The most visited DevOps and Developer Productivity blog posts in 2024

As we kick off 2025, I wanted to take a moment to highlight the top posts from 2024. Without further ado, here are the top 10 DevOps and developer productivity blog posts of 2024.

Announcing CDK Migrate A single command to migrate to the AWS CDK – This blog post announces the general availability of CDK Migrate, a new feature of the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). CDK Migrate allows users to easily convert existing AWS CloudFormation templates, deployed CloudFormation stacks, or resources created outside of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) into a CDK application. The post explains the benefits of using IaC and compares CDK Migrate to the CloudFormation IaC Generator and CDK Import. It then provides a detailed walkthrough of how to use CDK Migrate to convert a CloudFormation template into a CDK application, including the migration process, code generation, and deployment steps.

Import entire applications into AWS CloudFormation – This blog post introduces AWS CloudFormation’s new IaC generator feature, which allows users to import entire applications and their related resources into Infrastructure as Code (IaC) management. The feature scans an AWS account, identifies relationships between resources, and generates a CloudFormation template based on existing infrastructure. This solves the challenge of manually creating templates for non-IaC resources and enables a more holistic approach to managing resource groups. The post demonstrates the feature’s use in importing a complex VPC setup into CloudFormation, highlighting its ability to simplify the process of bringing existing resources under IaC management, thus extending benefits like repeatability, reliability, and auditability to previously unmanaged resources.

Terraform CI CD and testing on AWS with the new Terraform Test Framework – This blog post discusses the use of Terraform Test, a new framework for validating Terraform modules on AWS. It explains how to create and run various test scenarios, including basic resource creation validation, input variable validation, and testing with supporting resources like KMS keys. The post also outlines how to integrate Terraform Test into a CI/CD pipeline using AWS services such as CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodePipeline, and S3. It compares Terraform Test with other testing strategies and provides guidance on when to use each approach. The article concludes by recommending further resources for learning about Terraform testing and CI/CD on AWS.

AWS CodePipeline adds support for Branch based development and Monorepos – This AWS blog post announces new features for CodePipeline, including triggers and execution modes, which support branch-based development and monorepo strategies. The post outlines three pipeline examples: a GitFlow release pipeline using queued execution mode, a pull request validation pipeline using parallel execution mode, and a monorepo pipeline that triggers only for specific folder changes. These new capabilities allow teams to create more flexible and efficient continuous delivery pipelines. The post explains how to set up each pipeline type using the AWS Management Console, detailing the configuration of triggers, branch filters, and execution modes. These enhancements aim to simplify pipeline management for various development workflows.

Best practices for managing Terraform State files in AWS CI CD Pipeline – This blog post discusses best practices for managing Terraform state files in AWS CI/CD pipelines. It highlights the challenges of handling state files locally and recommends using remote backends, particularly Amazon S3 with DynamoDB for state locking. The post outlines steps to create and secure S3 buckets and DynamoDB tables for state management. It then provides an example architecture and implementation guide for integrating Terraform state management into an AWS CI pipeline using CodeCommit, CodeBuild, and Lambda. The post includes code snippets and instructions for setting up the infrastructure, deploying an application, and verifying the state file storage in S3 and DynamoDB.

How we sped up AWS CloudFormation deployments with optimistic stabilization – This AWS blog post discusses how CloudFormation improved its resource provisioning process, introducing an optimistic stabilization strategy that can reduce stack deployment times by up to 40%. The post explains the concept of resource stabilization in CloudFormation, contrasting it with direct AWS CLI deployments. It details the evolution from a sequential deployment approach to the new optimistic strategy, which allows for parallel resource creation while maintaining dependency checks. The update also includes a new CONFIGURATION_COMPLETE status, providing better visibility into the deployment process. These improvements aim to enhance deployment speed and efficiency for CloudFormation users.

Best practices working with self hosted GitHub Action runners at scale on AWS – This AWS blog post discusses best practices for using self-hosted GitHub Action runners on AWS at scale. It covers key aspects such as security, performance, and cost optimization. The post recommends using ephemeral runners and short-lived AWS credentials to enhance security, utilizing runner groups for isolation, and implementing warm pools to reduce startup times. It also suggests using optimized AMIs, considering Spot instances for cost savings, and leveraging Amazon CloudWatch for metrics and observability. The blog emphasizes the importance of understanding security responsibilities and provides strategies for efficient scaling and management of GitHub Action runners in AWS environments.

Amazon Q Developer just reached a 260 million dollar milestone – This blog post, dated August 1, 2024, highlights a significant milestone achieved by Amazon Q Developer, an AI-powered assistant for software development. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that the tool’s code transformation agent helped migrate thousands of production applications from Java 8 or 11 to Java 17. This effort saved an estimated 4,500 years of development work for over a thousand developers and resulted in performance improvements worth $260 million in annual cost savings. The post also mentions that Amazon Q Developer offers various agents to assist with tasks like feature implementation, code refactoring, and documentation, potentially increasing developer productivity by up to 40%.

A new and improved AWS CDK construct for Amazon DynamoDB tables – This blog post introduces TableV2, a new AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) construct for Amazon DynamoDB tables. TableV2 offers several improvements over the original construct, including native support for global tables, simplified configuration of global secondary indexes and auto scaling, and CloudFormation drift detection across all replicas. It eliminates the need for a separate Lambda function to manage replicas and provides more granular control over replica properties. The post discusses the background, features, and benefits of TableV2, highlighting its capabilities in managing replicas, billing, and encryption. Overall, TableV2 is presented as a more powerful and flexible tool for building and managing DynamoDB tables at scale.

Introducing the next level of AI powered workflows with Amazon Q Developer inline chat – This blog post announces the introduction of inline chat for Amazon Q Developer, a new feature that combines in-IDE chat with direct code updates. Powered by Anthropic’s latest Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, this capability allows developers to describe issues or ideas within the code editor and receive AI-generated responses seamlessly integrated into their codebase. The post highlights how inline chat improves upon existing features like inline suggestions and separate chat windows, making it ideal for tasks such as editing existing files, fixing bugs, optimizing code, refactoring, and adding comments. Two examples demonstrate its effectiveness in refactoring code and adding documentation, showcasing the feature’s potential to enhance developer productivity.