GitLab has announced the release of version 14, the latest iteration of its unified DevOps software platform. Designed with eliminating siloed operations and disparate software in mind, GitLab 14 includes a number of new improvements and features, and GitLab said it plans to continue shipping new features monthly. 

Citing the massive changes businesses have undergone since 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, GitLab said it’s essential that businesses prioritize modern DevOps software that operates as a single product versus point solutions and isolated systems.

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“Businesses today are grappling with siloed teams and pressure to deliver secure software at extraordinary speeds to compete within the market,” said GitLab Chief Product Officer Scott Williamson. GitLab’s goal is to push the industry forward by building a DevOps platform “in a single application so companies can bring together their teams in one place enabling them to innovate and accelerate their software development processes,” Williamson said. 

To that end, GitLab 14 has several new features broken down into three areas: Efficiency, visibility and security.

GitLab wants its software to give teams the ability “to use one tool for source code management, continuous integration and continuous delivery,” the company said. To accomplish that goal, GitLab 14 includes a pipeline editor that includes visual authoring and versioning, continuous validation and pipeline visualization.The GitLab Kubernetes Agent, which is already available for local and cloud installations of GitLab, is also mentioned as a focus area and development feature, which could mean new features and expanded functionality are planned or in development. 

In terms of visibility, GitLab 14 is adding new metrics and reporting features, such as value stream analytics, which it describes as being able to “Identify inefficiencies and their root causes in workflows, helping users move the needle on DORA metrics,” which are measurements designed to help developers and business leaders measure DevOps success and align goals.

New deployment frequency charts will help teams identify bottlenecks, and the CI/CD dashboard is getting new lead-time charts that will help teams measure efficiency at all steps of the software development life cycle. 

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GitLab recently acquired Fuzzit and Peach Tech, two companies that are helping GitLab 14 get new fuzz testing abilities that can perform behavioral and coverage-guided tests. Partnerships with Semgrep and Trivy are adding open source security tools to GitLab’s vulnerability scanning capabilities as well.

Existing vulnerability management reports are evolving in GitLab 14 as well, with GitLab describing its transformation into a full-fledged dashboard for “streamlining organizational overhead of security risk management enabling collaboration between development and security teams while increasing DevOps efficiency and velocity.”

Lastly, compliance implementation is getting a boost with new pipeline configuration tools that allow businesses to set up immutable pipeline definitions for specific compliance needs.

GitLab 14 is available now, with GitLab.com users getting the update automatically. Organizations that use self-hosted GitLab instances should turn to GitLab’s update documentation to install the latest version themselves.

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