THE best software version control product on the market.

Item: GitLab
Rating: 10
Author: Brock Haft

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use GitLab to create a centralized build version control. GitLab allows you to have multiple builds (which we need as we integrate with a variety of customers on a single project that cannot always interconnect or need to remain separate). Along with this, we use Jenkins to test the GitLab builds that we merge into which optimizes how GitLab functions. We use this to manage a build amongst our team of 50+ persons and share this with an organization far larger than we are.

Pros and Cons

Safeguards implemented are customizable and allow our organization to set our level of verification before merging.
One of the smoothest and most well-organized version control software products on the market.
Super widespread use so our use of GitLab is understandable and usable by the customer with little "translation" as to what we are doing and what they are doing.

Sometimes the customizable blocks/verification/etc can become cumbersome and hard to remove.
Use within the command line of GitLab with VPNs is not always easily used.
Creating a better-centralized hub to see all changes and track things back for multiple builds that might be being used.

Return on Investment

Faster build integration.
DevOps style development which keeps us agile and updating to customer needs.
Our large grouping of builds makes a centralized hub necessary and while there is one, it isn't a great system for it in my opinion.

Alternatives Considered

Jenkins

We actually use both, Jenkins for its ability to automatically test and give results that we can specify, and GitLab for being the central place we merge in code and make a historical version of that code.

Security

I am unsure if we have the paid plan for GitLab.

Continuous Integration

We use this feature every day. It allows us to work as a DevOps team where our software developers are fixing/creating features. Our integration and test group can create procedures and documentation to navigate our code and builds. Also to have a version we know things were working from and continue to make sure they work from versions then on out by automatically running our procedures against the updates.

Key Insights

Do you think GitLab delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with GitLab's feature set?

Yes

Did GitLab live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of GitLab go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy GitLab again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Jira Software, Jenkins, JFrog Artifactory, SharePoint, Cisco AnyConnect

Likelihood to Recommend

Projects on a scale from 2-50+ people are most well served by this, after a project becomes really big, tracing changes in a build/project become a bit unmanageable. I beieve tracing would be difficult even with GitLabs versioning. A well-designed and easily navigable UI helps everyone understand what's going on, even if they are not super familiar with coding or changes to the code. Wide use amongst other companies allows for easy crossover work.