Carlsberg enhances development with GitHub integration

Carlsberg has addressed previously hindered development processes by implementing GitHub's software solutions to streamline their coding and security efforts.

With the integration of GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) and Copilot, Carlsberg has unified its development process, addressing the issue of tool sprawl and security concerns. The collaboration aims to establish a more secure and efficient environment for Carlsberg's developers.

Peter Birkholm-Buch, Head of Software Engineering at Carlsberg, succinctly characterised the company's core mission: "Well, we make beer." However, behind this straightforward mission lies a significant scientific endeavour, which includes their historical advancements such as the creation of the pH scale and drought-resistant crops.

Modern technological avenues have long been part of Carlsberg's research and production process, yet their software development was not fully aligned with these capabilities until now. By centralising their developer organisation on GitHub Enterprise, the company has reduced its number of development tools from six to one, aligning with its broader digital transformation strategy. "When I came onboard, we were dealing with a heterogeneous development landscape, where everyone had to be a DevOps engineer to get anything built or published," Birkholm-Buch stated.

This transition to a platform engineering structure, with GitHub Enterprise at its core, has eliminated friction and streamlined infrastructure management. "Everything from standing up infrastructure on Azure to managing code—it all lives on GitHub," Birkholm-Buch added, highlighting the consolidation benefits.

The incorporation of GitHub Copilot into Carlsberg's workflow has been well received, significantly enhancing productivity and learning opportunities among developers. "Everyone immediately enabled it, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive," Birkholm-Buch noted. The AI coding assistant is reportedly popular across the team, assisting developers in swiftly adapting to new languages and platforms.

Birkholm-Buch shared his personal insight, "I experienced my Eureka moment with GitHub Copilot when I realised it significantly reduces the learning curve required to become an efficient cloud developer." Copilot's suggestion capabilities have become an integral part of Carlsberg's developmental toolkit.

For improved security measures, Carlsberg adopted GitHub Advanced Security. One immediate benefit was the detection of approximately 600 previously unknown secrets within their private source code repositories. As Birkholm-Buch explains, "Secrets in source code are often a sign of forced context-switching, leading developers to quick fixes such as embedding passwords in code." By consolidating their development environment, Carlsberg not only reduced context-switching but also strengthened their codebase against vulnerabilities through tools like Secret Scanning and Push Protection.

Beyond security, Carlsberg has utilised GitHub Actions to consolidate and automate their CI/CD processes, replacing their fragmented Jenkins pipelines with a cohesive system. Through this integration, Carlsberg has adopted a microservices approach, thus improving its deployment agility and efficiency.

This change has made significant improvements in operational transparency and contribution. "We now see other teams contributing to these pipelines and workflows," said João Cerqueira, an engineer at Carlsberg, noting a cultural shift towards greater innersourcing and collaboration.

By deploying GitHub's suite of tools, Carlsberg has successfully enhanced its development environment, driving efficiency while maintaining security. As Birkholm-Buch summarises, "GitHub helps us eliminate context switching and keeps developers in the zone. That translates into developers being more efficient and writing code faster."