Understanding CI/CD in a DevOps Toolchain

DevOps is a culture that combines two ends of the SDLC lifecycle, the Developers and the Operations. CI/CD Pipeline is one of the most important parts of any DevOps toolchain. Good knowledge of CI and CD will help DevOps experts to develop high-quality products at a faster speed.

What is CI/CD Pipeline in DevOps?

Continuous Integration or CI is the practice in which whenever a developer finishes a functionality, a new code will be integrated with the existing code continuously. It will help to detect any errors at the initial stage. So that the errors can be solved quickly. Eventually, this will save a lot of time.

Continuous Delivery or CD comes when CI is completed. CD is like an extension to Continuous Integration. Here, a recently integrated code is made ready for deployment automatically. Usually, it will take 2 to 3 days if done manually. CD will automate the software delivery process without any delay.

Advantages or Benefits of CI/CD :

CI and CD will help any software application to reach its potential customers faster and more effectively. It will reduce the risk at each stage of software development. Ultimately this will lead to faster delivery to customers.

• Smaller Code Changes: 
It allows you to integrate a small piece of code at one time. Small code changes are simple and easy to handle. Moreover, it can be tested as soon as it are integrated. This works well for large organizations.
• More test reliability
: CI/CD improves reliability. Because it will test every bit-size changes in the system. Test reliability in CI/CD is also called Continuous Reliability. This will make sure that quality is on the top of everything, even with continuous merging and releasing of new products.
• Greater Visibility
: CI/CD pipeline will also enhance the transparency. Here, everything can be analyzed. Be it the process of new builds, test results, or any issues with the recent builds. Using this analysis, the development team will be able to know and track which changes in the build lead to the brokerage.
• Customer Satisfaction
: CI/CD pipelines will help to make a great first impression on any customer. Utilizing a CI/CD pipeline also keeps the product updated with new features and bug fixes. Customer feedback leads to improvement in overall customer satisfaction. Adding new features in CI/CD pipeline based on the customer feedback will help to maintain old users and gain new ones.
• Reduce Cost: 
 automation in the CI/CD pipeline also reduces errors. It will  free-up developer’s time, that could be spent on other important and meaningful tasks. When you increase code quality with automation, it will also increase your ROI.
• Fault Isolation
 Fault isolation means when any error occurs, there is limited scope for negative outcomes in any practice. So, it will reduce the damage and makes the system easy to maintain. CI/CD will makes the fault isolation faster and easier.
• Faster Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR)
: MTTR helps to track the amount of time spent to recover from a failure. CI/CD reduce MTTR. Because Code changes are smaller and fault isolation is easier and faster. MTTR estimates the maintenance time of repairable features. Thus, it sets the average time to fix any damaged feature.

Best Practices for building CI/CD pipelines

• Security First Approach
 CI/CD provides access to the codebase and credentials of various environments. So it is often the prime target of hackers. Therefore, it is a good idea to isolate your CI/CD by placing them in secure networks. This can be achieved by using VPNs and strong two-factor authentications.
• Implement Tracking and Version Control Tools
: tracking tools like Jira and Bugzilla will help to achieve better visibility. Version Control Tools like Git will help to track all the changes made into the code-base. These tools will make it simpler to collaborate with various teams and will work as a lifesaver.
• Separate CI and CD Pipelines
 : separating CI and CD will create small pipelines, instead of complex and huge pipelines created by collaborating CI and CD. By separating CI and C, you can avoid the unmanageable backlog of work-in-progress pipelines. In the end, there will be multiple small testing and approvals.
• Maintain Transparency Within and Across the Teams: this will help when teams of an organization are located in different places/regions. In such a scenario, transparency is the key element to make sure every team member is co-ordinating with others. CI can be highly effective here because it will bring much-needed transparency. This way, the teams can work on the improvements and can also keep the track of things done. It is important to have everyone working on the same page while working remotely. This can be achieved with the help of project management tools in CI/CD.
• Choosing Right Tools for CI/CD Pipeline: a 
CI/CD pipeline is profoundly dependent on the tools it has. There are different tools available in the CI and CD pipeline. You will have to choose the tools which are right for your team/environment and is also in your budget. It’s always a good idea to know about the pros and cons of each tool before using it. Later on, changing the tools can be a big disadvantage for the team. As it could affect the deadlines and final product.

Some popular CI/CD Tools:

There are many CI/CD tools available in the market. Some of the most popular CI/CD tools are mentioned here. You can use the tools which suit your project  requirements and your budget.

• Jenkins
• Bamboo
• Microsoft VSTS
• GitLab
• Buddy
• Travis CI
• Circle CI
• TeamCity