Platform Overview
About the DevZero platform.
What is DevZero?
DevZero is a cloud development environment designed to help software engineers spend more time writing code and less time waiting on builds, troubleshooting dev environments, and getting faster access to shared resources.
With DevZero, you can centrally define and manage cloud environment specifications for development, quality assurance, continous integration, and more. This ensures that developer environments are always consistent, up-to-date, and secure.
Developers can use pre-defined recipes, which are environment specifications, and our CLI to launch their own ephemeral, namespaced, and extensible cloud environments. Developers can connect using any IDE of their choice or use a browser-based IDE/shell. We automatically take care of all the ergonomics, like shell config, dotfiles, and more, to ensure setup matches your preferences.
Why you need Cloud Development Environments
Experimentation and Testing: Safely test features and configurations in isolated, disposable environments.
Problem Solved: Prevents risks to production systems and local development setups during experimentation.
Consistency and Reproducibility: Maintain uniform setups to avoid "it works on my machine" issues.
Problem Solved: Ensures developers work in identical environments, reducing debugging caused by configuration mismatches.
Resource Optimization: Dynamically allocate computing resources based on project needs.
Problem Solved: Avoids over-provisioning or under-utilizing local machines for resource-intensive tasks.
Streamlined Onboarding: Quickly set up standardized development environments for new team members.
Problem Solved: Eliminates delays caused by manual setup and reduces onboarding time.
Remote Collaboration: Enable seamless collaboration across distributed teams with shared environments.
Problem Solved: Addresses challenges of sharing local configurations and maintaining team productivity across locations.
Accessibility: Access development environments from any device with an internet connection.
Problem Solved: Resolves dependency on a single device and supports flexible, on-the-go development.
Education and Training: Provide learners and trainees with pre-configured setups to focus on coding and learning.
Problem Solved: Simplifies setup for beginners and ensures consistent learning experiences across participants.
How does it work?
This diagram illustrates the architecture and workflow of a multi-region Cloud Development Environment (CDE) powered by DevZero. It shows how developers interact with workspaces and development environments across geographically distributed locations using the DevZero CLI over a secure network.
Multi-Region Cloud Setup
The diagram depicts a cloud infrastructure supporting multi-region Kubernetes clusters. Each region hosts multiple workspaces for developers to isolate and run their applications.
Workspaces
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Stockholm Workspace: Hosts a devbox for development tasks, and services such as Mongo (database) and Kafka (messaging system).
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Portland Workspace: Hosts a devbox equipped with development tools like Python, JavaScript, Docker, and SQL.
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Washington DC Workspace: Hosts a devbox configured for Go, Kubernetes, Rust, and PostgreSQL. It also hosts storage volumes shared across the Kubernetes cluster.
Development Boxes (DevBoxes)
Each workspace includes a devbox, a containerized environment pre-configured with tools and languages specific to a developer's requirements. This ensures consistency and reproducibility.
Connectivity (WireGuard)
Developers use the DevZero Command-Line Interface (CLI) from their local machines (desktops or laptops) to connect to workspaces. Communication between local machines and workspaces occurs over a secure WireGuard VPN network, ensuring encrypted, low-latency access to development environments.
Kubernetes Clusters
There are multi-node Kubernetes clusters within each region, enabling scalable and distributed application hosting. Kubernetes pods are used to deploy applications and services (e.g., app, mongo, kafka).
Storage Volumes
Each workspace includes storage volumes attached to its Kubernetes pods for persisting data across sessions.
The benefits for developers are:
- Distributed Workspaces: Developers can choose workspaces closest to their region for optimal latency.
- Isolation: Each workspace is independent, preventing interference between environments.
- Pre-configured DevBoxes: Tools and languages are ready-to-use, saving setup time.
- Secure Access: End-to-end encryption through WireGuard ensures safe development.
- Scalability: Kubernetes-based architecture allows scaling to meet project demands.
How can I learn more?
If you're ready to get hands-on, we recommend diving into the quickstart guide. However, if you'd like to read a bit more, you can check out the terminology reference sheet. You're also welcome to chat with us with the chatbot, or email support@devzero.io.
Ready to Get Started?
Visit our dashboard (devzero.io/dashboard) to create your free account and install our CLI. Then head to the quickstart section of our docs.