Introducing GitOps Deployment Strategies

In this article, we will delve into a comprehensive exploration of various GitOps deployment strategies (pull based vs push based ) .

What Is GitOps?

GitOps is a modern DevOps practice that uses Git as the single source of truth for managing both application code and infrastructure.

In practice, it works like this:

• Code changes are pushed to a Git repository.
• Your CI pipeline runs tests and checks.
• Then, CD tools automatically apply approved changes to your infrastructure or app environments—enforcing security policies, config rules, and more.

What makes GitOps so effective is that every change is version-controlled and auditable. Need to roll back? Just revert the Git commit. Want full traceability? It’s all in your Git history.

GitOps Delivers:

• 🚀 A consistent, standardized workflow for both dev and ops teams
• 🔐 Improved security with policy-as-code and pre-approved changes
• 🔍 Full visibility and auditability of all changes through Git
• 🌐 Environment consistency across clouds, clusters, and on-prem setups

And the best part? GitOps builds on tools you already know: Git, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and config management tools like Helm or Kustomize.

Why GitOps?

GitOps takes the promises of DevOps—speed, stability, and collaboration—and turns them into reality.

By extending Git workflows beyond development into deployment and infrastructure, teams get a shared, transparent process. Developers can push changes without waiting on manual operations. Operations can trace and troubleshoot with ease, thanks to a clear audit trail in Git.

Benefits for Dev Teams:

• Make changes at your own pace using familiar Git workflows
• No need to wait for resource provisioning or manual approvals
• Faster, safer deployments

Benefits for Ops Teams:

• Instant visibility into who changed what and when
• Easier rollback and incident response
• Stronger security with Git as your audit log

In a world where businesses must move fast and adapt constantly, GitOps helps you ship more, break less, and stay in control.

How is GitOps different from DevOps?

GitOps and DevOps do share some of the same principles and goals. DevOps is about cultural change and providing a way for development teams and operations teams to work together collaboratively.

GitOps gives you tools and a framework to take DevOps practices, like collaboration, CI/CD, and version control, and apply them to infrastructure automation and application deployment. Developers can work in the code repositories they already know, while operations can put the other necessary pieces into place.

GitOps deployment strategies

There are two main types of GitOps deployment strategies: push-based and pull-based.

GitOps Push-based Deployments

Push-based deployment is a deployment strategy in which changes to the application code are pushed to the environment configuration repository by a CI/CD tool. The source code of the application and the Kubernetes YAMLs needed to deploy the app live in the application repository. When the application code is updated, the CI/CD tool triggers a build pipeline that builds the container images and updates the environment configuration repository with new deployment descriptors.

Here is a more detailed explanation of the push-based deployment strategy:

1. The application code and Kubernetes YAMLs are stored in the application repository.
2. When the application code is updated, the CI/CD tool triggers a CI (Build) pipeline.
3. The build pipeline builds the container images and push it to Image Repository.
4. The build pipeline updates the environment configuration repository with new deployment descriptors.
5. The environment configuration (infra) repository is updated .
6. The new deployment descriptors are applied to the Kubernetes cluster (Target env ).

The push-based deployment strategy is a simple and straightforward way to deploy applications. However, it can be error-prone, as it requires the CI/CD tool to correctly update the environment configuration repository.

Here are some of the benefits of push-based deployment:

• It is a simple and straightforward approach.
• It can be easily automated.
• It does not require any changes to the Kubernetes cluster.

Here are some of the drawbacks of push-based deployment:

• It can be error-prone.
• It can be difficult to track changes to the environment configuration repository.
• It can be difficult to roll back changes.

GitOps Pull-based Deployments

Pull-based deployment is a deployment strategy in which the Kubernetes cluster pulls changes from the environment configuration repository. The operator is a software agent that runs in the Kubernetes cluster and continuously compares the desired state in the environment repository with the actual state in the cluster. When the operator detects a difference, it updates the cluster to match the desired state.

Here is a more detailed explanation of the pull-based deployment strategy:

1. The application code and Kubernetes YAMLs are stored in the environment configuration repository.
2. When the application code is updated, the CI/CD tool triggers a CI (Build) pipeline.
3. The build pipeline builds the container images and push it to Image Repository.
4. The operator (for Example ArgoCD) runs in the Kubernetes cluster and continuously compares the desired state in the environment configuration repository with the actual state in the cluster.
5. When the operator detects a difference, it updates the cluster to match the desired state.
6. The operator can also be configured to monitor the image registry for new versions of images. When a new version of an image is found, the operator can automatically deploy the new image to the cluster.

The pull-based deployment strategy is a more secure and reliable way to deploy applications than push-based deployment. This is because the operator is always in sync with the environment configuration repository, so there is no risk of the cluster becoming out of sync with the desired state.

Here are some of the benefits of pull-based deployment:

• It is more secure and reliable than push-based deployment.
• It can be easily automated.
• It does not require any changes to the Kubernetes cluster.

Here are some of the drawbacks of pull-based deployment:

• It can be more complex to set up than push-based deployment.
• It can require more resources to run the operator.

Conclusion

The best deployment strategy for a particular organization will depend on its specific needs and requirements. However, GitOps is a proven methodology that can help organizations improve their infrastructure deployments.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when adopting GitOps:

• Choose the right tools and technologies.
• Get buy-in from all stakeholders.
• Start small and scale up.