Introduction

I recently setup a deployment workflow for a microservices-based application. Faced with a client requirement to stay within the Azure ecosystem, I explored Azure DevOps to integrate modern DevOps practices seamlessly into the deployment workflow.

Azure DevOps is a set of cloud tools and services offered by Microsoft that helps streamline software development, collaboration, and deployment. While it is abstracted from the Azure platform itself, it is still tightly integrated with Azure services and they work seamlessly together, it also has great support for other third party DevOps tools, services and cloud platforms.

Over the next few paragraphs, I will be talking about the tools and services Azure DevOps offers, how I used some of these tools, and how they work with other Azure services.

Azure DevOps Core Services

Azure DevOps takes a modern approach to software development by emphasizing collaboration, automation, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), project management, product testing, Continuous Integration (CI), and Continuous Deployment (CD). This methodology streamlines the building, testing, and delivery of software, enabling teams to work more efficiently.

Additionally, Azure DevOps supports both cloud-hosted and on-premises solutions through Azure DevOps Services (cloud-based) and Azure DevOps Server (self-hosted).

These capabilities are made possible through a suite of integrated services and tools designed to enhance the entire development lifecycle.

Core Services

  • Azure Repos: This is one of its key services. Azure Repos provides a code repository for storing application code and configurations and offers source control with Git and TFVC.
  • Azure Pipelines: Modern DevOps does not come without support for CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment) automation for faster and seamless deployments. Azure Pipelines is the Azure platform that makes this process possible. Like Github Actions, it uses a YAML file approach and has presets that can help you write pipeline jobs quickly and efficiently.
  • Azure Boards: This enables agile project tracking for development teams. With Azure boards, you can plan, track, and discuss jobs and tasks across teams.
  • Azure Test Plans: This is a test management and it comes with exploratory test toolkits that help you teams ship product with confidence. It has also has advanced testing features that are available on a paid plan.
  • Azure Artifacts: Package management to create, store and share dependencies, packages, builds and mods. Easily integrates with Azure Pipelines and other CI/CD pipelines and let's them use the stored artifacts.

Azure DevOps in Action - Using Azure DevOps

Having explored the services available on the Azure DevOps platform, let us now see how these services come together in a real-world deployment scenario.

I was tasked with implementing an end-to-end deployment pipeline for a microservices-based application on Kubernetes, leveraging Azure services. The application comprised services written in Python (FastAPI) and JavaScript (Node.js), with Redis and PostgreSQL as the databases.

The codebase was initially hosted on GitHub, so my first step was migrating it to Azure Repos. Following that, I designed a CI/CD workflow using Azure Pipelines to automate the build process, scan container images for vulnerabilities, and push them to Azure Container Registry (ACR). Unlike GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines often requires self-hosted agents to execute workflows, which I set up accordingly. (For more details on self-hosted agents, see my article here.)

Next, I provisioned a test Kubernetes cluster using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and deployed ArgoCD, a GitOps tool for Kubernetes. I then configured an ArgoCD application to continuously monitor a specific directory in Azure Repos containing Kubernetes manifests, ensuring that the cluster state always reflects the desired configuration.

This setup streamlined the deployment process by combining Azure DevOps, Kubernetes, and GitOps principles, resulting in a fully automated and scalable deployment pipeline.

Why Azure DevOps?

While there are more popular DevOps platforms and services, there are some specific reasons to choose Azure DevOps for your next project.

1. Integration with other Azure Services: Azure DevOps has a great integration with other Azure services like:

  • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) – Deploy containerized applications.
  • Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) – Host applications and automate deployments.
  • Azure Functions – Serverless automation in CI/CD workflows.
    Azure Monitor & Log Analytics – Track and analyze CI/CD performance.
  • Azure Key Vault – Securely store secrets for pipelines.
    (Use a diagram to show how Azure DevOps interacts with these services.)

2. Multi-cloud support: Azure DevOps provides robust multi-cloud support, making it a flexible choice for enterprises operating across OpenStack, AWS, and Google Cloud. It offers native integrations with major cloud providers, enabling seamless deployment to VMs, Kubernetes clusters (AKS, EKS, GKE), and serverless environments. With built-in Azure Pipelines, teams can use agent pools, Terraform, Ansible, and Bicep to automate infrastructure provisioning across multiple clouds while maintaining centralized governance.

Unlike other DevOps platforms that may be tightly coupled to a single cloud, Azure DevOps provides a vendor-agnostic CI/CD solution. It supports multi-cloud authentication, cross-cloud artifact storage, and hybrid deployments, allowing organizations to avoid vendor lock-in and optimize workloads based on cost, performance, and compliance needs.

3. Enterprise security: Azure DevOps offers enterprise-grade security with built-in compliance, advanced identity management, and secure pipelines, making it a strong choice over other DevOps platforms. It integrates natively with Azure AD for SSO, MFA, and Conditional Access, enforces RBAC for granular permissions, and ensures end-to-end security with Azure Key Vault for secrets management, private networking (Private Link), and threat detection via Microsoft Defender and Sentinel. Additionally, its compliance with ISO 27001, SOC 2, and HIPAA simplifies governance for regulated industries.

Unlike other platforms that rely on third-party security add-ons, Azure DevOps provides seamless, built-in security features for code, artifacts, and CI/CD pipelines. With audit logging, policy enforcement, and real-time security scanning, it helps organizations proactively mitigate risks while maintaining high availability and compliance, making it ideal for enterprises with strict security requirements.

Conclusion

While Azure DevOps may not be the first choice for every DevOps engineer, its deep integration with Azure and strong security features make it a compelling solution for teams using Microsoft’s ecosystem.

Author Of article : Utibe Read full article