Top 10 DevOps Tools You MUST Use in 2025!

YouTube Video

Summary of YouTube Video Transcript: “Tools You Should Use in 2025”

This transcript summarizes a YouTube video where the speaker recommends tools for software developers to consider adopting in 2025. The list isn’t necessarily of the “best” tools overall, but rather highlights tools that made a significant impact in 2024 and are mature enough to be valuable additions to a developer’s toolkit. The speaker emphasizes tools that have proven their worth and represent advancements or significant shifts in how developers work. The categories covered are presented in alphabetical order and reflect the speaker’s focus areas over the past year. A winner is chosen in each category, even though not all categories are comprehensively covered.

Here’s a breakdown of the categories and the winning tools:

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI):

• Category Overview: AI is acknowledged as a hyped and rapidly evolving field with numerous chat models (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.) and self-hosted models (like Llama). While code assistants (GitHub Copilot) are prevalent, the speaker focuses on a less mainstream tool.
• Winner: Fabric: A prompt engineering tool. Fabric helps create effective prompts for AI models, simplifying the process of interacting with different AIs and patterns. It streamlines prompt creation by offering pre-defined patterns or allowing users to modify existing ones. The speaker highlights its utility in achieving better AI responses compared to generic prompting.

2. Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD):

• Category Overview: CI/CD workflows are described as largely stagnant, with minimal innovation since Jenkins. Tools like GitHub Actions, Argo Workflows, and Tekton are considered functionally similar, differing mainly in syntax and minor features. The speaker expresses more interest in tools evolving around workflows rather than traditional workflow engines themselves.
• Winner: Devbox: A development environment management tool leveraging Nix packages. Devbox simplifies the complex syntax of Nix, providing a user-friendly way to define and manage project dependencies across different platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows). It ensures consistent tool versions across development, CI/CD, and container environments. Devbox is praised for its ease of use, allowing developers to define project tools in a devbox.json file and easily enter a consistent development shell with devbox shell.

3. Containers:

• Category Overview: Containers are now considered a mature and somewhat “boring” technology. The specific container engine used (Docker Desktop, Rancher Desktop, Podman, etc.) is deemed less important as they all effectively run containers. The focus shifts to advancements around containers, particularly image optimization.
• Winner: Chainguard Images: Slim and secure base container images. Chainguard images are emphasized for their distroless or minimal nature, reducing image size and the attack surface by minimizing included components. They are recommended as base images to improve container performance and security by eliminating unnecessary operating system packages and CVEs.

4. Developer Portals:

• Category Overview: Developer portals, as UIs for platform engineering, are experiencing a resurgence alongside platform engineering itself. While platforms have existed for a long time, current efforts are seen as potentially more successful due to standardization around Kubernetes. Kubernetes is positioned as the foundation for modern developer platforms. The focus is on portals as interfaces on top of platforms, not platforms themselves.
• Winner: Port: A developer portal focused on data modeling and visualization. Port is praised for its clear focus on representing platform data rather than trying to be a full-fledged platform. It excels at visualizing data models and triggering actions based on user input. The key feature highlighted is its ability to discover Kubernetes CRDs, allowing it to automatically understand and represent existing platform resources without manual redefinition. Despite API limitations and Kubernetes integration still being in early stages, Port is considered the best option among available choices.

5. GitOps:

• Category Overview: The “GitOps war” between Argo CD and Flux is considered largely over. Flux’s main backer, Weaveworks, went bankrupt, leaving Argo CD as the dominant tool due to continued investment and wider community adoption.
• Winner: Argo CD: The leading GitOps tool. Despite acknowledging Flux’s arguably better design and architecture, Argo CD is declared the winner due to its current market dominance, active development, and strong community support. It’s recommended as the clear choice for new GitOps implementations.

6. Infrastructure as Code and Control Planes (Resource Management):

• Category Overview: Resource management has evolved from scripts to configuration management (Chef, Puppet, Ansible) to Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi). The current trend is towards “control planes” – building custom APIs to manage resources. This represents a shift from consuming pre-built services to providing services via APIs.
• Winner: Crossplane: A control plane tool built on Kubernetes. Crossplane allows users to create custom APIs and reconciliation logic to manage any type of resource, abstracting away low-level infrastructure details. Its flexibility and ability to define custom resource definitions and functions for reconciliation are highlighted. While acknowledging the speaker’s involvement with Crossplane, it’s presented as the leader in the control plane space, with promising but still nascent alternatives like CUE-based projects.

7. Manifest Management (State Management Formats):

• Category Overview: The need to generate structured data (YAML, JSON) for Kubernetes has led to an explosion of tools. Helm, despite its age and wide adoption, is criticized for using free-text templating. Alternatives like Kustomize, CUE, Timoni, KCL, Pickle, and CDK8s are discussed.
• Winner: KCL (Kusion Configuration Language): A data and configuration language. KCL is chosen for its balance of simplicity and power. It’s described as easy to learn and capable of handling complex configurations. The speaker has migrated complex configurations to KCL, reserving YAML for simpler cases and Helm for third-party applications.

8. Terminals:

• Category Overview: Terminals remain essential for developers. The speaker highlights impactful terminal-related tools that have improved their workflow.
• Winners (Multiple):
  • Starship: A highly customizable and dynamic prompt generator.
  • Charm (Group of Projects): A collection of terminal-focused Go projects including bubbletea (CLI framework), pop-up (email via terminal), gum (interactive shell scripts), and others.
  • zellij: A user-friendly terminal multiplexer.
  • nushell (Nushell): A shell, language, and data processor. Nushell is declared the category winner for its ability to write scripts that compile, process data as structured outputs (not just text), and work across platforms. It’s praised for bridging the gap between Bash simplicity and Go’s power for scripting tasks.

9. Miscellaneous:

• Category Overview: This category includes valuable tools that don’t fit neatly into other categories.
• Winner: NATS: A lightweight and fast pub/sub messaging server. NATS is chosen for its simplicity, speed, and ease of setup, making it suitable for many pub/sub use cases without the complexity of heavier alternatives like Kafka. Other mentioned tools include wasmCloud (WebAssembly cloud platform) and Dapr (Distributed Application Runtime), both CNCF projects.

10. User’s Choice:

• Category Overview: This category reflects tools recommended by the audience. A top 10 list was compiled from user submissions.
• Winner: Cilium: A cloud-native networking and security solution, particularly for Kubernetes. Cilium is recognized as the CNI (Container Network Interface) of choice for many Kubernetes clusters and is praised for its use of eBPF, advanced networking features, and network policy enforcement. It’s considered a de facto standard in Kubernetes networking.

Overall Conclusion: The speaker recommends adopting a range of tools in 2025, emphasizing those that are impactful, mature, and represent advancements in their respective domains. The list includes both well-known and more obscure tools, highlighting emerging trends like AI prompting, control planes, and modern data configuration languages, while also reaffirming the importance of established technologies like GitOps and containerization.

Accuracy

The information provided in the transcript is generally accurate and reflects established knowledge within the cloud-native and DevOps communities. Here’s a breakdown of accuracy by category:

• AI (Fabric): The description of Fabric as a prompt engineering tool is accurate. The importance of prompt engineering is a recognized aspect of effectively using large language models. While Fabric might not be as widely known as ChatGPT or Copilot, the concept it addresses is valid and increasingly relevant.

• CI/CD (Devbox): Devbox’s description as a Nix-based development environment manager is accurate. Nix and Nix packages are indeed recognized for their reproducibility and cross-platform capabilities. Devbox simplifies Nix usage, addressing a known barrier to entry. The claim that it’s beneficial for consistent environments across local development and CI/CD is valid.

• Containers (Chainguard Images): The emphasis on slim and secure container images and the description of Chainguard Images align with best practices in container security. Distroless and minimal images are indeed recommended for reducing attack surface. Chainguard Images are a real project gaining traction in this space.

• Developer Portals (Port): The description of developer portals and platforms is accurate, reflecting the current industry focus on platform engineering. Kubernetes as a foundational technology for platforms is a widely accepted view. Port’s focus on data modeling and Kubernetes CRD discovery is correctly represented. While opinions on the “best” portal might vary, Port is a legitimate player in this market.

• GitOps (Argo CD): The assessment of Argo CD’s dominance in GitOps and Flux’s challenges is generally accurate. Argo CD is widely considered the leading GitOps tool currently, and Flux has faced headwinds. The description of their functionalities is also correct.

• Infrastructure as Code and Control Planes (Crossplane): The evolution of resource management and the emergence of control planes are accurately depicted. Crossplane’s capabilities and Kubernetes-based approach are correctly described. The speaker’s transparency about their involvement with Crossplane is commendable. Crossplane is indeed a significant project in the control plane space.

• Manifest Management (KCL): The overview of manifest management challenges and the various tools is accurate. KCL’s properties and design goals are correctly represented. While the “best” language is subjective, KCL is a valid and increasingly recognized option.

• Terminals (Starship, Charm, Zellij, Nushell): The descriptions of these terminal tools are accurate. They are all well-regarded within their respective niches in the terminal and CLI tooling ecosystem. Nushell’s features and benefits are also correctly highlighted.

• Miscellaneous (NATS): NATS’s description as a lightweight pub/sub system and its benefits are accurate. It is indeed a fast and simple messaging solution often used behind the scenes. wasmCloud and Dapr are also correctly identified as CNCF projects in the WebAssembly and distributed application runtime spaces respectively.

• User’s Choice (Cilium): Cilium’s position as a leading CNI and its use of eBPF are accurate. Its benefits for networking, security, and observability in Kubernetes are well-established. It is indeed a de facto standard CNI for many Kubernetes deployments.

Minor Nuances and Considerations:

• “Best” Tool is Subjective: The video correctly frames the list as “impactful” and “mature” rather than definitively “best.” Tool selection is always context-dependent.
• Tool Maturity: While the speaker emphasizes “maturity,” some tools like KCL and control planes in general are still evolving rapidly.
• Personal Bias: The speaker acknowledges potential bias towards Crossplane, which is important context for viewers. Similarly, any list like this will reflect the speaker’s personal preferences and experiences.
• Oversimplification: In a video format, complex topics are often simplified. For instance, the nuances of Flux’s design advantages over Argo CD are not deeply explored.

Overall, the transcript provides a reasonably accurate and informative overview of relevant developer tools for 2025, reflecting current trends and established knowledge within the industry.

Resources

Here are the top 5 most relevant resources to learn more about the subjects presented in the transcript:

1. Kubernetes Documentation (kubernetes.io):

   • Relevance: Kubernetes is the foundational technology underpinning many tools discussed (Developer Portals, GitOps, Control Planes, Cilium). Understanding Kubernetes concepts like CRDs, controllers, networking, and service discovery is crucial.
   • Content: Official documentation covering all aspects of Kubernetes, from basic concepts to advanced features. Includes tutorials, guides, API references, and community resources.
   • Why it’s valuable: Authoritative and comprehensive source for learning about Kubernetes, which is essential for understanding the context of many recommended tools.

2. CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) Website (cncf.io):

   • Relevance: Many tools mentioned are CNCF projects (Argo CD, Flux, Cilium, Crossplane, Dapr, wasmCloud, NATS, Backstage). The CNCF is the home of cloud-native technologies.
   • Content: Information about CNCF projects, their maturity levels, use cases, and community. Provides resources like blogs, webinars, and event information related to cloud-native technologies.
   • Why it’s valuable: Provides a broader context for understanding the cloud-native landscape, the significance of CNCF projects, and the trends driving tool adoption in the industry. Exploring CNCF projects directly can lead to deeper dives into many of the tools mentioned.

3. Nix and Nix Packages Documentation (nixos.org/learn):

   • Relevance: To understand Devbox, grasping the fundamentals of Nix package management is essential.
   • Content: Documentation explaining the Nix package manager, its concepts (declarative configuration, reproducibility), and how to use Nix packages. Includes tutorials and a reference manual.
   • Why it’s valuable: Provides the necessary background to understand the core technology behind Devbox and the benefits of declarative and reproducible development environments.

4. eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter) Website and Community (ebpf.io):

   • Relevance: Cilium heavily relies on eBPF for its advanced networking and security features. Understanding eBPF helps appreciate Cilium’s capabilities.
   • Content: Resources explaining eBPF technology, its use cases (networking, security, observability), and community projects. Includes documentation, tutorials, and blog posts.
   • Why it’s valuable: Deepens understanding of the underlying technology that powers Cilium and other modern networking and observability tools in cloud-native environments.

5. Prompt Engineering Guides and Resources (e.g., OpenAI Cookbook, LearnPrompting.org):

   • Relevance: To learn more about Fabric and effective AI prompting.
   • Content: Guides, tutorials, and examples on how to write effective prompts for large language models. Covers prompt techniques, patterns, and best practices. Resources can range from vendor-specific (like OpenAI) to more general learning platforms.
   • Why it’s valuable: Provides practical knowledge and skills to improve interactions with AI models, directly relevant to the value proposition of Fabric and the broader field of applied AI in software development.

These resources offer a starting point for delving deeper into the technologies and concepts discussed in the video transcript. They cover foundational technologies (Kubernetes, Nix, eBPF), industry context (CNCF), and specific skills (prompt engineering), providing a well-rounded approach to further learning.