How to implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

The ideal method to use Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery procedures is to increase the software quality, shorten the time to market, and use less infrastructure.

Continuous integration is the process of routinely developing and updating an application's source code, using a set of established procedures and tools, and releasing each version on a regular basis.

Although similar, continuous delivery is used to roll out software when new system features are developed and in response to client input.

CI and CD should be the core component of one’s IT strategy, regardless of how the decisions are taken to deploy the applications in our organization. There are high chances of facing loss, disrupting the workflow within the organization when incorrect tools are provided to use for the software productions, resulting to occur lots of problems.

All sizes of enterprises depend heavily on the continuous integration and delivery. They make it possible for businesses to produce software in a timely, affordable, and dependable manner.

The vast majority of web-based apps, android apps and cloud-based services are created utilizing a mix of CI and CD techniques.

Continuous Integration

The goal of continuous integration is to give developers the tools and flexibility they need to build a software quickly and efficiently. Developers may update and test their code with each commit to produce a more refined version of the application.

The team evaluates each commit as part of continuous integration (CI). When the updated version is prepared, the developers may upload it to the server for continuous integration, which will execute the automated tests and report back to the group on the software's functionality. The staff will be aware of any software issues immediately so they may be fixed.

Continuous Delivery

The goal of continuous delivery is to provide the software consistently and reliably to the consumers. Every time a change is sent to the Continuous Integration server, the server executes the automated tests and sends the code to the clients in an enhanced state.

The team does this procedure manually though. The Continuous Integration process is handled by the developers. The team will carry out the manual Continuous Delivery actions listed above when a new version is prepared to be pushed. A new software version is added to the Continuous Integration server, and software delivery to the clients starts.

The team must first master the skill of monitoring Continuous Integration server used for continual and Continuous Delivery to benefit from CD. We should be aware of the following important details.

Monitoring Continuous Integration server

Monitoring the Continuous Integration server should be one of our prime priorities before implementing continuous delivery. AWS, CloudWatch and Jenkins are a couple of the alternatives we have to use.

Jenkins

Jenkins is a free continuous integration solution that can be installed on Windows Server 2016 and Amazon Web Services using web services.

Jenkins is accessible as a cloud service in the form of a Jenkins broker, which we can use for testing the demands. To utilize Jenkins, we must have an on-premises Jenkins server that we can connect to through an API. Jenkins may be used to generate a building job that carries out the testing procedures for continuous delivery. Every task follows a set schedule.

CloudWatch

An open-source service called CloudWatch is used to keep an eye on EC2 cloud services. Amazon EC2 (Public Cloud), Amazon RDS (Robotic Process Automation), and Amazon Simple Queue Service all support the deployment of CloudWatch (Amazon SQS).

We may set up triggers with CloudWatch to alert whenever the cloud service changes. Additionally, it enables the development of alerts, emails, and API endpoints for interacting with the CloudWatch API and receiving notifications.

GitHub

Through GitHub pages, we may manage the repository and source code. It also contains a Git addon that makes it simple to track source code updates and swiftly keep a repository current.

Continuous Integration Process Setup

Understanding the components of an effective continuous integration build is crucial. To ensure that our development and build processes go well, do the following steps −

Engaging Developers

We need to keep each developer informed about the specifications for our project. Depending on the requirements of our engineers, we can utilize both email and writing correspondence.

Configuring Automated Builds

For every update to the source code, as previously mentioned, the build procedure must be automated. For instance, we may set up an automated build process to test the application before deploying a new feature to a specific group of users in an Amazon Web Services environment.

The build process may be automated using several software programs, including Gradle, Maven, Jenkins, and TeamCity.

Continuous integration facilitates the frequent development, testing, and deployment of the program to all environments, including the production and development environments.

A pipeline—a series of actions that must be taken to construct the application and link the software with the infrastructure—is crucial.

Application Development and Distribution

The next stage is to create the application distributed to the various environments after setting up a pipeline to test the build process.

Either the waterfall technique is used, which entails creating thorough design, documentation, and a thorough project plan, or construct the application using agile development, which enables us to make modifications to the source code within a sprint.

Another approach is to create an on-demand environment, which is a repository which can be used to execute our programs in various environments, like Amazon Web Services.

Setting up a testing environment in the cloud and then creating the application in an on-demand environment to test it in a setting which is completely different from the production environment is a standard procedure.

Conclusion

Your cloud-first software development business model can become a reality by following the steps outlined above. Learning the process of creating cloud apps and how to create a scalable, transparent, and repeatable business model would be in our best interest even if we are new to the cloud market and considering launching our very own first cloud-first firm.