Cloudomation DevStack:
The DevPod Alternative

Deploy and manage remote development environments
– with Cloudomation DevStack.

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Cloudomation DevStack vs. DevPod by Loft Labs

Feature Cloudomation DevStack DevPod by Loft Labs
Hosting
Self-Managed, Managed On-Premise,
Managed Cloud (SaaS)
Self-hosted
Approx cost SaaS /
developer / year*
Per hour RDE runtime
(€ 1.200+ plus infrastructure cost)
N/A
Approx cost self-hosted/
developer / year*
€ 1.200+
Open Source
Infrastructure only
Supported IDEs
All IDEs
(z.B. Visual Studio Code, Jetbrains with
and without SSH, Eclipse, Netbeans, Web IDEs) How it works: Sources are shared with the RDE via a file mount. The local mount can be accessed by any local editor. SSH-capable IDEs can also be operated on the RDE.
VS Code,
JetBrains IDEs
CDE config
Proprietary yaml or GUI
Devcontainer.json
RDEs based on
VMs
Container
Kubernetes required
no
optional

Sources: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/space/getting-started.html, https://www.jetbrains.com/space/
*The pricing is calculated assuming a full-time working software developer. For per-hour or per-minute pricing models, 1,920 hours of RDE runtime per year (160 hours per month) were taken as a basis, which is very high. Depending on usage patterns, real cost in such cases will probably be lower. However, if developers use several RDEs in parallel, cost could conceivably be higher. Prices vary a lot mostly because infrastructure costs make up a large chunk of the cost of running CDEs. Some SaaS providers tie cost to the size of the machines used for CDEs. For self-hosted solutions, the prices listed here are for license only. The “+” in some of the pricing columns mask large differences in the pricing ranges within the same product, since many simply list a “contact us” for custom or enterprise packages which can come at several times the cost of the listed package prices. Since the CDE products also vary quite a lot in what they offer, differences in price make sense – though they do not clearly reflect the quality or power of the underlying solution, but rather the pricing power of the vendor and/or their underlying cost.

DevPod or Cloudomation DevStack

DevPod is an open source project with a different approach to CDEs than most other tools. It is a desktop app which can be used to deploy CDE containers to almost any environment that can run Docker containers, including Kubernetes clusters in the cloud or the developer’s own laptop.

Almost any environment because DevPod comes with a certain set of so-called providers which allow deployment into specific environments. Providers are available for Docker, Kubernetes, SSH, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and Digital Ocean. However, it is possible to write your own provider. These providers take a devcontainer.json config file and create a container (and if necessary a VM on which to deploy the container) based on the config in the selected environment.

DevPod works with VS Code and JetBrains IDEs as well as any other ssh-capable IDE. It doesn’t remove dependence on developers laptops. It also doesn’t allow central management. Its main claim is to streamline developer’s experience by enabling them to deploy their development environment anywhere.

Cloudomation DevStack is available on-premise, with the option to choose self-hosting or managed on-premise where the vendor takes care of management of the CDE platform, but on the customer’s infrastructure.

DevStack CDEs are full VMs. It is possible to deploy a single devcontainer to the CDE, to deploy software directly to the VM, or to deploy a whole Kubernetes cluster – whatever the user needs. VM-based CDEs also allow to deploy all kind of weird or heavy-duty applications that might not be suited to be run in a single container. Source code is synced to the developer’s local machine via a file mount, allowing the developer to choose any IDE which accesses the source code in the local shared drive. Ssh-capable IDEs such as VS Code or JetBrains IDEs can also be used, with the IDE backend running on the CDE. 

This setup is very similar to local development environments. With ssh access to the VM, working with such a CDE will need little adjustment in developer workflows compared to working locally.

Features

Fatures from Cloudomation DevStack at a glance.

Managed Cloud and On-Premise

Decide on your preferred hosting.

RDEs based on VMs

VM-based development environments in which the software to be developed and all the necessary tools are available.

Air Gapped

Set up an air gapped development environment. The source code is not on the developer laptop. Test data is protected.

Central Configuration

Configure RDEs and which tools are available for your developers.

Self-Service Portal for Developers

Developers can independendly start and stop the remote development environments.

 

Automation Platform

Access to the flexible Python-based automation tool Cloudomation DevStack.

Learn more about Cloudomation DevStack

Cloudomation DevStack

  • Spin up standardised remote development environments
    in which your software runs
  • No more "but it works on my machine"
  • Works with every IDE

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