TL;DR
- CoLab cut the time to get changes running in the cloud from over 15 minutes down to just secondsâdrastically accelerating their iteration speed.
- Dev environment setup time dropped from days to a single click, saving up to 2 days per developer.
- Debugging became faster and easier, shifting from local laptop troubleshooting to a cloud-first approach.
The challenge: Finding an efficient way to test code in the cloud
Developing and debugging applications that rely on cloud environments can be tedious and time-consuming. CoLab faced this challenge when they lost their previous setup for debugging in production-like environments due to security concerns. Without a suitable replacement, developers had to resort to inefficient cycles of building, deploying, and troubleshooting.Â
Tasks like configuring Auth0 integrations highlighted these inefficiencies, as even small changes required rebuilding and redeploying containers from scratch.
“We didnât have the ability to connect to Auth0 locally. Every change required building and deploying a container, waiting, and repeating the cycle. It was incredibly inefficient.” shared one of the engineers.
The team needed a secure and efficient way to replicate production-like environments locally, with priorities including:
- Faster feedback loops.
- Running applications locally as if they were in the cloud.
- Simplifying developer workflows without introducing security risks.
- Reducing onboarding time for new engineers.
The solution: A secure and intuitive way to run code locally in a Kubernetes context
When CoLabâs Developer Experience (DevEx) team began exploring solutions, they evaluated multiple tools, including Tilt, Gefyra, and Telepresence, but none fully met their needs.
What stood right away about mirrord was how easy it was to set up.
“The first time I used mirrord I was already sold. I thought it was so much better than anything I had tried before.â said Josh Bell, a Senior Software Engineer at CoLab.
Tilt relied heavily on local infrastructure, making it complex and resource-intensive. Developers had to learn the tool and troubleshoot issues independently, leading to scalability challenges and laptops slowing down to a crawl.Â
Gefyra was ruled out early on due to compatibility issues with their existing setup.
The real comparison came down to Telepresence and mirrord. While Telepresence was familiar to some team members, setting it up turned into a multi-day processâeven for experienced users. The team spent hours re-reading documentation and troubleshooting issues. In contrast, mirrord was intuitive and worked out of the box from the very first attempt.
Another critical factor was data privacy. Telepresence didnât offer clear assurances about data handling, which left the team uncertain about its security. In comparison, mirrordâs approach inspired confidence.
“We didnât know what Telepresence was doing with our data, but with mirrord, we know our data is safe.”
Before rolling it out across the team, the DevEx engineers tested mirrord with their services to ensure it integrated seamlessly. They found that debugging became significantly easierâdevelopers simply selected a configuration and clicked a debug option to get started. “All you have to do is select your config and click debug. Thatâs it.”
The teamâs reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Developers were impressed with mirrordâs simplicity and its ability to improve performance.
“Literally, people were like, âThis is a magical experience. We love this tool. My laptop is running faster,â” shared Josh.
By the end of the evaluation, mirrord was the clear choice for CoLab, addressing all their requirements for security, usability, and efficiency.
The results: Faster development, smoother onboarding, and happier developers
With mirrord, CoLab transformed their development workflowsâeliminating repetitive build-and-deploy cycles, streamlining onboarding, and making debugging more efficient. Hereâs how it all came together:
Faster testing and debugging = cost savings
mirrord significantly reduced the time required for testing and debugging, directly saving developer hours and reducing costs.
“The main benefit I see is developer time, which equals saving money. How long does it take to test a change in development? If you have to make a hundred of those changes, that would take you what? 15 minutes x 100 changes? [25 hours] With mirrord, you can do all that in 20 minutes,” explained Josh.
Simpler onboarding for new developers
Onboarding new team members became a much faster and smoother process. What used to take days is now reduced to a simple setup.
“If a dev was good and senior, they could be set up in 4-5 hours, but there were always some issues to fix. Sometimes it took a couple of days to get everything working. Now, with mirrord, itâs just a button click, and youâre done,” shared Josh.
Simplified troubleshooting
By moving away from relying on individual laptops for debugging, the team shifted to a cloud-based approach, making issue resolution faster and easier to manage.
“We donât have to support people troubleshooting issues on their laptops anymore. Now, we can debug in the cloud and say, âOh, I see why your service isnât working.â So itâs very helpful for us,” Josh noted.
Increased capacity for complex projects
With mirrord, previously resource-intensive projects became more manageable. This allowed the team to take on work that was harder to execute before.
“Now that we have mirrord, we can actually execute this planâitâs not as hard as it would have been before,” noted a project manager.
Better developer experience
One of the most impactful results was the improvement in developer happiness. While not directly measurable, the impact on the teamâs satisfaction was clear.
“Thereâs nothing more frustrating than working on a system without the support to get it running. But when everything works, and you can focus on coding, youâre actually making progress on the business,” said Josh.
CoLab tackled inefficiencies in debugging and development workflows with mirrord. The result was a faster, more reliable process that allowed the team to focus on delivering results rather than wasting time on unnecessary delays.