Final month at Microsoft Construct, we shared a number of new options in Microsoft Dev Field—ready-to-code, cloud-based workstations optimized for developer use circumstances and productiveness. From new integrations with Visible Studio, a preview of configuration-as-code customization, and our personal rollout of Dev Field internally, there was rather a lot to share, and the response to this information was nice. Right this moment, I’m excited to share one other announcement—Microsoft Dev Field is now usually out there.
Our journey to dev-optimized digital desktops
We first introduced Microsoft Dev Field at Microsoft Construct 2022, however our journey didn’t begin there. For greater than seven years, we’ve targeted on enhancing developer productiveness and satisfaction with the facility of the cloud. In 2016, we launched Azure DevTest Labs, a service that allows improvement groups to create templatized digital machines (VMs) for a wide range of improvement and testing use circumstances.
Over time, we’ve helped many purchasers construct customized options on DevTest Labs to develop on its core options. One use case that has been particularly in style is utilizing DevTest labs to create persistent, preconfigured dev environments. However constructing these customized options on prime of DevTest Labs is difficult, requiring vital effort to construct out further governance and administration options. Prospects needed a turnkey resolution.
Delivering quick, self-service dev environments within the cloud
In response, we launched Visible Studio Codespaces in 2019—preconfigured, container- and Linux-based dev environments that builders may spin up in seconds straight from Visible Studio Code, offering builders with a quick and straightforward solution to work on their apps whereas on the go.
Builders love Codespaces for its pace and mobility, and the service nonetheless exists at the moment as GitHub Codespaces. However software program improvement requires all types of instruments. Initially, we constructed Codespaces to assist Visible Studio Code and GitHub, however clients shortly began asking for assist for different Built-in Improvement Environments (IDEs), supply code administration, and instruments.
As a primary step, we began to develop Codespaces to incorporate assist for Visible Studio. Nonetheless, doing so revealed extra challenges than we anticipated—primarily round enterprise-ready administration and governance. That, mixed with the truth that devs needed entry to all their instruments of their cloud atmosphere, made us understand we would have liked to ship:
- Enterprise-ready safety, compliance, and value administration capabilities.
- Excessive-fidelity, cloud-based efficiency with built-in dev software integrations.
- Self-service entry to preconfigured, project-specific assets.
Primarily, the answer wanted to be a developer-optimized virtualization resolution. Microsoft already presents Home windows 365—delivering Cloud PCs, securely streaming your personalised Home windows desktop, apps, settings, and content material from the Microsoft Cloud to any machine wherever. Critically, Home windows 365 is absolutely built-in with Microsoft Intune, which permits IT admins to handle their Cloud PCs alongside their bodily gadgets. That was precisely what we have been on the lookout for, so we determined to make use of Home windows 365 as the muse for our new resolution.
Reworking the dev workstation expertise
With enterprise administration taken care of, our subsequent consideration was the underlying {hardware}. Whereas high-powered compute was an apparent want, we quickly realized that storage may considerably impression developer efficiency. Massive builds put plenty of pressure on storage drives, which turn into a bottleneck if learn or write speeds can’t sustain with the construct. To account for this, we determined to incorporate premium Strong-State Drivers (SSDs) in our product. However we nonetheless hadn’t addressed the first challenges of dev workstations—lengthy deployment instances and configuration errors brought on by advanced initiatives and toolsets.
Fixing these issues would require a extra elementary shift in how our service managed configurations and deployment. Devs work on all types of initiatives, lots of which require particular instruments. For these devs, a blanket, role-based configuration would require them to spend time tailoring their workstation and putting in further instruments as soon as it was provisioned. IT admins and dev leads alike wanted a solution to create a number of, tailor-made configurations and allow builders to spin up a brand new workstation on-demand that may be ready-to-code for his or her present mission.
Our first step was to combine our resolution with the Azure Compute Gallery, offering a scalable solution to share base pictures and handle picture variations. We then arrange a brand new administration layer that enabled groups to prepare their pictures and networking configurations by mission. Now, dev leads and IT admins may arrange a number of workstation configurations for a single mission. Admins may even outline the Azure area through which every workstation would deploy, guaranteeing a high-fidelity expertise for devs all over the world.
By preconfiguring workstations like this, we eradicated the necessity for devs to succeed in out to IT each time they wanted a brand new workstation. And since we may make a number of workstation configurations out there for a single mission, devs weren’t locked right into a single configuration—they may choose a tailor-made workstation, spin it up, and begin coding shortly. We even gave devs a specialised Developer Portal that gives quick, quick access to their project-based workstations. Devs may use this portal to shortly deploy environments for any stage of improvement utilizing Azure Deployment Environments, additionally usually out there.
Arriving at Microsoft Dev Field
That’s how we ended up at Microsoft Dev Field—cloud-based workstations optimized for developer use circumstances and productiveness. Dev Field combines developer-optimized capabilities with the enterprise-ready administration of Home windows 365 and Microsoft Intune. And as we work to enhance Dev Field, we’ve continued to companion with different groups at Microsoft. Most not too long ago, we labored carefully with the Visible Studio crew so as to add built-in integrations that optimize the Visible Studio expertise on Dev Field. We’re additionally actively introducing configuration-as-code customization into Dev Field, which can present dev leads much more granular management to configure dev containers round particular duties and allow them to attach Dev Field provisioning to their current Git move.
However earlier than we launched Dev Field, we needed to ensure it was actually enterprise-ready. At Microsoft, it’s widespread to check our providers internally earlier than releasing them. On this case, that meant stress-testing Dev Field in opposition to merchandise with repos which are a whole lot of gigabytes giant. This has been a difficult however helpful expertise, and our learnings have helped us pace up the trail to normal availability. Already, there are greater than 10,000 engineers utilizing Dev Field at Microsoft, and now we have a number of clients utilizing Dev Field in manufacturing environments at the moment.
Enabling the very best of Dev Field with versatile pricing
From our preliminary work with clients, we realized rather a lot about their utilization patterns and the use circumstances it may assist. Dev Field works nice as a full-time desktop substitute, or for specialised part-time use. You possibly can spin up a high-powered Dev Field for a very compute-heavy process, or a second machine to isolate an experiment or proof of idea.
Initially, we deliberate on charging for Dev Field based mostly on a pure consumption mannequin—clients would solely pay for Dev Field when it was operating, and no extra. Sadly, whereas this labored nice for part-time Dev Field use, such a mannequin left plenty of variability for directors that needed to pay a standardized month-to-month value for full-time utilization.
To accommodate completely different use circumstances, we’ve launched a predictable month-to-month worth for full-time Dev Field utilization whereas preserving consumption-based, pay-as-you-go pricing that costs as much as a month-to-month worth cap. This mannequin strikes a steadiness between the extremes of full consumption or subscription-only pricing, guaranteeing devs can optimize their spend for each full-time and part-time use circumstances.
Getting began with Microsoft Dev Field
Dev Field has already reworked the developer workstations at Microsoft from inflexible, long-running desktops to project-specific, ready-to-code workstations within the cloud. We’re excited to see extra builders go away behind the challenges of bodily workstations to give attention to writing the code solely they will write. To see what Dev Field can do to your crew, go to our web site or begin a proof of idea at the moment.
When you’ve already began utilizing Dev Field, we’d love to listen to you assume. Please submit any suggestions you have got so we are able to preserve making Dev Field the best choice for developer productiveness.
