Cycloid today added a Bootstrap Stacks capability that provides DevOps teams with the ability to build Git templates or use ones created by the company to define cloud computing environments.

The capability is accessed via a portal added to the Cycloid platform for automating software delivery. It also makes it simpler for DevOps teams to reuse templates that are compatible with Terraform or Kubernetes environments as needed.

In the months ahead, Cycloid plans to release Headers, a metadata tool that automatically populates project parameters in display pages and a project management tool to provide a unified view for each development environment, including continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, documentation, automation, logs, cloud costs and carbon emissions.

Cycloid founder Benjamin Brial said the templates provide a layer of abstraction that makes it simpler to implement GitOps workflows. As a best practice, GitOps enables DevOps teams to unify the management of code to provision IT infrastructure and software delivery. However, providing access to a Git repository alone is insufficient, said Brial. DevOps teams need access to a set of templates that automate the process and eliminate what is otherwise a complex set of tasks, he noted.

Easily discovered templates also eliminate organizations’ tendency to create redundant automations simply because a development team was unable to find an existing framework that another team already created, added Brial.

That approach also enables DevOps teams to more easily embrace platform engineering principles to centralize the management of DevOps using a Bootstrap Service catalog embedded within the Cycloid platform, said Brial. That capability makes it possible to enforce GitOps policies in a way the developers will have to respect because the automation frameworks are readily available, he added.

It’s not clear whether organizations are embracing platform engineering. Historically, adoption of DevOps workflows in most organizations has tended to flow from the bottom up. As a result, it’s fairly common for multiple application development teams within an organization to have adopted multiple DevOps platforms to manage workflows. Advocates for platform engineering are making a case for eliminating many of those redundant platforms in favor of a corporate standard.

At the core of any approach is the assumption that centralization will reduce costs by eliminating redundancy. Issues can arise, however, when centralization results in loss of flexibility. Many of the teams that adopt DevOps want to be able to add and replace tools as they see fit. If there is a corporate standard that narrows their tool options, it’s just a matter of time before those teams start to look for ways around the corporate standard.

Each organization will need to strike a balance between flexibility and the need to bring some order to DevOps workflows. In the meantime, however, the pace at which multiple software development initiatives are being launched is likely to force a platform engineering conversation that, in many cases, many organizations have postponed longer than anyone cares to admit.