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ArticleWhat it really means to deliver on CD
Organizations generally understand the value of collaboration and accountability (DevOps) and efficiency (automation). But to justify the investment in tools and training for CD, delve into the specific benefits it provides. Read Now
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ArticleGet started on the right path
Once you decide to adopt continuous delivery and DevOps, follow these main principles to ease the transition and get the best ROI. One pro tip: Stay away from the specialist team mentality. Read Now
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ArticleWe have version control -- what's next?
There are nearly as many CI/CD pipeline tool combinations as there are DevOps teams. While the perfect pipeline looks different depending on who you are and what you're building, these tips help create a pipeline plan and source viable tech for it. Read Now
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ArticleAdvance on the CD journey
DevOps teams take continuous improvement to heart and look for ways to improve their practices and processes. Follow this CD maturity model, based on the familiar five steps of the Capability Maturity Model. It might bring you to continuous deployment. Read Now
Editor's note
Humans love to go fast. That thrill can extend to software code with the pairing of continuous integration/continuous delivery and DevOps.
Continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD) and continuous deployment all focus on getting newly created code onto production systems as quickly as possible -- without breaking anything. The terms can be segmented by steps:
- CI facilitates and automates code creation, verification and management before it is an executable product.
- CD brings executable code through automated and manual tests and release steps to prepare it for production.
- Continuous deployment takes code through testing and onto production systems.
DevOps doesn't perform any of these steps, exactly. Instead, the methodology guides developers, testers and IT operations teams to create code that's easy to test, builds that are easy to deploy and production IT systems that are easy to manage. The CI/CD process gives DevOps the tools to accomplish these goals.
1Move the needle with continuous deployment
Continuous delivery and DevOps are enough to give most software product teams the speed and production readiness they need. But for those advanced teams that crave automation and top-speed releases, the next step is continuous deployment and related measures, such as continuous security and testing.
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Article
Tools to make continuous deployment a reality
Continuous deployment tools are familiar to organizations versed in CD. To kick into the straight-to-production gear, focus on exhaustive tests, rapid monitoring and response to production changes. Read Now
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Article
Create a deployment pipeline for infrastructure as code
Another way to bolster continuous delivery and DevOps is via programmable infrastructure. Sys admins become infrastructure developers, managing configurations as code, with the same production-ready mindset and tight version control applied to software products. Read Now
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Article
Inject security into DevOps
Security isn't one step in the software delivery and deployment lifecycle -- although one step is better than none. For truly production-ready code, make security checks and input from security specialists just as continuous and automated as CI/CD. Read Now
2Supporting technology spotlight: Containers
For DevOps to work, developers, testers and operations managers all have to see the same thing with the code. DevOps aims to destroy the works-on-my-machine syndrome that throws up walls between these steps in software delivery.
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Article
How containers work
Application and system containers isolate the application from the deployment environment in ways different from VMs. While containers offer benefits, especially for distributed applications, they don't solve every problem, and they can raise some new ones. Read Now
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Article
Containers named essential in DevOps toolkit
Some tools are expected on a DevOps team's must-have list -- a CI/CD build automation server, for example, or version control repository. But container deployment and management both made the top 10 list for DevOps tools. Read Now
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Article
Lower complexity with containers
The deployment methodology enabled by containers and orchestration tools, such as Kubernetes, threatens to unseat established DevOps-aimed deployment tools, such as configuration management systems. Read Now
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Article
How to integrate containers in a continuous pipeline
Continuous delivery and deployment pipelines can easily adjust to accommodate containers, and the technology might even simplify the CI/CD toolchain. Read Now
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Resource
Where the rubber meets the road: Try out DevOps tech
Ready to get started? Head to the home lab. Do some practice laps with infrastructure as code, containers, automated configurations, version control and more. Read Now