How Ather Energy Reduced Deployment Time by 90% and Achieved 4x Faster Builds with Devtron

Achieved Milestones:

• ~90% Reduction in Deployment Time 
• Up to 4x faster CI builds with Docker layer caching
• Reduced DevOps Dependency 
• Streamlined Access Control with SSO + RBAC
• Reduced Cognitive Load by eliminating YAML-heavy workflows
• Shift to On-Demand Deployments from after-hours releases

Watch how Ather scaled CI/CD with Devtron

About Ather

Ather Energy is a leading electric vehicle manufacturer in India, building intelligent electric scooters and a connected mobility ecosystem.

As a fast-growing company that has achieved unicorn status with a $1.3B valuation, Ather operates at significant scale, where software powers everything from vehicle systems to cloud infrastructure.

This scale makes efficient, reliable CI/CD not just important, but critical to sustaining innovation velocity.

Background

Ather’s development teams initially used GitLab CI for their CI/CD needs. Although GitLab CI offered flexibility, certain challenges began to impact productivity and overall performance. The GitLab CI setup relied on complex YAML configurations and required significant manual oversight. Additionally, user management complexities and a lack of optimized caching led to inefficiencies in the CI process, and thus, the deployments were impacted.

Challenges Faced in GitLab CI

1. Complexity of YAML Configurations: Managing YAML files in GitLab CI became increasingly cumbersome as project scale and complexity grew, making it difficult to quickly adjust configurations.
2. High Manual Management Overhead: Continuous integration workflows required frequent manual updates and intervention, consuming valuable engineering time and resources.
3. User Management Constraints: GitLab CI’s limited options for user management made it challenging to implement Single Sign-On (SSO) with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), creating administrative and security challenges.
4. Performance Bottlenecks: Without effective caching, the CI process was slower than desired, extending build times and delaying deployments.
5. Deployment Bottlenecks: Because of the manual efforts, the deployment was drastically impacted. It took around 1-2 hours per deployment and required multiple folks for every release, creating huge dependency on DevOps teams.

Why Ather Chose Devtron for CI/CD Migration

Ather's decision to migrate from GitLab CI to Devtron was influenced by Devtron's user-friendly interface, efficient caching mechanisms, baked-in deployment capabilities, and enhanced automation options. Key factors driving the migration included:

1. User-Friendly Interface: Devtron provides an intuitive UI, making it simpler for developers and administrators to manage and modify CI pipelines without heavy YAML reliance and easy ot use one-click deployments with proper governance and control.
2. Reduced YAML Dependency: Devtron’s configuration approach reduces the need for complex YAML files, streamlining the setup and making configuration changes easier.
3. Simplified User Management: With Devtron’s SSO integration and RBAC support, Ather can enforce secure user access while reducing administrative overhead.
4. Enhanced Performance with Docker Caching: Devtron’s CI leverages Docker build cache to optimize build times, resulting in faster pipeline executions.

Solution: K8s-native Devtron CI/CD for Automation

After evaluating Devtron’s features, Ather migrated its CI/CD processes from GitLab CI to Devtron. Devtron’s capabilities in user management, caching, and automation addressed many of the limitations Ather encountered with GitLab CI. The Devtron platform provided an integrated CI/CD environment tailored to Kubernetes, allowing Ather to improve CI efficiency, reduce manual management, and achieve smoother project collaboration.

Key Results & Business Impact:

• Optimized CI Performance: By leveraging Docker layer caching, Devtron eliminated redundant build steps and significantly improved pipeline efficiency. This optimization enabled Ather to achieve up to 4x faster build times, allowing developers to receive quicker feedback and accelerate release cycles without compromising reliability.
• Accelerated Deployment Velocity: Devtron transformed Ather’s deployment workflows by reducing the time required for end-to-end deployments from 1–2 hours to just 10–15 minutes. This 75–90% reduction in deployment time enabled teams to move from scheduled, after-hours releases to on-demand deployments, significantly improving overall delivery speed and agility.
• Enhanced Automation and Operational Efficiency: With Devtron’s automation capabilities, Ather was able to eliminate several manual steps across both CI and CD workflows. Tasks that previously required continuous oversight and coordination are now streamlined, enabling a lean operational model where just one SRE and a developer can manage deployments efficiently. This shift freed up engineering bandwidth and reduced dependency on large DevOps teams.
• Streamlined User Access and Security: Devtron’s integrated support for SSO and RBAC allowed Ather to implement granular, policy-driven access control across teams. This not only simplified user management but also strengthened security posture by ensuring the right level of access for every role, eliminating the risks associated with manual permission handling.
• Improved Developer Experience and Reduced Complexity: By abstracting away YAML-heavy configurations and providing an intuitive UI-driven workflow, Devtron significantly reduced the cognitive load on developers. Teams no longer rely on memorizing deployment steps or managing complex configurations, enabling even new developers to quickly adopt and contribute to CI/CD processes with confidence.

Conclusion

By migrating from GitLab CI to Devtron, Ather transformed its CI/CD processes, achieving improved performance, efficiency, and security. Devtron’s caching, intuitive UI, automation capabilities, and streamlined user management provided Ather with a scalable CI solution well-suited to their fast-paced, innovation-driven environment. This case demonstrates the impact of adopting a Kubernetes-native CI/CD solution like Devtron to drive better outcomes in complex, high-scale development pipelines.

Abhinav Dubey

A Kubernetes head with a travelling soul. Abhinav is a highly motivated and a lifelong learner with a passion for open-source software and cloud-native technologies.