Why CI/CD is Crucial for DevOps in Nepal?
DevOps combines development (dev) and operations (Ops) to increase an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at high velocity. It is defined as a software engineering methodology that works towards integrating the work of development teams and operations teams by providing a culture of collaboration and shared responsibility. Software that uses DevOps practices gets continuously improved and maintained. It makes software smart and enables it to deal with errors and issues. As a result, you will rest assured of speed and security. DevOps practices pay attention to every level of the software development process. For the betterment, it has altered software development & delivery. Software developers now don’t have to release a new version every year. They can release updates and fix them as quickly as possible.
CD(Continuous Delivery) provides numerous benefits for your software development team including automating the process, improving developer productivity, improving code quality, reducing risk of deployment failures, detecting errors easily, and delivering updates to your customers faster. CI/CD, which stands for continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment, aims to simplify and accelerate the software development lifecycle.
Continuous integration (CI) refers to the practice of automatically and frequently coalescing code changes into a shared source code repository. Continuous delivery and/or deployment (CD) is a two-part process that refers to the integration, testing, and delivery of code changes. Continuous delivery halts short of automatic production deployment, while continuous deployment automatically unlocks the updates into the production environment.
Putting simply, continuous integration is focused on automatically building and testing code, as compared to continuous delivery, which automates the entire software release process up to production. In this blog, we will be discussing the role of CI\CD in DevOps engineering and how you can master CI\CD with TechAxis Nepal.
What is CI/CD?
CI and CD stand for continuous integration and continuous delivery/continuous deployment. CI/CD is defined as a set of operating principles and capabilities that enables changes in the software to users in a timely, repeatable, and secure manner by introducing automation into software development processes. In very simple terms, CI is a modern software development practice in which incremental code changes are made frequently and reliably. CI triggers the automated phases of CI\CD(build-and-test steps) to ensure that code changes being integrated into the repository are reliable. The code is then delivered quickly and smoothly as a part of the CD process. In the software world, the CI/CD pipeline refers to the automation that enables incremental code changes from developers’ desktops to be delivered quickly and reliably to production.
Automation of software releases — from initial sourcing to the final deployment — is a significant benefit of the CI/CD pipeline. There are a lot of benefits of the CI/CD process for development teams including the following:
- Reducing time to deployment through automation.
- Improving the ability to address error detection earlier in the development process.
- Decreasing the costs associated with traditional software development.
- Improving team collaboration and system integration.
There are various stages in the CI\CD pipeline. The CI/CD pipeline combines version control integration, automated builds, testing, and deployment into four major phases: source, build, test, and deploy.
Source:
The source stage which is also known as the version control stage is the base of theCI\CD pipeline. It involves managing and storing source code in a controlled and versioned manner. Code is created or updated by developers on their local machines and then it is pushed to a version control system such as Git or Subversion. This stage ensures that every modification made to the code is tracked and can be retrieved or reverted, providing a safety net for developers.
Build:
The build stage is a crucial phase of the CI/CD pipeline. In this stage, the source code which was collected in the previous source stage, gets transformed into a tangible product that can be executed in an environment. This transformation depends on the type of application being built. Also, during the build stage, tasks like resolving dependencies, and bundling assets are handled by the system. The outcome of this stage is an artifact (or multiple artifacts) that can be deployed in the next stages.
Test:
The test stage is where the application is subjected to comprehensive automated testing to ensure that it meets all functional and non-functional requirements. Tests conducted during this stage can include:
Integration testing, Component testing, System testing, Performance testing, and Security testing.
Deploy:
Finally, the deployment stage is where the code is ready to be deployed to a QA, pre-production or production environment per the organization's plan. Deploying of the software can be automated through continuous deployment. This is the stage where the organizations prefer the deployment strategies such as the canary, rolling, blue/green, etc.
Why is CI/CD Important for DevOps Engineering in Nepal?
- Faster time to market:
We are living in an era whereby software product development is the order of the day. However, technological advancements have made it a trend for developers to release quality code quickly and in a safe state. According to the Google conference held in Napa at JFrog SwampUP in the year 2018, at least 500 million tests are run every single day in Google’s system src-aalpha.net. Now that competition is the order of the day, every business owner strives to make the best for their customers by releasing new and attractive features according to clients' requirements. For this reason, frequent and quicker software releases are set to keep growing. It is a trend that is never going to end anytime soon. Therefore, to stay competitive in Nepal's growing IT market, quicker software releases are crucial.
- Improved Software Quality:
With CI, as soon as a developer submits code, it’s subjected to a battery of tests. Any issues, bugs, or conflicts are spotted right away, reducing the chances of bugs slipping into the final product. This consequently results in higher-quality releases.
- Increased Developer Efficiency:
Automation reduces the manual workload for developers, freeing them up from repetitive tasks such as testing and code review. This allows them to focus on more creative and strategic tasks, such as brainstorming new features. For example, using automation for unit tests on every code change can save hours and ensure high-quality code.
- Enhanced Collaboration:
DevOps is as much about building a collaborative culture as it is about new processes and tools. To get started with CI/CD you need to start breaking down barriers between teams and encouraging more communication. Breaking down silos between development and operations is the start of a virtuous circle. A CI\CD pipeline provides an opportunity for the many functions and specialists involved in building a product – from security experts to marketing teams – to get better visibility of the software development process and to collaborate more.
Mastering CI/CD with TecAxis's DevOps Training in Nepal
For comprehensive and Best DevOps training in Nepal, you can also enroll in DevOps courses. Various IT training centers are providing such courses. Out of all, TechAxis is the Best IT training institute in Nepal. It is the best because it's affordable. The CI\CD masters themselves are DevOps engineers which will ultimately provide you the doorway of opportunity. Their CI\CD training programs are thoroughly organized and designed as per students' requirements. Now, here's the best part- TechAxis Nepal has no fixed timeline; they customize CI\CD mastering programs according to the enrolled student's pace, ensuring that everyone's on board and no one's left behind. And lastly, when it comes to internships, they're not holding back.
With a high placement rate, TechAxis Nepal provides internship opportunities to as many students as expected. TechAxis Nepal has its job portal JobAxle that offers job assistance to students. TechAxis Nepal has collaborated with 20-plus IT and engineering colleges. TechAxis Nepal isn't just an institute; it is a tech hub and has the best IT Training Courses where your tech success story begins. For more information on CI\CD mastering programs explore their website.
Conclusion
You must have a pretty good understanding of CI\CD in DevOps engineering. Continuous integration and continuous delivery provide an ideal scenario for your organization’s application teams. When CI/CD is used, code quality is improved and software updates are delivered quickly and with high confidence that there will be no breaking changes. CI/CD supports modern development by shortening the time between coding and deployment. CI/CD forms the backbone of DevOps and SRE methodologies by enabling the team to match the speed of the business.
To commence your journey of becoming a DevOps Engineer, TechAxis is always there to help.
TechAxis has the best CI\CD mastering course all over Nepal. For more information please visit their website.
