the cloud while ensuring flexibility and governance. Cycloid simplifies the use of technology and helps teams work more efficiently while contributing to a common project, always respecting every team member's particular skills. The framework brings together teams, infrastructures, and tools within a collaborative console (interoperable with the existing cloud console) that manages the entire application lifecycle.
Recently-launched TerraCognita generates Terraform infrastructure as code from an existing cloud, simplifying DevOps adoption; InfraView offers a visual representation of your infrastructure in production that’s always up up-to-date and helps build bridges between teams; and StackCraft, a cloud designer, allows drag and drop infrastructure creation while generating the associated Terraform that allows for reproducible projects.