Understanding the continuous deployment phase of DevOps

Continuous Deployment (CD) is a DevOps practice where code changes that have been successfully integrated and passed automated testing are automatically transitioned to the production environment. Activities in this phase include packaging the code into deployable formats, storing the packages in an artifact repository, and validating the software in a pre-production runtime environment before its final transition to the production runtime environment.

The process ensures that new features, bug fixes, and updates are rapidly and consistently delivered to users without manual intervention, enabling a seamless flow from development to deployment. The key to a successful CD is a robust automated testing framework that validates changes and ensures the stability and reliability of the application in a real-world setting.

Figure 7.1 shows a simplified example of a DevOps CD process. In the scenario, an application package, labeled...