What is a delivery pipeline?
A delivery pipeline in DevOps works the same way. It is a series of automated steps that all the code changes go through from development to production. This pipeline consists of a series of interconnected stages, each performing a specific task. These stages typically include:
1. Version Control: DevOps follows the GitOps trend. It is a special approach within DevOps that focuses on managing infrastructure and application development by storing them in Git repositories. This makes it easier for everyone to collaborate and reduces errors. It also enables teams to easily roll back changes to previous versions in case of issues, minimizing recovery time.
2. Continuous Integration (CI): Whenever a developer commits a set of updated code, it triggers a set of automated builds and tests. This ensures early detection of bugs and prevents regressions from breaking the codebase.
3. Continuous Delivery (CD): Once code passes CI, it’s automatically packaged and prepped for deployment. There is minimal manual intervention and it promotes faster release cycles.
4. Continuous Deployment: The pipeline automates deployment without the need for manual approval. This reduces the risk of errors associated with manual deployments, plus no time is wasted promoting faster releases.
5. Continuous Operations: Post-deployment monitoring ensures the application functions as expected. This includes tracking performance metrics, identifying errors, and facilitating quick rollbacks if necessary.
Benefits of Delivery Pipelines
The advantages of implementing a delivery pipeline are numerous.
1. Increased Speed and Efficiency
Since there are automated tests and deployments, it minimizes human errors. This eventually leads to faster development cycles by using the saved time on efficient error resolution in the code.
2. Improved Quality
Continuous integration and testing helps to catch bugs early. This helps in timely error solving and preventing them from reaching production and impacting users.
3. Enhanced Collaboration
Since all the code is in a unified platform on Git, everyone involved can check on the code. This promotes effective collaboration and transparency amongst the developers.
4. Better Resource Management
Automation frees up a lot of the developers’ time. This allows them to focus on higher-level tasks and innovation.
Types of Delivery Pipelines
There are various delivery pipeline approaches, each catering to specific needs:
1. Continuous Delivery (CD Pipeline)
This is where the code is automatically packaged after it has passed all tests and is prepped for deployment. The developer just needs to approve and deploy the already-prepped package.
2. Continuous Deployment (CD Pipeline with Automatic Production Deployments)
This is an extension of CD. This process eliminates the need for manual approval and schedules automatic deployments. In this case, the code is pushed to production when it has passed all the previous stages in the pipeline.
3. Feature Flag Pipelines
These pipelines allow some control over who gets access to the new features. Features can be toggled on or off for specific user groups, facilitating A/B testing.
4. GitOps Pipelines
This approach uses Git as the single source of truth. This means this approach believes the latest update on the Git repository. It focuses on managing infrastructure and application development stored in the Git repositories. This makes it easier for everyone to collaborate and reduces errors. All the changes are made through Git commits. This enables teams to easily roll back changes to previous versions in case of issues, minimizing recovery time. The Git repository has the updated infrastructure and application configurations.