DEVOPSdigest

XebiaLabs announced a new version of its software release orchestration product XL Release, which improves release orchestration across people, processes and tools.

The new version includes features such as “Dynamic Data Management”, enhanced ALM integration and usability improvements for non-technical users. These enhancements make it easier for teams to dynamically manage the information used in the software release process and significantly simplify how enterprise IT teams can manage large and complex software releases.

XL Release allows companies to automate, orchestrate and get visibility into software release pipelines at enterprise scale.

This new 4.8 version of XL Release accomplishes the following business goals:

- Delivers full control of information between people, processes and tools

- Allows users to more easily automate their releases to a greater degree

- Provides improved abilities to control release flow in real time

- Helps non-technical people to better interact with the release process

“Enterprises are starting to realize that doing DevOps right requires involvement from many groups beyond Dev and Ops, as shown by increased interest in DevTestOps and DevSecOps. Current tools don’t give these groups the user-friendly interface they need to interact with the Continuous Delivery process,” said Andrew Phillips, VP, DevOps strategy, XebiaLabs. “With this new version of XL Release, we are giving everyone involved with DevOps a seat at the Continuous Delivery table, allowing them to interact and dynamically modify relevant information during the release process with much greater flexibility to manage complex, distributed releases.”

Amy DeMartine, senior analyst serving infrastructure and operations professionals for Forrester Research, was one of three analysts recommending that companies automate the delivery pipeline to improve speed, flexibility, visibility, and control. “Creating a standard delivery pipeline as a service removes variability from the delivery process, creating checkpoints where you can apply visibility and control. But it also needs to be easy to use," she wrote along with analysts Kurt Bittner and Diego Lo Giudice in a December 2015 report: Use DevOps And Supply Chain Principles To Automate Application Delivery Governance. “Visibility across the entire pipeline gives an easy and instant view of release health."

XL Release 4.8 Feature Highlights:

- Dynamic data management: New global and release specific variables allow release administrators to more efficiently manage complex releases and easily update data in real time as it becomes available throughout a release.

- User-friendly design for non-technical users: Non-technical users can also take a bigger role in getting software out the door and into production by designing more advanced release flows.

- ALM integration: Enhanced integration with Service Management tools such as JIRA and ServiceNow. A new, enhanced JIRA plugin allows users to query open tickets from within XL Release, resolve or comment on them, and then update the tickets in JIRA.

- Usability enhancements: XL Release 4.8 also includes numerous enhancements that improve the user experience, including an updated user interface and new action menus

XL Release 4.8 is available immediately.