The Rise of GitOps: Why Cloud DevOps Engineers are Moving Toward Declarative Infrastructure

By Inioluwa Shittu

In the fast-evolving world of cloud technology, GitOps is gaining traction as a preferred method for managing infrastructure, with DevOps engineers increasingly abandoning manual approaches in favour of automation-driven solutions.

Git, originally designed to simplify collaboration in software development, is now reshaping how cloud infrastructure is deployed and managed. While infrastructure management traditionally relied on painstaking manual processes, the surge in cloud adoption has made automation not just an option but a necessity.

“Modern infrastructure requires a high level of flexibility that guarantees safe and scalable management of cloud resources, which is paramount to continuous deployment,” said Inioluwa Shittu, a certified AWS DevOps engineer and advocate for GitOps adoption across Africa.

GitOps leverages Git repositories as the single source of truth for infrastructure and application code, while combining best DevOps practices such as version control, collaboration, and continuous deployment. Industry experts describe it as a system built on four pillars: desired state configuration, trackable and reversible records, automated deployment, and continuous delivery. Tools like Flux and ArgoCD have been instrumental in driving this shift.

Global adoption numbers tell a compelling story. A 2023 report by Codefresh and CNCF revealed that 91 per cent of users are already implementing GitOps, with 67 per cent of non-users expected to adopt it soon. Major tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft, and GitHub have embraced declarative cloud-native tools, further accelerating momentum.

Africa is not left behind in this wave. According to PwC’s Africa Cloud Business Survey 2023, half of African companies are already operating with cloud infrastructure, and this number is projected to grow to 61 per cent in two years. Kenya’s Safaricom PLC is among the pioneers adopting GitOps on the continent.

Industry voices reinforce the appeal. Stanislav Kolenkin, Cloud Architect at SoftServe, noted: “I like GitOps because it allows delivering changes fast. Suppose you have a hundred servers. How will you manage them? Jenkins will proceed down the line successively, reaching every node, which may take some time. With GitOps, you can deliver changes and policies to any number of servers instantly.”

For many engineers, the benefits are clear code-based infrastructure, a centralised structure, rapid updates, and seamless rollouts. Weaveworks COO Steve George summed it up simply: “Businesses of any size can benefit from implementing GitOps for the simple reason that they will all do better if their cloud applications can be updated faster without compromising security or stability.”

The results so far are impressive. Studies show that DevOps teams using GitOps enjoy shorter change lead times, faster recovery rates, and lower change failure rates. For engineers, GitOps is no longer just a niche practice but a must-have skill that enhances market value.

As Shittu explains, the future is clear: “GitOps is evolving from a trend into a mainstream approach. The engineers who succeed will be those who adapt to faster, safer, and more project-oriented structures as cloud infrastructure matures.”