Out Now! Stacked Up: The IaC Maturity Report Learn More
DevOps automation continues to be the cornerstone of streamlined development and operational workflows. As teams strive for faster, more efficient delivery cycles, the right set of tools can make all the difference. Whether you're looking to simplify deployment, enhance collaboration, or optimize your infrastructure, the tools on this list will give you the edge you need to stay ahead of the curve. Let’s dive into the top 10 tools transforming the way we automate in 2025!
1. Container security: Chainguard
When you think of DevOps, the first thing that comes to mind is containers. Container security is top-of-mind on everyone’s list, and that’s where Chainguard comes in. Chainguard specializes in helping developers build applications using minimalist, zero-CVE containers all backed by strong protection under their remediation SLA. This approach simplifies compliance with business-critical frameworks such as FedRAMP and SOC2, while also providing developers with peace-of-mind. Chainguard continuously patches, maintains, and updates their software, and, as if that weren’t enough, it’s also open source.
2. CI/CD: ArgoCD
ArgoCD is a powerful, declarative GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes, offering seamless management of Kubernetes resources through Git repositories. It allows developers to automate and streamline deployments, ensuring consistency and scalability across environments. With StackGen’s integration with ArgoCD, users can leverage its robust capabilities for automated deployments, making it an even more seamless experience for managing infrastructure-as-code in Kubernetes. In 2025, ArgoCD continues to be the go-to CI/CD tool for Kubernetes due to its native support for GitOps, fine-grained access control, and real-time synchronization, making it the best choice for modern cloud-native applications.
3. Policy Engines: Kyverno
Kyverno has emerged as a leading policy engine for Kubernetes, making it a standout addition to any list of top DevOps automation tools. Designed specifically for Kubernetes, Kyverno simplifies the creation, enforcement, and management of policies across cloud-native environments. It allows DevOps teams to define policies as code, ensuring security, compliance, and best practices are maintained without the need for manual intervention. With its native Kubernetes integration, Kyverno streamlines tasks such as validating configurations, automating resource management, and enforcing security standards, all while providing real-time feedback. As organizations continue to prioritize security and scalability, Kyverno remains a must-have policy engine in 2025.
4. Infrastructure as Code: StackGen
StackGen stands out as a top choice for managing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) due to its powerful and intuitive approach to managing cloud-native infrastructure. StackGen simplifies the process of creating, deploying, and managing IaC by allowing users to define their resources as code, enabling scalability and consistency across multiple platforms and cloud providers. StackGen’s seamless integration with industry-standard DevOps tooling such as Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Terraform, and Helm combined with advanced features like automation of application deployments and continuous integration workflows, makes it a go-to tool for modern DevOps teams. This flexibility, combined with a focus on efficiency and ease of use, ensures that infrastructure management is both streamlined and secure, making StackGen a top contender in the IaC space for 2025.
5. Kubernetes Networking: Cilium
Cilium continues to be a top choice for Kubernetes networking, delivering advanced, security-driven networking and load balancing features. Leveraging eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter), Cilium provides high-performance and scalable networking for Kubernetes clusters, enabling DevOps teams to manage microservices, service meshes, and network policies with ease. Its deep integration with Kubernetes ensures secure and efficient networking, making it a critical tool for modern cloud-native environments and an essential component of any DevOps automation stack.
6. Package Management: Helm
Helm remains the best package manager for Kubernetes in 2025, thanks to its simplicity in deploying, managing, and sharing applications. By defining applications in reusable charts, Helm streamlines the deployment of even the most complex workloads. Its seamless integration with StackGen enhances the IaC experience, enabling DevOps teams to define, automate, and deploy infrastructure with ease. StackGen’s support for Helm charts allows teams to manage Kubernetes applications as code, making deployments more consistent and scalable while simplifying lifecycle management across environments. Together, Helm and StackGen create a powerful combination for automating Kubernetes management.
7. AI and Machine Learning (AI/ML): Kubeflow
Kubeflow is the leading AI/ML tool for Kubernetes, designed to streamline the process of developing, deploying, and managing machine learning workflows in cloud-native environments. In 2025, its comprehensive set of tools—ranging from model training to deployment—makes it the go-to platform for DevOps teams working with AI and machine learning. By leveraging Kubernetes’ scalability and Kubeflow’s integrations, organizations can efficiently scale AI workloads while maintaining a consistent and reproducible environment across teams and stages of development.
8. Developer Portals: Backstage
Backstage stands out as one of the best developer portals in 2025, offering a unified, open-source platform for managing and scaling development teams. With its ability to centralize microservices, tooling, and workflows, Backstage enables DevOps teams to create custom portals that increase developer productivity and streamline project management. Its plugin architecture and flexibility make it adaptable to any organization, and its focus on improving developer experience makes it a vital tool for modern DevOps practices.
9. Observability: SigNoz
SigNoz is rapidly becoming the go-to tool for observability in 2025, providing developers with a powerful platform to monitor and troubleshoot applications in real-time. By seamlessly integrating with Kubernetes, SigNoz gives DevOps teams deep insights into their infrastructure and applications, making it easier to detect and resolve issues before they impact users. With features like distributed tracing, metrics collection, alert management, and logging, SigNoz ensures that modern cloud-native applications remain performant and reliable, making it indispensable for observability in DevOps automation.
10. Muti-Tenancy: KCL
KCL (Kubernetes Configuration Language) is a game-changer for managing multi-tenancy in Kubernetes environments in 2025. It provides an intuitive way to define and manage configurations, enabling DevOps teams to handle complex, multi-tenant Kubernetes clusters with ease. By offering fine-grained control over resource allocation, access policies, and isolation, KCL ensures that organizations can maintain secure, scalable, and efficient Kubernetes environments while supporting multiple teams or clients within the same infrastructure.
Wrapping Up:
As DevOps practices continue to evolve, the right automation tools are essential for keeping your workflows smooth, efficient, and scalable. By leveraging the tools we’ve highlighted, you’ll not only boost your team’s productivity, you’ll ensure increased collaboration between development and operations teams. Whether you're optimizing your CI/CD pipelines or enhancing system monitoring, investing in these tools will help future-proof your DevOps processes. The future of automation is here, and with the right tools in your toolkit, you’re ready to tackle whatever comes next. Happy automating!