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Optimizing your development and deployment processes helps you maintain a competitive edge. You need to automate the build, test, and deployment processes so that your teams can consistently deliver high-quality, reliable applications at scale.
An automated pipeline includes continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD). A full CI/CD pipeline helps you detect code defects as soon as possible. It also ensures that properly tested updates can be released in a short time.
The following strategies are based on two popular, cloud-based platforms for software development and collaboration, Azure DevOps and GitHub.
Set up your source code repositories
To support version control, collaboration, and integration with CI/CD pipelines, store your source code in private or public repositories, such as GitHub repositories or Azure Repos.
Define your CI pipeline
Use CI to automatically integrate code changes from multiple contributors and build and test your code every time a change is pushed to the repository.
For example, you can use GitHub Actions to set up actions to run tests, lint code, and build artifacts whenever a pull request is created or updated. Or you can create a YAML pipeline using Azure Pipelines, which supports a wide range of languages and platforms.
Implement CD
Set up a release pipeline to deploy your applications automatically to development, staging, production, and other environments.
For example, you can use GitHub Actions to set up a CD workflow to deploy your applications to Azure App Service, Azure Kubernetes Service, or Azure Functions. Or you can use stages, jobs, and tasks to control the flow of your deployments through Azure Pipelines.
Use Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
To ensure consistency and repeatability in your deployments, follow the infrastructure as code (IaC) methodology, and then integrate your IaC tools within your CI/CD pipeline. Many IaC tools are available, including Ansible, Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, Bicep, Chef, Puppet, Pulumi, SaltStack, or Terraform.
You can then integrate your IaC tool into GitHub Actions so that you can provision and manage your Azure resources. Or you can use Azure Pipeline tasks and ARM templates to manage your infrastructure deployments.
Monitor and collect feedback
To track the performance and health of your applications, implement continuous monitoring and logging using Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and Log Analytics. To alert teams of any issues, set up automated feedback loops, including notifications for failed builds, deployment issues, and performance anomalies.
Enforce security and compliance
Make sure to secure your CI/CD pipelines using the checks and validations offered by Azure Security Center, GitHub Advanced Security, or similar tools.
Manage secrets and sensitive information using Azure Key Vault or GitHub secrets.
Support collaboration and communication
Automated CI/CD processes thrive within a DevOps culture that supports collaboration and continuous improvement. To manage work items, track progress, and facilitate communication, you can use GitHub Projects, Azure Boards, or similar tools.
Make sure to document your CI/CD processes, infrastructure, and deployment strategies. Comprehensive documentation helps onboard new team members and ensures consistency.
Next steps
Continue your optimization journey and retire and decommission applications.