Harness - Detailed Review

Developer Tools

Harness - Detailed Review Contents
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    Harness - Product Overview



    Harness Overview

    Harness is a comprehensive platform within the Developer Tools and AI-driven product category, primarily focused on streamlining and accelerating the software delivery lifecycle.

    Primary Function

    Harness is a self-service Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) platform that enables engineers and DevOps teams to build, test, deploy, and verify software efficiently. Its core mission is to empower software engineering teams to deliver code reliably, efficiently, and quickly to their users.

    Target Audience

    Harness targets medium to large enterprises, particularly those in industries such as technology, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. The primary decision-makers within these organizations are IT managers, CTOs, and other tech leaders responsible for implementing and managing tech solutions. Harness also focuses on companies that are early adopters of technology, seeking innovative solutions to stay ahead of the competition.

    Key Features



    Workflows and Pipelines

    Harness allows platform engineers to orchestrate the onboarding of services through pipelines in the Harness Pipeline Studio. Developers can create new backend services, APIs, or websites by submitting a few details, ensuring that developers focus on writing features while platform engineers handle automation and standard enforcement.

    Software Catalog

    The platform includes a centralized software catalog that tracks ownership, metadata, and dependencies of all software components. This catalog is built from metadata YAML files stored with the code and owned by specific teams.

    Scorecards

    Scorecards help ensure that software components adhere to organizational and industry standards. They provide a quantifiable measure of software maturity and best practices, aiding in quality enhancement and informed decision-making regarding software adoption.

    Extensibility through Plugins

    Harness IDP offers curated plugins based on hundreds of open-source Backstage plugins. These plugins allow customization of software components and present relevant information to developers in a single view.

    Technical Documentation

    Harness supports a “docs-like-code” approach, where developers write and commit documentation in Markdown alongside their code. This ensures documentation remains up-to-date and easily accessible through the software catalog.

    Search Functionality

    The platform includes a search feature that allows developers to explore the entire software ecosystem, finding services, APIs, libraries, metadata, and documentation efficiently.

    AI Development Assistant (AIDA)

    Harness leverages AIDA, an AI-driven tool that streamlines and accelerates the software delivery lifecycle. AIDA features include predictive analytics, continuous verification, release orchestration, code generation, and troubleshooting capabilities, all aimed at improving efficiency and delivering high-quality applications.

    Open Source Capabilities

    Harness also offers an open-source platform that unifies managing source code repositories, CI/CD pipelines, hosted development environments, and artifact management. This includes features like code repository management, hosted development environments, and continuous integration/delivery pipelines.

    Conclusion

    Overall, Harness is a powerful tool that simplifies and accelerates software development and deployment processes, making it an invaluable resource for modern software engineering teams.

    Harness - User Interface and Experience



    User Interface of Harness

    The user interface of Harness, particularly in its Developer Tools AI-driven product category, is crafted to be intuitive and user-friendly, ensuring a seamless experience for developers and other users.

    Navigation and Structure

    Harness offers two versions of its navigation system: Navigation 1.0 and the newer Navigation 2.0. The latter introduces significant improvements aimed at reducing task completion time and catering to different user personas.

    Navigation 2.0

    This version features an overhauled navigation experience with changes to the left and top navigation menus. It includes options such as Scope, Dashboards, Pipelines and Executions, Modules, Organizations and Projects, Settings, Help, and My Profile. This navigation also introduces multi-module mode and single module mode, allowing users to work across multiple modules or focus on a specific one.

    Modules and Features

    The interface is organized around various modules, each labeled by its icon and primary functionality. These modules include:

    Deployments

    Continuous Delivery & GitOps

    Builds

    Continuous Integration

    Feature Flags

    Feature Flags

    Code

    Code Repository

    Cloud Costs

    Cloud Cost Management

    Service Reliability

    Service Reliability Management

    Security Tests

    Security Testing Orchestration

    Chaos

    Chaos Engineering

    Error Tracking

    Continuous Error Tracking.

    Ease of Use

    The Harness UI is designed to be easy to use, with features that allow users to configure the interface according to their needs. For example, users can show or hide specific modules on the left navigation panel and rearrange their order by dragging and dropping them. These changes are automatically saved, making the interface highly customizable.

    AI-Driven Features

    Harness integrates AI through its AI Development Assistant (AIDA), which streamlines and accelerates the software delivery lifecycle. AIDA provides features such as:

    Dashboard Intelligence

    Customized dashboards with widget-level control.

    Code Generation

    Generating multi-line code updates through comments in the IDE.

    Troubleshoot CD Deployments

    Root cause analysis for deployment failures.

    Security Remediation

    Analyzing vulnerabilities and securing applications.

    Internal Developer Portal (IDP)

    The Harness IDP is another key component that enhances the user experience. It allows developers to create new software components quickly while adhering to company best practices. The IDP features include:

    Software Catalog

    A centralized registry for all software components.

    Scorecards

    Quantifiable measures of software maturity and adherence to standards.

    Technical Documentation

    Documentation delivered alongside the software component using a docs-like-code approach.

    Search Functionality

    Easy exploration of the entire software ecosystem.

    Overall User Experience

    The overall user experience of Harness is centered around improving developer productivity and efficiency. The platform leverages automation and insights to streamline the software delivery lifecycle. With its intuitive navigation, customizable interface, and AI-driven features, Harness aims to reduce task completion time and enhance the overall developer experience. The integration of various tools and modules ensures that developers can focus on writing features while platform engineers handle automation and standard enforcement. In summary, Harness’s user interface is designed to be intuitive, customizable, and highly efficient, making it easier for developers to manage software releases and deliver high-quality applications quickly.

    Harness - Key Features and Functionality



    The Harness Platform: Developer Tools AI-Driven Product Category

    The Harness platform offers several key features that leverage AI to streamline and enhance the software development process. Here are the main features and how they work:



    AI Code Assistant

    The Harness AI Code Assistant is a pivotal tool that integrates with popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs. Here are its primary functions:

    • Code Generation: This feature provides real-time inline code suggestions based on the context of the code being written, including relevant files and code snippets in the workspace. Developers can accept these suggestions fully or word by word, allowing for customization.
    • Chat Assistant: The chat assistant can answer coding queries, provide explanations, generate new files, write tests, and assist with debugging. It can be accessed via the Harness icon in the IDE, using the context of the current file or the entire codebase to provide relevant suggestions and answers.
    • Inline Editing: This feature includes a popup menu that appears when you select code in the editor and right-click. It offers options to fix grammar or spelling, optimize the code, write docstrings, or add comments to the code.


    AI DevOps Assistant

    The AI DevOps Assistant is another significant component that supports developers throughout the entire software development process:

    • Automating Routine Pipeline Generation: This assistant automates the generation of CI/CD pipelines, optimizing workflows and reducing manual effort.
    • Tracking Deployments and Recommending Improvements: It tracks deployments and recommends improvements, helping to refine and optimize the deployment process over time.
    • Diagnosing and Repairing Issues: The assistant can diagnose and repair issues with the software, ensuring more reliable and consistent deployments.


    AI Productivity Insights

    This feature provides valuable insights into the productivity gains achieved through the use of AI coding tools:

    • Data-Driven Decision Making: It analyzes metrics from both traditional SDLC tools and AI coding assistants to offer insights into productivity gains, areas for improvement, and best practices.
    • Qualitative Feedback: The tool collects feedback from developers to understand the impact of AI coding tools from their perspective, helping to optimize workflows and developer experience.


    Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

    Harness leverages AI to automate key stages of the CI/CD pipeline:

    • Automated Deployment Decisions: By analyzing historical deployment data and real-time performance metrics, Harness determines the optimal deployment strategy, including techniques like canary releases, blue-green deployments, and rolling updates.
    • Rollback Decisions: If a new update causes issues, Harness can automatically initiate a rollback to the previous version of the application.


    Security and Governance

    Harness includes features to ensure governance and security compliance:

    • Open Policy Agent (OPA) Support: The platform has built-in support for Open Policy Agent (OPA) to enforce security standards and prevent vulnerabilities across the SDLC.
    • Policy Enforcement: Harness automates policy enforcement, particularly for database changes, integrating them within CI/CD pipelines to ensure compliance and governance.


    Integration and Workflow Optimization

    Harness seamlessly integrates with existing development tools and workflows:

    • Integration with Development Tools: It works with popular version control systems like Git, build tools like Maven or Gradle, and cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
    • Workflow Optimization: By automating routine tasks and streamlining workflows, Harness helps reduce the cognitive load on developers, allowing them to focus on creative problem-solving and innovation.

    These features collectively enhance the developer experience, accelerate software delivery, and ensure reliable and secure deployments, all while leveraging AI to automate and optimize various aspects of the software development lifecycle.

    Harness - Performance and Accuracy



    Performance Metrics and Automation

    Harness offers a range of tools that automate and optimize software delivery processes. For instance, its continuous delivery and deployment features ensure that resources are managed efficiently. The platform uses resource constraints to prevent multiple pipelines or stages from requesting the same deployment environment resources simultaneously, which helps in protecting resource capacity limits and preventing conflicts. Harness also provides detailed dashboards and insights that help in measuring software delivery performance. These dashboards include metrics such as PR lead time, average commits, PRs created and merged, and new lines of code. This data helps teams analyze their velocity and code quality, including rework and refactor percentages.

    Accuracy and Relevance in AI-Driven Tools

    While Harness does not specifically measure the accuracy and relevance of chatbot responses like the CustomGPT.ai tool does, it does offer AI-driven insights into various aspects of software engineering. For example, the AI Overview Dashboard provides scores on how AI tools influence different aspects of team performance, such as efficiency, innovation, productivity, quality, and satisfaction. These scores are derived from survey responses and predefined weights, ensuring a fair contribution across different metrics.

    Limitations and Areas for Improvement

    One of the limitations of Harness is the default scoping of resource constraints at the account level, which can lead to queuing of infrastructure if the same combination of service, environment, connector, and infrastructure IDs is reused across different projects. However, Harness is working on enabling resource constraint scoping at the project level, which would alleviate this issue. Another area for improvement is the need for manual configuration and management of certain features. For instance, disabling resource constraints or enabling project-scoped resource constraints requires specific settings adjustments or contacting Harness Support.

    Engagement and User Experience

    Harness aims to improve developer productivity and satisfaction through its AI-driven tools and automated processes. The platform provides insights into code quality, workflow efficiency, and overall developer experience, helping teams identify bottlenecks and drive business outcomes. In summary, Harness performs well in automating and optimizing software delivery processes, providing detailed metrics and insights into team performance. However, there are areas such as resource constraint management and manual configuration that could be improved to enhance user experience and efficiency.

    Harness - Pricing and Plans



    Harness Pricing Structure

    Harness.io offers a flexible and modular pricing structure that caters to various needs and scales of organizations. Here’s a detailed breakdown of their pricing tiers and the features included in each:

    Free Plan

    Harness provides a free plan that is ideal for small teams or individual developers. This plan includes:
    • 2,000 Cloud Credits per month
    • Basic features across several modules such as:
      • Code Repository
      • Continuous Integration (CI)
      • Continuous Delivery (CD) and GitOps
      • Cloud Cost Management (CCM)
      • Feature Flags Management (FF)
      • Chaos Engineering
      • AI capabilities like AIDA, the AI Development Assistant
      • Latest developer experiences, including Git Experience and ready-to-use templates
      • Native integrations with hundreds of third-party tools
      • Custom dashboards for analytics
      • Enterprise-level security and governance


    Harness Startup Plan

    This plan is priced at $57 per developer per month. To be eligible, your company must have fewer than 500 employees and spend less than $5 million on cloud cost management. Here are the features you can include:
    • Code Repository
    • Continuous Integration (CI)
    • Continuous Delivery (CD) & GitOps
    • Cloud Cost Management (CCM)
    • Feature Flags Management (FF)
    • Infrastructure-as-Code Management
    • Internal Developer Portal (IDP)
    You can choose one, several, or all of these modules based on your needs.

    Harness Enterprise Plan

    The Enterprise Plan uses custom pricing, requiring you to contact the sales team for a quote. This plan is suited for larger organizations and includes:
    • Unlimited developer access
    • Advanced features like enterprise security, policy-based governance, and custom dashboards
    • The cost varies based on the modules chosen, the types of services managed with Harness, and the number of developers added


    Additional Cost Considerations

    • Headcount-based pricing: The overall cost increases with the size of your organization.
    • Selection of features: Pricing varies based on the features included in your subscription.
    • Add-on entitlements: You can purchase additional consumption entitlements for modules like Continuous Delivery and Feature Flags to scale your usage without committing to a higher base plan.
    • Billing options: Harness offers both monthly and annual billing options, with monthly billing available only in-app for certain modules.


    Support and Flexibility

    • Harness provides flexible subscription management, allowing you to change your module subscriptions and entitlements through the self-service option in the Account Settings.
    • Support tiers are available, but the specifics of these tiers are not detailed in the pricing structure; however, Harness Support is focused on helping customers get the most out of their subscription.
    By choosing the appropriate plan and modules, you can ensure that your organization only pays for what it needs while allowing room for growth as your software delivery requirements evolve.

    Harness - Integration and Compatibility



    Harness Overview

    Harness, an AI-driven software delivery platform, is renowned for its extensive integration capabilities and broad compatibility across various tools, platforms, and devices. Here’s a detailed look at how Harness integrates with other tools and its compatibility:



    Integration with Development and Project Management Tools

    Harness seamlessly integrates with popular issue tracking and project management tools. It supports integration with Jira, GitLab, Azure DevOps, and GitHub, enabling smooth management of requirements and issues.



    UX Design and Modeling Tools

    For UX design, Harness integrates with tools like Figma, allowing for streamlined deployments and feature rollouts using Feature Flags. Additionally, it supports flow modeling tools such as LucidChart and Visio, as well as database modeling tools like ER/Studio and Erwin Data Modeler. These integrations are facilitated through native pipeline tools like the shell script step or the HTTP step.



    Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD)

    Harness CI supports a wide range of Source Code Management (SCM) providers, including AWS CodeCommit, Azure Repos, Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, and other Git providers through a provider-agnostic Git connector. This ensures that developers can manage their codebases efficiently within the Harness platform.

    For build infrastructure, Harness CI offers both Harness-managed and self-managed options. It supports various operating systems and architectures, including Kubernetes clusters (Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShift), self-managed VMs on Microsoft Azure, GCP, and AWS EC2, as well as local runners for Linux, Windows, and macOS.



    Deployment Platforms and Kubernetes

    Harness is highly compatible with various deployment platforms, particularly those based on Kubernetes. It supports deployments on Self Hosted Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), and Red Hat OpenShift. The platform also supports multiple Kubernetes tooling options, including Helm (versions 2.8 to 3.8), Kustomize, and kubectl client versions from 1.16 to 1.28.7.



    Authentication and Connectors

    Harness provides a variety of connectors for deployment, including Kubernetes connectors, username and password, client key and secret, OIDC authentication, and Kubernetes service accounts. It also supports cloud-specific connectors such as Google Cloud, Azure Cloud, and AWS Cloud, each with their respective authentication methods like IRSA, IAM roles, and service accounts.



    Artifact and Image Management

    For artifact and image management, Harness supports multiple sources and repositories. This includes GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Google Cloud Storage, Amazon S3, Helm OCI repositories, and various other custom and generic repositories. It also integrates with container registries like DockerHub, Amazon Elastic Container Registry, Google Container Registry, and Azure Container Registry.



    Security and Compliance

    Harness integrates security scanners and orchestrates tests across build and deployment pipelines, enabling developers to rapidly remediate vulnerabilities. It also supports the monitoring and control of open source components and third-party artifacts, generating comprehensive Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) to ensure software integrity in accordance with industry standards and regulations.



    Conclusion

    In summary, Harness offers a comprehensive suite of integrations and compatibility options, making it a versatile and powerful tool for software development, deployment, and operation across a wide range of platforms and devices. Its ability to integrate with various development tools, manage complex deployments, and ensure security and compliance makes it an invaluable asset for development teams.

    Harness - Customer Support and Resources



    Customer Support Options

    Harness offers a comprehensive range of customer support options and additional resources to ensure users can effectively utilize their platform.

    Support Tiers

    Harness provides three distinct support tiers:

    Community Support

    Community Support: Available to all Harness users, this tier includes access to community resources and support.

    Standard Support

    Standard Support: All paying customers are entitled to standard support, which includes coverage from 9 am to 5 pm Pacific Standard Time during Harness business days.

    Premier Support

    Premier Support: This tier is available for an additional 20% of the subscription cost and offers 24x7x365 support. Premier support also includes the option for phone or video calls at the discretion of the support engineer.

    Contacting Support

    There are several ways to contact Harness support:

    Support Portal

    Support Portal: Users can create support tickets directly from the Harness Support portal, which requires a Harness login.

    Email

    Email: Support requests can be sent via email to support@harness.io, especially useful for login issues or on-premises product use.

    In-Platform Help

    In-Platform Help: Users can submit a ticket by clicking the “Help” button within the Harness platform.

    Customer Slack Channel

    Customer Slack Channel: For customers with a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM), support tickets can be raised through the customer slack channel.

    Support Escalation

    If an issue remains unresolved after escalating through the ticket system, users can contact CX Leadership at cx-escalation@harness.io for further assistance.

    Additional Resources

    Harness provides a wealth of resources to help users get the most out of their platform:

    Documentation

    Documentation: Comprehensive documentation is available through the Harness Developer Hub, including step-by-step instructions, code samples, and reference information for various features such as Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Feature Flags, and more.

    Onboarding Guides

    Onboarding Guides: Detailed guides are available for onboarding different modules like Chaos Engineering, Cloud Cost Management, and Service Reliability Management.

    FAQs and Troubleshooting

    FAQs and Troubleshooting: Frequently asked questions and troubleshooting guides are accessible to help users resolve common issues quickly.

    Release Notes

    Release Notes: Users can stay updated with recent changes to Harness products through the release notes section.

    User Provisioning and Access Control

    User Provisioning and Access Control: Resources are available for user provisioning using Microsoft Entra ID (SCIM) and setting up role-based access control.

    Global Support

    Harness uses a follow-the-sun model, with engineers located in the US, Brazil, Germany, and India, ensuring global support coverage for their customers. By providing these support options and resources, Harness aims to ensure user satisfaction and help them leverage the platform effectively to simplify their software delivery process.

    Harness - Pros and Cons



    Advantages



    Out-of-the-Box Functionality

    Harness provides basic functionality with minimal need for configuration, making it easier to get started quickly.



    Progressive Deployment Patterns

    It supports multiple progressive deployment patterns such as blue/green, canary, and rolling deployments, which can be challenging to implement without specialized tools.



    Multi-Platform Support

    Harness works seamlessly with various infrastructure platforms, both in the cloud and on-premises, and integrates with over 150 infrastructure systems, change control, APM, and logging tools.



    Automated Rollbacks and Verification

    It can automatically analyze production application performance, detect degradation in canary deployments, and roll back to previous versions if necessary.



    Low Maintenance

    Harness is designed to be light on maintenance, supporting self-service for developers while maintaining guardrails to prevent quality and security issues. It reduces the clutter of plugins and the associated maintenance overhead.



    Strong Security Features

    Harness offers single sign-on (SSO) integration, two-factor authentication, allowlists, audit trails, and pipeline governance capabilities. It also supports major secret management solutions and continuous verification to detect security anomalies.



    AI-Driven Capabilities

    Harness uses AI to simplify pipeline management, troubleshoot issues, write better code, generate tests, and eliminate repetitive tasks. It also provides AI-driven triage and contextual insights to resolve incidents faster.



    DevOps Metrics and Reporting

    Harness provides a dashboard with key DORA metrics such as lead time, deployment frequency, mean time to recovery (MTTR), and change failure rate (CFR), giving better visibility over development team progress.



    Flexible Integration

    Harness allows users to pick and choose which elements of the platform to adopt, making it easy to integrate into heterogeneous environments. It supports multiple source code management tools and can layer on additional capabilities like Feature Flags and Security Test Orchestration.



    Disadvantages



    Steep Learning Curve for Advanced Configurations

    While Harness is easy to set up initially, some advanced configurations, such as delegate profiles and custom scripting, can have a steep learning curve.



    Debugging and Pipeline Extension Challenges

    Debugging issues in pipelines can be complex, and once pipelines are created, they can be difficult to extend or enrich with custom steps.



    Limited GitOps Support

    Harness does not fully support a GitOps process because it lacks a reconciliation loop to ensure the current production environment matches the desired configuration.



    Performance Issues

    Some users have reported performance issues, particularly in environments with diverse operating systems, as Harness has limited support for non-Linux platforms.



    Customization Limitations

    The build tools within Harness are not highly customizable, and the settings can be overly basic, which may not cater to all project needs. This includes limited options to customize dependencies or configure more complex build scenarios.



    Commercial Pricing

    Harness is a commercial solution priced according to the number of services, although a free plan is available supporting up to 5 services.

    Overall, Harness offers a powerful and automated software delivery platform with strong AI-driven capabilities, but it also has some limitations, particularly in terms of customization and support for diverse operating systems.

    Harness - Comparison with Competitors



    When Comparing Harness’s AI-Driven Developer Tools

    When comparing Harness’s AI-driven developer tools, particularly the Harness AI Code Assistant and Harness AI Development Assistant (AIDA), with similar products in the market, several key points and alternatives stand out.



    Harness AI Code Assistant

    • This tool integrates with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains, offering features such as real-time code suggestions, automated test generation, and a chat assistant for coding queries.
    • It provides intelligent code generation based on the context of the code being written, and users can accept suggestions fully or word by word for customization.
    • The chat assistant can answer coding queries, generate new files, write tests, and assist with debugging directly within the IDE.


    Harness AI Development Assistant (AIDA)

    • AIDA combines AI capabilities with DevOps tools to streamline and accelerate the software delivery lifecycle. It offers predictive analytics, continuous verification, and advanced release orchestration.
    • AIDA provides features like code generation, troubleshooting deployment failures, generating governance rules, and security remediation. It also offers dashboard intelligence and semantic search capabilities.


    GitHub Copilot

    • GitHub Copilot is a prominent competitor that integrates AI into the development workflow, offering real-time coding assistance and automation. It provides advanced code autocompletion, context-aware suggestions, and automated code documentation generation.
    • Copilot supports multiple programming languages and has features like interactive chat interfaces, built-in test case generation, and AI-driven code review suggestions. It also integrates seamlessly with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains.
    • A key difference is that GitHub Copilot has a stronger market presence and a well-established user community, but it may lack some of the advanced features offered by newer tools.


    Windsurf IDE by Codeium

    • Windsurf IDE stands out with its AI-enhanced development features, including intelligent code suggestions, cascade technology for continuous contextual support, and deep contextual understanding of complex codebases.
    • It offers real-time AI collaboration, multi-file smart editing, and rapid prototyping capabilities, making it a strong alternative for developers seeking advanced AI integration in their IDE.
    • Unlike Harness, Windsurf IDE focuses more on the coding process itself, providing a more immersive AI experience during development.


    JetBrains AI Assistant

    • JetBrains AI Assistant integrates into JetBrains IDEs, offering smart code generation from natural language descriptions, context-aware completion, and proactive bug detection.
    • It includes automated testing, documentation assistance, and intelligent refactoring. The tool is known for its seamless integration with JetBrains development environments and flexible support for custom prompts.
    • However, it may lag behind some competitors in terms of features and has premium pricing, which could be a barrier for some developers.


    Amazon Q Developer

    • Amazon Q Developer is another alternative that integrates with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains. It offers code completion, inline code suggestions, debugging, and security vulnerability scanning.
    • This tool is particularly valuable for developers working within the AWS ecosystem, providing answers to questions related to AWS architecture and best practices.


    Unique Features of Harness

    • Harness’s AIDA stands out with its comprehensive suite of features that go beyond just coding assistance. It includes predictive analytics, continuous verification, and advanced release orchestration, making it a holistic solution for software delivery processes.
    • The ability to generate multi-line code updates through comments in the IDE and the provision of content recommendations when creating support tickets are unique features that differentiate Harness from its competitors.


    Conclusion

    In summary, while Harness offers a robust set of AI-driven tools that integrate well with DevOps workflows, competitors like GitHub Copilot, Windsurf IDE, JetBrains AI Assistant, and Amazon Q Developer provide strong alternatives with their own unique features and strengths. The choice between these tools will depend on the specific needs and preferences of the development team.

    Harness - Frequently Asked Questions



    Frequently Asked Questions about Harness



    What is Harness and what does it do?

    Harness is a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform that automates code testing, deployment, and rollbacks for cloud and on-premise projects. It allows DevOps engineers to use ready-made CD pipeline templates and create custom templates using YAML code. Harness integrates with various tools and services to manage the entire software development life cycle.

    How does Harness CI work?

    Harness CI helps developers build and test code efficiently. It allows you to visually model build and test processes as CI stages, manage dependencies, upload artifacts, and monitor build outcomes. Harness CI uses features like Test Intelligence and Cache Intelligence to optimize builds and integrates with third-party tools and custom scripts. Builds are executed in containers, which eliminates the need for dependency chains.

    What are the main components of the Harness platform?

    The Harness platform consists of two main components:
    • Harness Manager: This stores and manages your CI/CD configurations and pipelines. You can manage pipelines manually or through Git, and set up automatic triggers based on various events.
    • Harness Delegate: This is a software service that you can install in your environment to connect to the Harness Manager. It performs tasks using assets like container orchestration platforms, monitoring systems, and artifact repositories.


    How does Harness integrate with other tools and services?

    Harness integrates with a wide range of tools and services, including:
    • Artifact servers: Such as Jenkins, Nexus, Bamboo, Artifactory, Helm Repo, and Docker Registry.
    • Verification providers: Like Prometheus, AppDynamics, and Datadog.
    • Collaboration providers: Including Slack, email, ServiceNow, and Jira.
    • Cloud providers: Supports public and private cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and physical infrastructure.
    • Source repo providers: Connects Git repositories to manage deployments using Git.


    What is Harness Cloud Cost Management (CCM)?

    Harness Cloud Cost Management provides cloud cost management and analysis, offering hourly granular visibility into resource consumption. This helps in managing and optimizing cloud costs effectively.

    Can I deploy Harness DevOps Essentials on-premises?

    No, the DevOps Essentials package does not support on-premise deployment. It is designed for cloud-based use cases.

    How are updates and new features managed in Harness?

    Harness continuously updates its platform by adding new features and improvements. Customers receive these updates automatically as part of their subscription.

    What kind of customer support is available for Harness?

    Customers of the DevOps Essentials package receive standard support. They can also purchase professional services as an add-on. For enterprise editions, there is more comprehensive support available.

    How do I manage permissions and roles in Harness?

    Permissions in Harness are managed through role assignments. You can assign permissions to users or service accounts, and these permissions are inherited by the API tokens created under these accounts. You can also use APIs to manage role assignments and permissions.

    Can I export all AutoStopping rules in Harness?

    Currently, Harness does not support direct functionality for exporting all AutoStopping rules. However, you can use the `List AutoStopping Rules` API method to create a report of all your AutoStopping rules.

    How does Harness handle rate limiting for API requests?

    Harness imposes a rate-limiting policy on API requests to ensure system stability. The policy sets a limit of 350 queries per minute (QPM) and 5.833 queries per second (QPS) for all external-facing APIs.

    What types of API tokens are available in Harness?

    There are two types of API tokens in Harness: personal account tokens (created at the user profile level) and service account tokens (created at the service account level). These tokens inherit permissions from the user or service account they are created under. By addressing these questions, you can gain a better understanding of how Harness functions and how it can be integrated into your DevOps workflow.

    Harness - Conclusion and Recommendation



    Harness Overview

    Harness is a comprehensive platform that integrates AI-driven tools to significantly enhance the software development and delivery process. Here’s a final assessment of Harness in the Developer Tools AI-driven product category.

    Key Features and Benefits

    Harness offers several AI-driven features that make it an invaluable tool for developers and DevOps teams. The Harness AI Code Assistant, for instance, provides real-time code suggestions, automated test generation, and a chat assistant for coding queries. This assistant integrates seamlessly with popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains, making it easy to generate code, optimize existing code, and even assist with debugging. Another significant feature is the Harness AI Development Assistant (AIDA), which combines AI capabilities with DevOps tools to streamline the software delivery lifecycle. AIDA offers predictive analytics, continuous verification, and advanced release orchestration, helping teams deliver high-quality applications efficiently. It also includes features like code generation, troubleshooting deployment failures, and generating governance rules for asset management.

    Target Audience

    Harness is particularly beneficial for several groups:

    Developers

    The AI Code Assistant and AIDA features help developers increase productivity by generating code, providing real-time suggestions, and assisting with debugging and testing.

    DevOps Teams

    The platform’s ability to streamline the software delivery lifecycle, troubleshoot deployment failures, and optimize cloud spend makes it a valuable tool for DevOps teams.

    Quality Assurance Teams

    Automated test generation and the ability to troubleshoot CI/CD builds can significantly reduce the workload and improve the efficiency of QA teams.

    Product Managers

    The feature flag management system allows for targeted rollouts and easy management of different user groups, which can be crucial for testing and deploying new features.

    Overall Recommendation

    Harness is highly recommended for any organization looking to leverage AI to improve their software development and delivery processes. Here are a few reasons why:

    Integration and Ease of Use

    Harness tools integrate well with existing development environments, making it easy for teams to adopt and start using the features immediately.

    Comprehensive Features

    From code generation and chat assistants to predictive analytics and release orchestration, Harness offers a wide range of features that cater to various aspects of the software development lifecycle.

    Efficiency and Productivity

    The AI-driven tools help in reducing manual effort, speeding up development, and improving the overall quality of the software. In summary, Harness is a powerful tool that can significantly enhance the efficiency, productivity, and quality of software development and delivery processes, making it an excellent choice for developers, DevOps teams, and organizations looking to leverage AI in their development workflows.

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