Introduction
Modern software development demands speed, agility, and reliability. That’s where CI/CD comes in — a fundamental practice that enables teams to deliver code faster and with fewer errors.
1. What does CI/CD stand for?
- CI = Continuous Integration
- CD = Continuous Delivery or Continuous Deployment
Together, they form a pipeline that automates the process of building, testing, and releasing software.
2. Continuous Integration (CI)
CI is the practice of merging code changes frequently (often multiple times a day) into a shared repository. Every change triggers an automated build and test process.
Benefits of CI:
- Detect bugs early
- Reduce integration issues
- Maintain a stable codebase
Tools for CI: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI
3. Continuous Delivery (CD)
CD ensures that code changes are automatically prepared for release. After passing the CI phase, the application can be deployed to staging or pre-production environments at any time.
Key focus: Automated testing and deployment readiness
4. Continuous Deployment
Continuous Deployment goes one step further. Every change that passes all tests is automatically deployed to production, without manual intervention.
Difference:
- Delivery = ready for release
- Deployment = automatically released
5. Benefits of CI/CD
- Faster release cycles
- Reduced manual errors
- Higher confidence in code quality
- Enables DevOps and DevSecOps practices
6. CI/CD and Security
In a DevSecOps context, security checks (like SAST, DAST, dependency scanning) are integrated into the CI/CD pipeline. This ensures vulnerabilities are caught before reaching production.
Conclusion
CI/CD is the backbone of modern DevOps and DevSecOps practices. It automates delivery, improves quality, and reduces risk — making software development faster and more reliable.
That’s CI/CD.