Cloudomation DevStack:
The GCP Workstations Alternative

Cloudomation DevStack is a platform to deploy and manage cloud development environments. Test DevStack up to 1 year for free.

Cloudomation DevStack vs. GCP Workstations

Feature Cloudomation DevStack GCP Workstations
Hosting
Self-Managed, Managed On-Premise,
Managed Cloud (SaaS)
Managed Cloud (SaaS)
USP
Code stays local, supports
“weird” deployment models
Gemini code assist integrations
and simple to use with other
Google Cloud tools
Focus
Supports complex software;
for front and back-end developers
For Organisations that already use
other Google Cloud products
Pricing*
€ 80,60 / month Infrastructure: € 28,70; Licence: € 41,95; Support flat rate: € 9,95
€ 70,22 / month Licence: € 41.52; Infrastructure: € 28.70
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.
RStudio, JetBrains IDEs,
VS Code
CDE config
Devfile, devcontainer or custom
WorkstationConfig.json
Applicable for the
development of which type of software
Agnostic: (Almost) any type of software is supported.
Multi-container (without Kubernetes,
containers running directly in Docker):
Docker, Kubernetes and other system-level
software can be run without issues
CLI
Source Code Access
1. Source code on developers laptops, synchronised with CDE –
no latency, available offline
2. Via ssh
1. Via ssh
2. No access – access via a remote desktop software

Sources: https://cloud.google.com/workstations?hl=en, https://cloud.google.com/workstations/docs/
Pricing estimates calculated for 8 core, 16GB ram machine type and 160 hours of CDE runtime / month

GCP Workstations or Cloudomation DevStack - summarised

Google Workstations

Google Workstations are pretty standard container-based CDEs. Workstations run in a Google Cloud compute cluster. Each workstations is a seperate VM in which a single Workstation container is deployed.

Workstations are built from a container image. If and where this container image is build is up to the user, though there is documentations to support users on how to set this up. Nevertheless, building the container from a configuration file is not part of the Google Workstations CDE offering.

Additional customization, such as the machine type to be used, is done via the Google Cloud console web interface or via the Google Cloud API or CLI. The configuration is stored in a proprietary, but fairly standard and simple configuration format called WorkstationsConfig.json.

Curiously, users will quickly encounter a “nested virtualization” option, which allows users to deploy VMs within their workstation container. Google mentions in its documentation that this comes with severe performance penalties of 10% or more. No wonder: You would have a VM that runs a Docker container which emulates running of another VM inside the container. That’s a few layers too many to provide sensible performance or experience.

As customary for Google products, the documentation is very good and there are a large number of examples and templates available.

Like all CDE products from cloud infrastructrue providers, Google Workstations are only available in Google Cloud.

Google Workstations are best for:

  • Organisations that already use Google Cloud to run their application in production
  • Organisations that already use other Google Cloud products in their development processes, such as Google Cloud Build and the Google container registry
  • Organisations that have people with experience and knowledge of Google Cloud, who provide workstation configurations as a service to developers

Cloudomation DevStack

With Cloudomation, the standard deployment is based on fully-fledged VMs. Developers can therefore deploy almost anything on the CDE. They can run multiple containers – one of which can optionally be a development container – or deploy software directly on the VM. If required, a complete Kubernetes cluster or Kubernetes development tools such as minikube or kind can also run on the CDE.

The source code can be synchronised with the developers’ local computer so it’s possibble to work locally with any IDE. Optionally, ssh-enabled IDEs such as VS Code or JetBrains IDEs can also be used, with the IDE backend running on the CDE. Developers have full SSH access to the CDE.

This setup is very similar to local development environments. When working with such a CDE, the developers’ workflows hardly need to be adapted.

Cloudomation DevStack is best for:

    • Complex, non-standard and/or heavy duty software development
    • Companies that look for one CDE platform that can provide different kinds of CDEs to different development teams (e.g. working on different products with different deployment models, or backend and frontend teams etc.)
    • Developers with well-working tool sets and development processes that want a CDE that adapts to their workflow and allows seamless transition to working with the CDE

Features

Cloudomation DevStack features at a glance.

Managed Cloud and On-Premise

Decide on your preferred hosting: Self-hosted on premise, managed on-premise or managed cloud (SaaS).

CDEs based on VMs

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

DevEx first

Built to integrate seamlessly with existing workflows and tool stacks of developers.

Central Configuration

Configure CDEs and which tools are available for your developers.

Powerful CLI

In addition to a web portal, developers can manage their CDEs via the terminal.

Automation Platform

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

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