CI/CD is how modern teams ship software quickly without breaking things. Here's how it works.
What is CI/CD?
Continuous Integration (CI) automatically tests code changes as they're made, catching bugs early.
Continuous Deployment (CD) automatically deploys tested code to production, eliminating manual release processes.
A Typical Pipeline
- Code commit: Developer pushes code changes
- Build: Application is compiled/packaged
- Test: Automated tests run
- Security scan: Check for vulnerabilities
- Deploy to staging: Test in production-like environment
- Deploy to production: Release to users
Benefits
- Faster releases: From months to minutes
- Fewer bugs: Caught before production
- Reduced risk: Smaller, incremental changes
- Developer productivity: Less time on manual tasks
- Rollback capability: Quick recovery from issues
Popular Tools
- GitHub Actions
- GitLab CI
- Jenkins
- CircleCI
- AWS CodePipeline
Need help setting up CI/CD? Contact PYCO IT.