📄️ What is an Artifact?
Artifact storage is an essential component of modern software development and Platform Engineering. It provides a centralized repository for storing, managing, and distributing various software artifacts. These artifacts can include compiled code (binaries), libraries, containers, configuration files, and documentation. Effective artifact storage solutions facilitate DevOps practices by streamlining continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, thereby enabling developers and operations teams to work more efficiently. Here's a comprehensive overview of artifact storages, tailored for Platform Engineering, developers, and DevOps teams.
📄️ Container Registry
A Container Registry is a critical component of the container ecosystem, providing a centralized storage and distribution system for container images. These images contain the code, runtime, libraries, environment variables, and configuration files needed to run software applications in isolated environments, known as containers. Container Registries play a pivotal role in the DevOps and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, enabling teams to efficiently manage and deploy containerized applications.
📄️ Open Container Initiative (OCI)
The Open Container Initiative (OCI) specifications, particularly the OCI Image Specification, have paved the way for OCI registries to store a variety of artifacts beyond traditional container images. This flexibility is critical for supporting a wide range of use cases in modern software development and deployment processes. Here are several notable types of artifacts that can be stored in OCI-compliant registries apart from container images.