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CI/CD vs DevOps: Key Differences You Need To Know

With the increase in the number of startups and the online business world, the software development and deployment industry is at its highest point in the past few years. Software development and application development can be tedious tasks as they involve various steps and are complex, as well as requiring a deep understanding of modern technology. 

The two  most effective technologies in this industry are CI/CD and DevOps.Organizations are quickly adopting DevOps as the demand for CI/CD and automation develops.. According to a GlobeNewswire analysis, the DevOps market will be worth approximately USD 25.5 billion by 2028. As a result, the CI/CD methodology empowers enterprises by allowing for more agile time to market and deployment.On the other side, the DevOps ecosystem helps overcome various collaboration issues and stranded teams.

However when it comes to the selection , organization often confuse these two  as they think both are the same .They have their own different kinds of  core concepts as well as overlapping concepts which create confusion . Don’t worry here we are to resolve your problem . In this blog we will share a complete detail about key differences you need to know about  CI/CD vs DevOps.

What is CI/CD?

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), often known as Continuous Deployment, is a collection of ideas and techniques that assist development teams in making dependable, accurate code changes. The CI/CD DevOps Model ensures continuous monitoring and the usage of various automation tools throughout the software development lifecycle. Remember that CI/CD is one of the practices used by the team when working in accordance with the DevOps concept. So, answering the most important question: is CI/CD part of DevOps? CI/CD is one of the top DevOps strategies that use the appropriate automation tools. Teams can speed up the release of the most recent updates by storing all of their programming code in a single repository and running automated tests on a continuous basis. Let us now learn and comprehend CI/CD individually.

What is Continuous Integration (CI)?

Goal: To detect and fix integration issues early, thereby improving code quality and reducing integration problems.

CI stands for Continuous Integration. It is a software development process/technique in which fresh changes intended to improve the code’s performance are updated automatically. Code modifications made by numerous software developers are immediately integrated and updated in a single database. It is a method in which a network of developers commits to a single codebase, such as stash or GitHub. The primary role of Continuous Integration (CI) is bug testing by evaluating code and integrating it across the development team. This improves code quality by making it less prone to crashes and reduces the time required to release new features in the application for widespread use. Some of the tools used for continuous integration are Bamboo, Jenkins, TeamCity.

What is Continuous Delivery(CD)?

This process is carried out right after Continuous Integration. It is done to ensure that updates to the program were made by developers in order to improve the code and reach clients as quickly and error-free as possible. This is accomplished by conducting regression and integration tests in a simulator or staging area to ensure that the final program runs without errors.

It contributes to the automation of the software development lifecycle and prepares the product for release, allowing the application to be deployed at any time. Gitlab, CodeDeploy, and AWS are among the tools used for Continuous Delivery.

What is the Difference Between CI and CD?

Continuous Integration is a collaborative process. Developers working on different parts of the program contribute to a common repository that stores all new modifications or lines of code. When a developer has finished his portion of the code, he can push the change and save it in a common repository.

Continuous Delivery seeks to collect all updates and execute and test them in a demonstration environment. It ensures that all of the code’s functions are up and running and may be deployed at any given time.

What is DevOps?

The term DevOps is derived from Development and Operations. It brings together the organisation’s development and IT operations departments. The primary objective is to create better software products with shorter software development lifecycles, resulting in better and more enriched end products for clients. 

DevOps seeks to bridge the gap between developers and testers. Using specific tools and methodologies, more stable software applications can be created that are less prone to crashes and increase consumer confidence in the final result. DevOps brings together people from varied backgrounds to collaborate and reduce bottlenecks when bringing a new product to market.

Key Benefits of CI/CD & DevOps?

  1. Rapid software delivery – CI/DS and DevOps  accelerates software development and deployment, resulting in a faster time-to-time market.
  2. Improved collaboration and communication – 
  3. Cost reduction – Organizations can dramatically reduce the cost of repairing defects and gaps in production by identifying and correcting bugs early in the software development process.
  4. Better quality and reliability – Frequent feedback loops and automatic quality checks ensure that code modifications satisfy high requirements prior to production. CI/CD pipelines help to manage complicated projects and react to changing business needs.
  5. Risk mitigation – its  reduced deployment failures .Automated testing and continuous integration detect defects early in the development cycle, lowering the risk of deployment failures and reducing downtime.
  6. Increased productivity: The automation of build, test, and deployment procedures minimizes human burden and allows developers to focus on writing code and innovating.
  7. Advantage over competitor –  Quick and trustworthy software updates enable firms to respond fast to market developments while remaining competitive.
  8. Decreased Manual Work: CI/CD and DevOps reduces manual intervention, lowering errors and freeing developers’ time for more valuable activities.
  9. Client fulfilment: Updates and improvements are delivered more quickly, enhancing the user experience.

Key Challenges of integrating DevOps and CI/CD

  1. Cultural and organizational resistance: Transitioning to a DevOps and CI/CD approach necessitates a significant cultural shift, which is likely to be faced with opposition from teams used to old methodologies.
  2. Technical difficulty might arise when establishing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines and DevOps methods.
  3. Initial investment: Implementing DevOps and CI/CD frequently necessitates a significant upfront investment in tools, training, and infrastructure.
  4. Security Considerations: It might be difficult to monitor the security of automated procedures and sensitive data along the CI/CD pipeline.

Key Differences between CI/CD and DevOps

  • DevOps is a collection of ideas, roles, processes, and tactics designed to accelerate the entire development cycle.
  • It ensures that the product is created from the start in accordance with optimal workflows, resulting in better product delivery and more resilient software delivery.
  • It encourages professionals to cross-train in different sectors so that they may appreciate and participate in ongoing development while also gaining a better understanding and perspective at all stages of the software development lifecycle.
  • It improved communication among project managers, IT teams, and software developers.
  • Implementing DevOps in an existing infrastructure necessitates cultural and process changes because it requires resources from various divisions within a business.
  • In the case  of CI/CD only a process shift is needed.
  • CI/CD focuses on automating the integration of product changes and creating smooth workflows for product delivery.
  • It also relies on feedback from end users.
  • This automated approach benefits both the end-user and the solution supplier.
  • However, CI/CD is exclusively used by the organisation’s DevOps staff.
  • Tools are used in CI/CD are version control systems (e.g., Git), CI servers (e.g., Jenkins, CircleCI), automated testing frameworks (e.g., Selenium), and deployment tools (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker).
  • Tools are used in DevOps are – including CI/CD tools, configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible, Puppet), monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana), and collaboration platforms (e.g., Slack, JIRA)

How to Implement CI/CD and DevOps in your Organisation

The implementation of CI/CD are proceed in four steps :

  1. Commit: Different developers integrate new features into the database.
  2. Build: Developers push updates to the registry and send them for testing.
  3. Test: The new upgrades have been tested, and the overall stability of the product has been validated.
  4. Production Deployment: Once the updates have been tested to ensure stability, they are released/deployed.

Testing and Automation in CI/CD

  • CI/CD is synonymous with process and test automation, resulting in smooth software delivery.
  •  The primary notion of CI/CD is to “build fast, test fast, and fail fast.”
  •  Thus, automation becomes critical for CI/CD implementation.
  •  Consider an example of feature testing for an application.
  •  The app should work reliably across several devices and platforms.
  •  Ensuring such homogeneity requires comprehensive app testing.
  •  Applications require a variety of tests, including unit testing, user acceptance testing, integration testing, functional testing, and so on.
  • Testing the program across several physical devices and locations will need large resources.
  •  Automating the testing phase is the most cost-effective and time-saving method.
  •  Furthermore, test automation enables firms to reduce repeated human tasks.
  •  The cost of software testing is an important part of an IT organization’s budget.
  • One strategy to keep your software testing expenditures under control is to adopt test-driven development (TDD).
  •  In addition, you can use TDD and test automation to reduce costs.

Testing and Automation in DevOps

  • Automation in DevOps goes beyond tests and includes several stages of software development.
  • Automation in DevOps exists at all levels, including build development, testing, and deployment configuration.
  • Consider Capital One’s “Cloud Detour.”
  • It is a tool created by Capital One internal teams to assess the robustness of applications using chaotic engineering.
  • App testing attempts to simulate failure in order to improve resilience and reliability.

Key(real world) Examples of CI/CD and DevOps Implementation

  1. Netflix: Netflix is an excellent example of a company that has successfully integrated DevOps and CI/CD technologies. Netflix’s ability to reliably and swiftly roll out improvements and new features to their platform is due to the automation of their deployment pipeline and the creation of a collaborative culture. 
  2. Amazon: Amazon can modify their code thousands of times per day because of automation and integration, and they encourage collaboration and continuous improvement. Amazon has the ability to develop and adapt to customers quickly. 
  3. Spotify: Spotify follows a DevOps culture , with an automatic team responsible for different areas of services. This encourages agility and speedy problem solutions.Automated testing and deployment pipelines enable more frequent and dependable releases.

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Conclusion

DevOps and CI/CD both improve productivity, teamwork, deployment skills, and software development effectiveness. The way you adopt them is what matters. A study of your current systems is necessary for the integration of the CI/CD pipeline and the adoption of the DevOps culture.

When aiming to optimize software delivery processes, organizations must understand the underlying differences between CI/CD and DevOps. The primary purpose of CI/CD is code integration and deployment automation, but DevOps is a broader organizational and cultural strategy that encourages collaboration and continuous improvement.