From Code to Cloud: The Role of GitOps, GitHub, and GitLab in Modern DevOps

Abstract

In recent years, organizations have been increasingly adopting DevOps practices to enhance software development efficiency and resilience. This has led to the emergence of GitOps, a paradigm that leverages Git-based version control systems (VCS) as the single source of truth for managing infrastructure and application deployments. GitHub and GitLab, two leading platforms in VCS hosting and collaboration, play instrumental roles in implementing GitOps workflows. This white paper presents an extensive review of GitOps principles, compares the critical functionalities of GitHub and GitLab for DevOps, and offers a roadmap for integrating these platforms into end-to-end “code to cloud” processes. Building on existing literature and case studies, we highlight both the strategic and practical implications of adopting GitOps, GitHub, and GitLab in modern software development lifecycles. The paper concludes by outlining challenges, benefits, and future directions, providing actionable insights for academia and industry alike.