Developers who are frustrated with waiting for development environments to be set up, waiting for special laptops to be assigned, switching context between projects and branches, or other bottlenecks to launching a project should check out Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces. This service makes it simple to use containers without having to be a Kubernetes expert.
Does this sound like life in a magical fairyland? This article explains what CodeReady Workspaces offers and suggests five use cases where you can enjoy its benefits.
Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces
Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces is built on the open source Eclipse Che project. The default integrated development environment (IDE) of the Che development environment is Eclipse Theia. You need only a web browser to get access to a feature-rich IDE and benefit from shared extensions with the popular Visual Studio Code (VS Code) IDE, to which Theia has a similar look and feel. The experience is as fast and familiar as using an IDE on your laptop.
Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces is not new; it has been around for five years and has been built together with the community. After all, who else knows the pain of a developer better than a developer?
When you create a workspace in CodeReady Workspaces, the code editor is open, your project is loaded, and all the tools and language support you need are all right there. You can define many workspaces and easily switch between them. Start and stop workspaces with a click. When you are done, close the browser. You can restart the workspace later from the same computer or a different one. Indeed, all you need is a browser.
Use cases and benefits
Here are five use cases where CodeReady Workspaces can make a significant difference.
1: IT is moving to Kubernetes for production, but my developers aren't Kubernetes experts and its learning curve is steep
With Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces, all a developer needs is internet access and a browser. You can start coding with your application and development environment automatically containerized and running on OpenShift. We have made Kubernetes and containers invisible.
2: Working locally on a laptop makes it hard to share and secure everything a developer needs
From the beginning, the upstream Eclipse Che project (on which Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces is built) set out to use a different paradigm. Che places everything the developer needs in a set of containers so each developer can have their own development pod that feels like their laptop. At the same time, the environment is easy to share and more secure.
3: My development consultants aren't as efficient as I need them to be
Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces allows near-instant provisioning of a new developer, reproducing the production environment with familiar tools. This also makes obsolete the complaint "It worked on my laptop" when something goes wrong during testing or production.
4: Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions are slow and painful for developers, making them less agile and effective
With Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces, you can use any machine (even a mobile device) and immediately begin contributing to projects, using a pre-secured environment for development.
5: Failed CI/CD builds are costing a lot of money and time
Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces can link you directly to the branch and commit for a failed CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) build, saving diagnostic time. You can create a workspace link for each release, so rebuilding an old environment is as fast as clicking a link. There is no setup required. All you need, once again, is a device with a browser and internet access.
Conclusion
These are some use cases and ways Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces helps you be successful and agile.
With every release, we strive to make developers' and administrators' lives easier. Our release cycles are approximately every six weeks. The latest release was CodeReady Workspaces 2.15, released on Feb 15, 2022. Check out what's new and noteworthy in 2.15.
CodeReady Workspaces comes free with Red Hat OpenShift. You can try it out at no cost as part of Developer Sandbox for Red Hat OpenShift.
So what are you waiting for? Developers: On your mark, get set, code!
Resources to start your quick development journey
To see a demo or to start developing on CodeReady Workspaces, reach out to me at kmohan@redhat.com. You can also explore the following resources:
- CodeReady Workspaces: Visit our product page to learn more.
- Installation guide: Read the documentation to get started.
- Eclipse Che roadmap: Dive into our past, present, and future.
- How to contribute: Work with us to make CodeReady Workspaces a product that's by you for you.