Cloudomation DevStack:
The Gitlab Workspaces Alternative

Gitlab workspaces and Cloudomation DevStack are both platforms for creating and managing cloud development environments.

In Gitlab, CDEs are managed directly via CLI and the Gitlab web interface. Cloudomation is managed via a web interface and also offers CLI.

Gitlab CDEs are bundled with the Gitlab platform and can be used as SaaS or self-hosted, but only in combination with the rest of the Gitlab platform. As such, the CDEs can only be used with the Gitlab IDE, which is a VS Code fork. The CDEs run as pods in a Kubernetes cluster and are containers. This means, hosting Gitlab on-premises means running a Kubernetes cluster as well.

Cloudomation DevStack is available on-premise, with the option to choose self-hosting or managed on-premise. The standard deployment is VM-only, where the dev tooling is running on the VM. 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. The source code is synced to the developer’s local machine and enables 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. If you want to run complex software, Cloudomation’s VM approach is very flexible.

Tl;dr

Gitlab Workspaces ist am besten geeignet für:

• Organisations that already use Gitlab as a central tool in their development workflow
• Organisations with lightweight containerised applications whose deployment can be expressed in a single docker-compose file

Cloudomation DevStack is best for:

• Development teams that work on complex software and need to deploy it to validate code changes.
• Development teams that want a high degree of flexibility (working with individually favored developer tools, full access to VM by default, access to the Cloudomation Engine automation platform)