📄️ Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily — leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is automatically verified by building the project and running automated tests. This approach leads to significantly reduced integration problems and allows a team to develop cohesive software more rapidly.
📄️ Continuous Delivery
Continuous Delivery (CD) extends the concept of Continuous Integration (CI) by ensuring that software can be released to production at any time in a safe, quick, and sustainable manner. CD automates the delivery of applications to selected infrastructure environments, enabling teams to build, test, and release software with greater speed and efficiency. This practice is fundamental in supporting a DevOps culture by minimizing the manual steps involved in deploying applications, thus reducing the risk associated with human error.
📄️ Continuous Delivery vs. Continuous Deployment
Continuous Deployment and Continuous Delivery are two closely related practices in the realm of automated software release processes, often part of a broader DevOps approach. While they share similarities and the same initials (CD), they cater to slightly different stages of the software release pipeline and embody different philosophies regarding the automation of software releases. Here are the main differences between the two: