what is ci/cd? — a 30,000 foot view

What is CI/CD? — A 30,000 Foot View

"You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative" — Walter Lippmann.

CI/CD is an acronym for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment. It encompasses everything from when software is pushed to a repository, triggering automated builds, tests, security checks, and finally promotion to production environments.

Benefits

• Faster Releases: Automation lets teams integrate changes quickly and release features much faster
• Reduced Risk: Testing early and often reduces the cost of releasing new features and the likelihood of unwanted changes reaching production

How to Implement CI/CD

Traditional CI/CD

• Privately managed infrastructure
• Your team is responsible for setup, security, and scaling
• Higher management overhead but more control

Managed CI/CD

• Zero infrastructure management
• Pay-per-use pricing model
• Instant scaling and built-in concurrency
• Popular options: CircleCI, TravisCI, Google Cloud Build, Spinnaker

Which One Should You Choose?

Consider these four key factors:

1. Team Size: Smaller teams benefit from managed solutions
2. Expense: Total cost of ownership favors managed solutions
3. Integrations: Managed platforms have more built-in integrations
4. Security: Traditional gives more control but requires more effort

Only about 40% of organizations currently use CI/CD. Whether you should implement it depends on your team's needs and context. Stay automating!