As we enter 2025, the DevOps landscape continues to evolve, with innovative tools addressing complex challenges in the cloud-native ecosystem. At Kubesimplify, we aim to make these technologies more accessible and provide clear recommendations to help you navigate this ever-changing space. Here’s our perspective on how DevOps tools will shape workflows in 2025.
(This blog is based on the latest video on our YouTube channel, "DevOps Tools 2025")
1. Building Secure Base Images
The journey begins with building secure and compliant base images. At Kubesimplify, we recommend using BuildSafe, a tool designed to simplify this process while ensuring compliance and a developer-friendly experience.
BuildSafe, built on Nix, helps you build 0 CVE base image yourself, provide you with higher quality build time SBOM out of the box and also let you achieve higher SLSA levels and even go beyond.
2. CI/CD Pipelines
Automation lies at the heart of DevOps, and effective CI/CD pipelines are key to operational efficiency. We emphasize a combination of:
GitHub Actions and ArgoCD for modern CI/CD. You can check out this project where we have built and shown everything for a CI\CD pipeline.
- Argo CD is a declarative GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. It synchronizes Kubernetes resources with a desired state defined in a Git repository, enabling automated deployments and real-time drift detection. Argo CD supports multi-cluster environments and application rollbacks and integrates with Helm, Kustomize, and plain YAML manifests to manage Kubernetes workloads effectively.
Couple more tools highlighted in this video is:
Dagger is a tool for writing pipelines in programming languages like Go, Python, and TypeScript. It offers flexibility with local and CI-based runs, making it a standout for modern workflows.
Kargo: Created by the Argo team, it streamlines multi-stage application promotion using GitOps principles, removing the need for custom automation or CI pipelines. Kargo integrates seamlessly with Argo CD, automating progressive rollouts to improve efficiency, safety, and visibility across the application lifecycle.
3. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Managing infrastructure has never been easier with tools that provide powerful abstractions and flexibility. Kubesimplify recommends:
Crossplane: Crossplane is an open-source framework that enables infrastructure and application management using Kubernetes-native declarative APIs. It extends Kubernetes to manage resources like cloud infrastructure, databases, and services through Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs). Crossplane supports multi-cloud environments and infrastructure-as-code practices and integrates seamlessly with existing Kubernetes workflows, providing a unified way to manage both infrastructure and application. The feature I love the most from crossplane is - crossplane composition. You can check out this video that I did with Dan on Crossplane compostion deep dive.
Pulumi: Pulumi is an open-source infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tool that allows you to define, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages like Python, TypeScript, Go, and C#. It supports a wide range of cloud providers and on-premises systems. Pulumi enables developers and DevOps teams to write infrastructure as real code, fostering better integration, testing, and reusability while simplifying infrastructure management across diverse environment.
OpenTofu: OpenTofu is an open-source infrastructure such as a code (IaC) framework that helps define, provision, and manage cloud infrastructure using declarative configuration files. It supports multiple cloud providers and on-premises environments, enabling reproducible and automated infrastructure deployments. As a community-driven fork of Terraform, OpenTofu promotes openness and extensibility, empowering users with flexibility for modern infrastructure management.
Along with that some still use Ansible that remains a reliable option.
4. Kubernetes Package Management
Managing additional tooling on Kubernetes clusters requires robust package management. While Helm remains a popular choice, Glasskube is our recommended tool for 2025. It simplifies:
Dependency management.
Automatic CRD updates.
Kubernetes version compatibility testing.
Glasskube’s focus on lifecycle management and CLI-based intuitive updates makes it an excellent choice for managing Kubernetes packages.
5. Observability
Observability is critical for maintaining operational excellence. While tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and Jaeger are well-established, Kubesimplify highlights:
Signoz: SigNoz is an open-source observability platform for monitoring and troubleshooting applications. It provides metrics, logs, and traces in a single interface, enabling developers to quickly analyze application performance and detect issues. Built to focus on simplicity and scalability, SigNoz integrates with OpenTelemetry and supports popular storage backends like ClickHouse. It serves as a cost-effective alternative to proprietary observability solutions like Datadog or New Relic.
OpenObserve: OpenObserve is an open-source observability platform that provides a unified solution for logs, metrics, and traces. It is designed for high performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency, making it suitable for modern cloud-native applications. OpenObserve simplifies monitoring and troubleshooting by offering a single interface for observability data, helping teams ensure system reliability and performance.
Both tools are great choices for monitoring, logging, and tracing in a Kubernetes environment.
6. Security and Compliance
Security is a non-negotiable aspect of DevOps. Kubesimplify suggests:
BuildSafe: BuildSafe is a tool designed to secure the software supply chain by enabling organizations to create tamper-proof, 0-CVE (zero known vulnerabilities) artifacts compliant with government regulations. It focuses on generating high-quality SBOM’s, providing path for secure builds that are developer-friendly and easy to integrate into existing workflows. BuildSafe emphasizes hermetic builds, high-quality SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials), and compliance, helping organizations reduce risks associated with supply chain attacks.
Trivy: Trivy is a security scanner for identifying vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and sensitive data in containers, Kubernetes, IaC templates, and repositories. It supports a wide range of formats, integrates seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines, and provides detailed reports to enhance application and infrastructure security. Trivy is widely used for its speed, simplicity, and effectiveness in ensuring secure deployments.
Kubescape: Kubescape is a Kubernetes security platform by ARMO, providing end-to-end protection across the development and runtime lifecycle. It features shift-left security, runtime threat detection, cluster scanning, YAML/Helm validation, compliance with frameworks like NSA-CISA and MITRE ATT&CK, and multi-cloud support. A CNCF sandbox project, Kubescape ensures a robust security posture for Kubernetes environments.
Falco: Falco is a runtime security tool for Kubernetes and cloud-native environments. It detects anomalous behavior, potential threats, and policy violations by monitoring system calls in real time. With predefined and customizable rules, Falco provides actionable alerts for suspicious activities, helping secure workloads and maintain compliance in dynamic, containerized environments. It is a CNCF graduated project.
These tools collectively ensure a robust security posture throughout the DevOps lifecycle.
7. Cost Optimization
Kubernetes cost optimization is a growing concern, and tools like Cast.AI offer intelligent auto-scaling to reduce expenses. Alongside cost reduction, vCluster is pivotal in enabling multi-tenancy, sustainability, and platform engineering goals.
8. WebAssembly and AI Workloads
WebAssembly continues to make waves in the industry. Tools like SpinKube and WasmCloud simplify deploying WebAssembly applications on Kubernetes.
For AI workloads, Kubeflow remains a leading choice, offering a complete lifecycle solution from training to inference using components like KServe and pipelines. Kubernetes is rapidly becoming a preferred platform for running AI agents, and tools like Argo Workflows further enhance these capabilities.
Kubesimplify’s Final Thoughts
At Kubesimplify, our mission is to break down the complexities of cloud-native technologies and empower you to make informed decisions. These tools represent the forefront of innovation in 2025, simplifying workflows while addressing real-world challenges.
We’d love to hear from you! What tools are part of your DevOps journey in 2025? Share your thoughts, and let’s grow together as a community.
A big thanks to the CNCF and open-source contributors for driving these innovations. Stay tuned to Kubesimplify for more insights, tutorials, and updates from the cloud-native ecosystem.