Whether you’re a junior engineer or a seasoned developer, chances are you’re familiar with “GitHub.” With the shift in work dynamics post-Covid, a hybrid office setup has become a daily norm for many businesses. For developers, GitHub becomes even more indispensable for practicing agile development and collaborating seamlessly with other teams. This article delves into the key functionalities of GitHub, the synchronized use of GitHub and AWS, and how GitHub Copilot utilizes AI technology to reduce development time. This enables companies to foster a DevOps culture, ultimately boosting development efficiency!
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What is GitHub?
Before we talk about GitHub, let’s get to know Git. Git is a kind of open-source software that helps keep track of and manage different versions of computer programs. It’s useful for developers working together on projects. But when a company has lots of projects and needs to handle many versions of Git, GitHub comes in as the best solution.
GitHub is the world’s biggest online platform for hosting code. It works with popular programming languages like Python and C++. It’s a tool that lets developers and teams work together on software projects. It’s not just for coding, though. GitHub is also a great place for engineers to connect. In the community, developers from all over the world share ideas, talk about tech, and quickly solve problems in software development. It’s a spot to find and fix challenges in programming.
GitHub Main Features
To boost a company’s productivity, GitHub is a powerful ally. Besides offering cloud storage for source code, GitHub provides five key features that make collaboration easier for developers and help in maintaining software projects smoothly:
Code Repository
Projects on GitHub usually exist in the form of code repositories, where developers store the original code of their projects. When creating a space to host code on GitHub, developers typically use the “Create a new repository” option to set up a new repository. Each repository has its own unique link, granting access to relevant individuals.
Version Control
As mentioned earlier, Git on the GitHub platform is used for tracking the history, changes, and collaboration of code. Developers can use the Git Commit feature to back up code data at specific points in time, making it easy to view and restore previous versions and reducing the chances of errors.
Issue Tracking
GitHub provides a feature for issue tracking, allowing developers and teams to discuss code issues, feature requests, and tasks. This helps teams better organize and manage the development process of projects.
Code Review
Team members can conduct code reviews on GitHub by submitting comments and suggestions, ensuring code quality and consistency. This process allows developers and supervisors to avoid the mental strain of waiting for all the code to be completed before conducting a review, as discussions can happen throughout the project.
Continuous Integration
In the era of emphasizing DevOps and agile development, GitHub supports Continuous Integration (CI) tools like Travis CI and CircleCI. These tools automate the building, testing, and deployment of projects, enabling businesses to embark on the DevOps deployment journey.
How to Sync GitHub with AWS?
During the development phase, many companies have already migrated their projects to the cloud. Developers are curious about how to strategically integrate both DevOps solutions and GitHub’s development consistency. Here’s how:
Automated Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
In a DevOps setup, the CI/CD solution utilizes GitHub and AWS CodePipeline to establish continuous integration and deployment processes. Whenever developers make code changes on GitHub, the environment automatically triggers the CI/CD pipeline, deploying the code to the AWS environment. AWS CodeBuild is then used to compile and test applications within the development environment, followed by deploying applications using AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS Lambda, or other services.
Storage and Resource Management
When storing code in GitHub, it can be shared with AWS S3 storage or Amazon EFS serverless file storage to store additional resources like configuration files and static files. Additionally, developers can use GitHub Actions to automate resource creation and management. If a new virtual machine or a relational database needs to be set up, GitHub Actions can deploy AWS EC2 instances and RDS databases to start the application.
Security and Access Control
Security in the development environment is a key aspect of implementing DevSecOps. GitHub’s security features, such as code reviews and repository protection, help maintain code security. Developers can integrate AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to configure permission access, ensuring only authorized personnel can access AWS resources.
Monitoring and Logging
Comprehensive monitoring and logging are essential for tracking events and preventing issues. GitHub Actions and AWS CloudWatch integration enable monitoring and recording of application performance. GitHub’s issue tracking feature helps identify application problems, and logs can be stored in AWS CloudWatch Logs for analysis, ensuring security and compliance benefits.
GitHub Copilot uses AI to Simplify Coding
The development of generative AI has surpassed our imagination. Now, even writing code can be made easier with generative AI tools to help engineers handle the tedious process of coding. In 2021, GitHub introduced GitHub Copilot, a code assistance tool developed by GitHub and OpenAI. It provides developers with automatic code generation capabilities, making it easier and faster to write applications. Although GitHub Copilot currently doesn’t offer deep business logic code auto-generation services, it still helps developers reduce the hassle of typing and provides opportunities to learn new technologies.
Want to experience the development efficiency brought by GitHub and the latest Copilot technology right away? As an AWS Premier Tier Partner, Nextlink Technology also serves as a distributor for GitHub solutions. We provide complete and professional technical support for enterprise development teams. Additionally, we assist in seamlessly adopting the DevOps development process, enabling developers to smoothly utilize a variety of cloud tools. This not only reduces the complexity of development operations but also enhances efficiency, fostering a culture of agile development!
