Throughout our work, we have been constantly improving our tools, skills and practices in order to achieve better results in work, communication and even relationship between our clients and us. So we came up with a list of cloud services that we believe are essential for any IT company, either big or small, and that help greatly in everyday routine. We find these services to be really helpful and we will discuss them below to give you a quick overview.
1. Docker
Docker is a technology that provides extra layer of automation of OS-level virtualization on Linux and Windows. Docker allows organizing a controlled environment for running programming products. At any time, it is possible to run any amount of identical processes (microservices) and it helps us make sure that our server works on the necessary operating system version, which has all the functions.
The user does not have to perform any additional functions as well. In order to deploy the project you will only need to perform one command instead of installing dozens of apps. Another Docker advantage is the opportunity to use each build version multiple times.
Why do you need it? Time-saving, efficient work with no complexities.
According to Datadogs report at the beginning of March 2016, 13.6 percent of their customers had adopted Docker. One year later that number has grown to 18.8 percent. That’s almost 40 percent market-share growth in 12 months.
2. JetBrainstm Youtrack
JetBrainstm Youtrack is a bug and issue tracker and is an incredibly helpful tool. It is also a project management software.
It’s main focus is query-based issue search and the program can manipulate issues in batches, customize the set of attributes and create custom workflows.
What else is cool about Youtrack is its ability to integrate with a number of external tools, including CVS, Clearcase, TeamCity and etc. It can even import the issues from JIRA (whish is widely used by a lot of companies) and can also build an integration with GitHub.
Why do you need it? Great aid in bug tracking and issue tracking, compatible with many tools.
If to believe the Issue Tracking Tools Survey 2016 by JetBrains Youtrack is not so popular as Jira, therefore has the same satisfaction rate as Jira (80%) and also ranked for best features. Report says that Youtrack is the most recommended tool.
3. JetBrainstm Webstorm
JetBrainstm Webstorm is a JavaScript IDE (“Integrated development environment” — a software application for software development) that is equipped for both client-side and server-side development with Node.js. It has a lot of cool features, the most outstanding and significant would be: code completion, code check and analysis “on the go”, convenient navigation, convenient system of refactoring and debugging, opportunity to work with version control system, Live Templates, etc.
After installing the Webstorm for the first time, the developer gets an editor with extensive functionality. You can change almost anything, from the theme to synchronization by FTP.
Webstorm supports languages that are complied in JavaScript (TypeScript, CoffeeScript, etc.). And for more detailed set-up there are a lot of available packages.
Why do you need it? Easy development with lots of cool features to choose from.
According to Slant WebStorm took the first place as the best IDE for Node.js (tool to debug Node.js) and for Dart languages. Is one of the best JavaScript (TypeScript, React Native) IDE’s and editors and has a discount for students.
4. Slack
We’ve spoken for numerous times about the importance of good and consistent communication between both team members and between you and the client. Slack is a tool that helps you a lot in keeping up the communication, storing all necessary files and easily searching for anything, from a file to a keyword.
Besides keeping all communication in one place, it also integrates with a lot of familiar services like GitHub (enables notifications and allows you to view the code checking), Trello (another great source for task management and tracking), Google Hangouts, etc.
In addition, you can share and test code snippets in Slack and have private one-to-one groups.
Why do you need it? Great environment with consistent communication, opportunity to share files and track down a lot of information.
We found some stats for you. How many people use slack? This report says that slack has 5 million DAU (daily active users) for June 15, 2017. An average amount of time users are active on Slack per weekday 320 minutes.
5. CircleCI
CircleCI allows you to optimize a lot of development processes, to start with. One of its most important features is ability to test the code added by developers. The tests are automatic, thus transferring this part of work from the developer to the program.
As well CircleCI allows to organize automatic deployment of the project. Depending on the setup, the program can independently deploy the project on such services as Amazon, Heroku, etc. Also DevOps engineer can use his own settings for the services that are not included in the list of possible settings.
Another advantages are execution of any other scripts and debugging feature.
Why do you need it? Work optimization, time-saving, quality control.
These are the tools that we are using in Dashbouquet on a daily basis and highly recommend for any IT company to deploy. If you have any other thoughts on useful apps, please share with us! Because we are always eager to learn new things and try them out.
[Written by Dmitry Budko](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitrybudko/)
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