VS Code, IntelliJ Idea, Jira, Confluence, Jenkins …
As if software development wasn’t already complex enough, the number of tools needed for it is only increasing every passing day, thus increasing the complexity n-fold. Lucky for us, engineers at Amazon have come up with a breakthrough solution—AWS Code Catalyst— that allows you to build, test, and deploy your workflows—all in one place.
Here are all the things you need to know about it:
What is AWS Code Catalyst? And what’s the hype around it all about?
AWS CodeCatalyst is Amazon’s own Unified Software Development Service that allows you to handle the entire software development cycle in a low-code way. This includes all complex or consuming tasks, including building a repository, setting up logging, and a CI/CD pipeline.
The whole point of the software is to reduce friction throughout the development lifecycle.
AWS Code Catalyst: 10 Key Features
- On-Demand cloud-based dev environments: CodeCatalyst allows for on-demand cloud-based dev environments for developers to code, test, and debug their projects in one place.
- Swift issue management: CodeCatalyst’s issue management system swiftly allows developers to track and resolve bugs and other issues.
- Easy-to-trace commit changes: CodeCatalyst automatically tracks and records changes made to the code to make it easy for developers to see how the code has evolved.
- Automated dashboards: CodeCatalyst provides automated dashboards to allow the monitoring of the status of different aspects of the development process.
- Quick collaboration: CodeCatalyst allows developers to invite others to collaborate quickly on their projects via email.
- Code Catalyst Blueprints: An interesting feature of CodeCatalyst is its feature of selectable packages called blueprints (which can be AWS pre-created or customized by the user). These blueprints include the initial code repository, an issue tracker, source code, and best practices. The blueprints also include CI/CD pipelines, issue trackers (e.g. Jira) as well as other integrated tools like dashboards for purposes including unified search across users, issues, code and various other project resources.
- Multiple options of language and framework support: CodeCatalyst supports multiple programming languages such as Typescript, Python, Java, .Net. CodeCatalyst supports frameworks such as React, Angular, and Vue.
- Accessible cloud-based dev environments: CodeCatalyst uses a devfile—a file that defines the configuration in an on-demand cloud-based Dev Environment to code, test, and debug a project.
- Eliminate environmental drift: CodeCatalyst solves the problem of “environmental drift” by removing unnecessary variance in the development environment.
- Build and deploy pipelines in a fraction of the usual time: CodeCatalyst allows for the easy deployment of full AWS services across regions, accounts, and networks. It also helps you with flexible or managed infrastructure, on-demand compute or pre-provisioned build, like a choice of machine sizes and container environments.
To Conclude — Is CodeCatalyst the development software of the moment?
Safe to say, it can be. With its promise to “spark innovation” and “accelerate delivery” (check out https://codecatalyst.aws/explore), the expectations are huge. The hope is that this tech would, as promised, make software development simpler.
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