Word of the Day: continuous deployment

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms | November 7, 2018 continuous deployment Continuous deployment is a software release strategy in which any code commit that passes automated testing is immediately released into the production environment. Continuous deployment pipelines are managed with tools that emphasize code testing prior to and after deployment. During the software development process, version control and build automation tools, such as Jenkins, can help ensure the smooth delivery of code. Monitoring tools that track and report changes in application or infrastructure performance due to the new code are also important.   Ideally, monitoring and incident response for continuous deployment setups should be as close to real time as possible to shorten time to recovery when there are problems in the code. In addition, it's important to have rollback capabilities so that any unexpected or undesired effects of new code in production can be identified and fixed quickly.   Although continuous deployment emphasizes automated testing, organizations that implement the strategy also rely on human-driven controls to safeguard against user disruption. Popular strategies for integrating human employees into QA testing in a continuous deployment environment include canary deployments in which code is released to a small number of users so its impact is relatively small and negative impact can be reversed quickly. Some applications can deploy in containers, such as Docker, to isolate updates from the underlying infrastructure.   The difference between continuous deployment and continuous delivery   The terms continuous integration, delivery and deployment are collectively referred to as continuous software development and are associated with the Agile and DevOps software development methodologies.   While continuous deployment and continuous delivery sound similar and share the same acronym, they are not the same thing. Continuous delivery typically uses a production-like staging area for quality assurance (QA) testing. In contrast, continuous deployment does not require a staging area because automated testing is integrated early in the development process and persists on a continuous basis. Quote of the Day "Continuous deployment skips the operations oversight step in software production. So, automated tools must ensure code success in administrators' stead -- before mistakes go live." - Adam Bertram Trending Terms continuous integration shift-left testing continuous delivery unit testing configuration management canary testing blue/green deployment Learning Center Grow rapidly into a continuous delivery pipeline For one organization modernizing applications, the logical next step was to update operations as well -- first with a continuous delivery pipeline, then eventually full continuous deployment. Understand continuous delivery and continuous deployment To the average software user, continuous delivery and continuous deployment mean the same thing. However, there are significant differences you should know. Deploy patches safely and sanely in a CI/CD workflow Deploy patches to a CI/CD DevOps workflow without causing disruptions or failures by automating where possible. Automated continuous deployment tools produce successful code Continuous deployment tools that employ automation capabilities help ensure that the last phase of the pipeline goes off without a hitch. What the CI process can and can't do for software delivery Critics initially scoffed at some DevOps strategies, including continuous integration. But, today, the CI process is a crucial part of faster app deployment pipelines. Quiz Yourself Treating testing as a ________ rather than something that should be done continuously throughout software development is a recipe for defective software. A. phase B. faze Answer Stay in Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed! FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2018 TechTarget. All rights reserved.