Surviving without a DevOps team: How small embedded teams can thrive with CI/CD, debugging, and containers

For many small embedded teams, the idea of implementing CI/CD and modern DevOps practices can feel more like a luxury than a necessity. There’s often no dedicated DevOps engineer, no full-blown infrastructure, and definitely no time to reinvent the entire development workflow.

And yet, the demands placed on these teams continue to grow. Products are more complex, release cycles are tighter, and expectations for safety, security, and code quality are rising. At IAR, we’ve talked to countless engineers who are juggling firmware development, hardware bring-up, testing, and debugging, all with limited time and even more limited resources.

Built for small teams, not big budgets

This reality inspired our latest webinar, Surviving Without a DevOps Team. It’s a session built specifically for teams that need more structure and automation but can’t afford the overhead of big-team solutions. Together with Shawn Prestridge, David Källberg, and Ben Tsai, we explored how even the leanest teams can adopt CI/CD, improve debugging workflows, and use containers to create consistency without needing a single DevOps hire.

The struggle is real: manual debugging, inconsistent builds, and time lost

The challenges are familiar: long build cycles, inconsistent environments, difficult onboarding, and bugs that seem to reappear at the worst possible moments. Debugging is often manual, repetitive, and reactive. Code quality can vary wildly depending on the developer. And as deadlines loom, cutting corners becomes tempting.

Start small, grow confidently

But there’s a better way, one that doesn’t require big budgets or full-time automation engineers. It starts small, with just one or two repeatable steps, and grows over time into a robust, scalable system that improves quality, saves time, and supports long-term maintainability.

CI/CD for the real world: simple, powerful, and scalable

The heart of this transformation is CI/CD. Contrary to what many assume, CI/CD doesn’t need to be complex. You don’t need a Kubernetes cluster or an enterprise pipeline. All you need is a source control system like Git, a CI orchestrator like GitHub Actions or GitLab CI, and a willingness to let automation handle the basics: building, analyzing, and testing.

Containers: the secret to repeatable builds and smooth collaboration

At the core of this setup is containerization. Docker containers create consistent environments that eliminate the “it works on my machine” problem. Whether you’re building on Windows, Linux, or in the cloud, containers ensure the same toolchain, dependencies, and configurations are used every time. They’re fast to spin up, easy to version, and simple to share, making collaboration far less painful and far more productive.

During the demo, we showed how a modern workflow using the IAR tools can be run locally, in containers, and directly on GitHub. With CMake, projects become portable across IDEs. With IAR’s Visual Studio Code Extensions, developers get powerful debugging, simulation, and analysis capabilities inside their preferred editor. And with IAR C-STAT and C-RUN integrated into the pipeline, code quality checks happen automatically with every commit.

One step at a time: your automation roadmap

The takeaway is clear: automation isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. You don’t need to overhaul everything overnight. Just start with automated builds. Then add static analysis. Then move on to unit tests or secure deployment. Each step builds confidence. Each step reduces risk. And before you know it, you’ve got a workflow that scales with your product and your team.

Why the IAR platform stands out

This is where the IAR embedded platform shines. It gives you the tools you need to enforce coding standards, analyze runtime behavior, and ensure compliance with safety and security standards, right out of the box. Whether you’re targeting ARM, RISC-V, RX, or RL78, the platform brings consistency across architectures, eliminates vendor lock-in, and supports both legacy and next-generation systems.

What’s more, our platform is shifting with the times. With new cloud-based licensing models and support for hybrid workflows, teams can now run the same tools locally or in the cloud without worrying about infrastructure overhead. This flexibility is a game-changer for small teams trying to stay agile while building secure, reliable, high-performance embedded products.

At the end of the day, DevOps is not about headcount. It’s about mindset. It’s about creating workflows that reduce manual labor, catch issues early, and help your team deliver better code with less effort. With the IAR platform and a few containerized pipelines, that future is closer than you think.

Try it for yourself

If you’re ready to take the next step, explore the IAR platform for yourself. Visit iar.com/try-platform, request your free trial, and see how embedded workflows can be simplified, debugging accelerated, and DevOps embraced, without needing a full-scale DevOps team. This is your moment.

Want to dive deeper? Watch the full on-demand webinar to see how IAR’s container-ready toolchains, CI/CD integrations, and advanced debugging tools are helping lean embedded teams do more with less.

Let’s make embedded development simpler, smarter, and more scalable, together.