CI and CD are two acronyms: CI stands for Continuous Integration, and CD stands for Continuous Delivery. Under CI, developers merge the code changes into central storage where automated tests run. The CD is the conservatory of Continuous Integration, and it automatically organizes all code changes to a testing and production environment after the development stage. Continuous deployment is more advanced than constant delivery. In this, each change, after going through all production changes, is released to the customers. No human intervention is involved after initiation. Key differences are stated below:
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Continuous Integration:
Continuous integration merges the working copies or updates to a central server multiple times daily. Usually, it is implemented with the capability of initiation of automated build with testing. It enables the avoidance of integration challenges at the time of release. The following are the main critical points of continuous integration.
Key Features of Continuous Integration:
- Automated tests for Every Feature:
Developers must write automated tests for every new feature, development, or bug fix. Writing automated tests is a time-consuming and complex process.
- Need for Continuous Integration:
A continuous informal action server must monitor the central repository and run the tests automatically for pushed new commits. Continuous Integration increases the efficiency and costs simultaneously.
- Merge the Changes:
Software engineers must merge the changes as often as possible, at least once daily. There is a need to be more vigilant about these changes and to keep the central repository updated.
Benefits of Continuous Integration:
- Makes the Production Smother and Error-Free:
Less bugs are transferred to production as these bugs are captured and finally staged. It makes the production smoother and error-free. It increases the production rate.
- Makes the Release Easy:
Continuous Integration makes the release easy and quick, as all issues and bugs have already been resolved early. All the tests are run in the early stage, and bugs are fixed.
- Less Context Switching:
It involves less context switching as software developers are vigilant and intimated about bugs and issues. These issues are resolved before switching to another task. It avoids unusual switching and saves the time and cost of the development.
- Minimal Testing Costs:
Under continuous Integration, testing costs are reduced significantly as Continuous Integration Server can run hundreds of tests in seconds.
- Betterment of Overall Quality Culture:
The quality assurance team spends less time on testing and can focus on the overall development of an organization’s quality culture.
Continuous Delivery:
Continuous delivery is an approach in software engineering that allows the teams to develop the software in short cycles or parts. It offers automated deployment, and software is produced in a production-like environment, keeping strict control over the successful release of software. Key features are stated below:
Key Features of Continuous Delivery:
- A Strong Base of Continuous Integration:
Developers need a strong base of Continuous Integration. The test suite must be able to cover the codebase. Developers need to develop robust testing procedures under Continuous Integration.
- Automated Deployments:
Continuous Integration requires automated deployment. Activation is manual, but after the initiation of deployment, there is no need for human intervention. Continuous Integration comes with a higher speed as it avoids human intervention.
- Feature Flags:
Developers need to embrace Feature flags. It enables the system to ensure that incomplete features do not affect production. It helps in building an efficient production system. Further, developers may quickly identify preliminary or underprocess features.
Benefits of Continuous Delivery:
- Erasing Complexity:
Continuous delivery removes the hurdles and complexity of deploying software. Developers don’t need to spend days preparing for release. It makes the delivery and deployment of software easy and quick.
- Feedback and Upgradation:
Continuous delivery involves continuous upgradation or continuous release. It enables the developers to get customer feedback and accelerate feedback-driven software improvements. It increases efficiency and makes customers happy.
- Small Changes with Significant Outcomes:
Developers need to keep upgrading the small changes in the software to improve the overall performance. There is less pressure for small changes; it encourages easy and quick upgradation. Collectively, these tiny changes result in significant outcomes in the form of improvements.
Continuous Deployment:
Continuous deployment is an advanced software release approach where new code updates are made through automated test processes. These test processes are directly deployed in the production environment, and these updates remain visible to customers. Critical features of continuous deployment are stated below:
Key features of Continuous Deployment:
- Strong Testing Culture:
Developers need to develop a robust testing culture to get quality-driven results. The test suite’s quality will decide the quality of the release software or application. If the test suite is robust and thoroughly designed to detect errors and bugs in the system, it will bring quality results. If the test suite is incapable of quality testing, it will affect the final product’s performance.
- Documentation Process and Deployment:
Continuous deployment involves a lengthy documentation process. To keep the constant deployment active, developers need a documentation process to keep up with the pace of deployment. If they fail to keep the same pace, it will affect the continuous deployment process.
- Feature Flags:
In continuous deployment, feature flags are inherent in releasing upgrades to ensure coordination with other departments such as support, marketing, and PR. Feature flags play a vital role in coordination and enable the team to identify the features under development.
Benefits of Continuous Deployment:
- Faster Development:
Continuous deployment offers faster development as there is no need to stop deployment for releases. The deployment channel initiates automatically for every change. It increases the development speed of the team without affecting the deployment process.
- Releases are Risk-Free and More Straightforward:
In continuous deployment, releases are risk-free and offer to fix bugs quickly as developers deploy small changes. It enables software developers to release faster and risk-free updates. This process makes the deployment speedy and easy. It allows the developers to focus on small batches of changes.
- Quick and Obvious Updating:
Continuous deployment involves continuous improvement of the updating of products. Customers observe a constant flow of product improvements, and quality keeps increasing daily. It positively impacts customers and leads to endless upgrading of products and services.
Conclusion:
Despite this difference between CI and CD, the main goal of DevOps is to produce quality software and applications for customers. Continuous Integration is advantageous for developers in the first stage for delivering code, and Continuous Deployment or Continuous Delivery is for the second stage. CI is based on code development for release, and CD involves the actual code release.
If you are going for a new project without users, deploying every change to production is simple and easy. You may automate your deployments and launch the alpha version without customers. Later on, you can engage in testing culture. If you have a customer-facing application, you must implement continuous Integration and delivery. Start developing simple automated tests; there is no need to focus on comprehensive end-to-end testing. Your focus should be on automatic deployments.