What’s the secret to successful application releases and updates? Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) is the core of a DevOps culture, and the first step to success. CI is the process of developers and testers collaborating to validate and integrate new code, while CD is the process of continuously creating new changes for quick release. CD is made possible by cloud environments, where servers are set up to deploy to production without shutting down and manually updating - companies like Facebook and Netflix are using these processes to complete multiple releases weekly.

Of the various components of the DevOps pipeline, CI/CD can be the most difficult to master and execute. Here are a few potential pitfalls, and how to avoid them:

• Automating the wrong process first
  CI/CD is a higher degree of automation, in which a build/deployment occurs automatically whenever a major change is made to the code, thus reducing the need for manual intervention. However, it is essential to understand the order of the process to ensure a successful deployment. Testing, staging and delivery can all be automated, but in the wrong order can create problems during production.

• Confusing continuous deployment for continuous delivery
  Continuous deployment ensures that every change made in the code base will be deployed almost immediately to production, while continuous delivery deploys these changes to nonproduction environments.

• Lack of coordination between processes
  This goes back to the definition of DevOps. Continuous integration and continuous deployment are two different items, requiring coordination between development and operations teams. CI feeds CD. To successfully implement an integration and deployment system, organizations need to ensure they have built a strong DevOps culture based on collaboration between teams.

As these processes are reviewed, it’s easy to lose sight of why this matters. Ultimately, CI/CD implementation helps meet application development goals with continuous evolution, quick fixes and quality results without downtime – all of which help keep customers happy.

Interested in learning more about CI/CD implementation for your applications? Reliable Software can provide tools, counsel and so much more to help you take advantage of all these benefits. Contact us today to learn more.