In the DevOps world, Docker with CI and CD are known for improving code quality. They are also popular for delivering software quickly without any human errors. If you are still using the traditional way to develop or deliver your software applications, then you are not experiencing what is available for you.
Among the best innovations, the CI-CD Docker is a major breakthrough for you to deploy your applications. Furthermore, this overcomes the limitation of the traditional software delivery model. This approach is designed to give you that extra edge, the lighting speed in development that can win the competition.
Besides, to ensure a sustainable and stable deployment, software needs to be bug-free. Docker with CI and CD works pretty neatly in this area by finding these unwanted and disliked bugs was faster than before. Furthermore, there are a lot of great benefits of CI-CD Docker and this article is all about that.
But Before that, let’s see what Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Deployment (CD), and Docker are. Then, we will gradually move how using Docker can enhance your experience with CI and CD. Let’s begin.
What is Continuous Integration (CI)?
A continuous integration process that integrates the changes made to a project by multiple contributors automatically is known as continuous integration. Continuous integration is famously known as CI; each of the first letters from each word.
CI is a DevOps practice. Through this, developers can merge changes to code. This can be done in a central repository. This is where they can build and test before running.
The most prominent reason for CI is that this can figure out conflicts very fast. Hence, you can save a lot of time when you are in the development cycle. Besides, you don’t need to spend a lot of time fixing bugs just because of CI.
What is Continuous Delivery (CD)?
As now you already know what CI is, let’s have a look at CD or Continuous Deployment. CD is an approach that will let you deploy on small scales. With CD, you don’t need to deploy your whole application at once.
CD or Continuous Deployment is basically a process through which you will release your application. It comes with a feature that allows you to test whether any code you write is correct or not. Furthermore, it also ensures your codes are stable enough to be deployed.
By the way, there is another CD in the DevOps world and that is Continuous Delivery. Both of the CDs are distinctly different. The prominent difference between these two is the stage. In the case of Continuous Deployment, this is the final stage to get deployed. When it comes to Continuous Deployment, there is no final stage as this continuously deploys.
What is Docker?
Docker is a software platform where you can build, test, and deploy applications quickly. It is based on containers. These small and lightweight units will provide the standard way of running code and scale applications into any environment. This software framework manages containers on servers and the cloud.
The great fact about Docker is, it will reduce the repetitive tasks that you have greatly. As a result, you will be able to develop portable software much faster, which can dramatically accelerate both the development and release of your application.
Most importantly, Docker is an open platform. That means you can use this in whichever way you like. One excellent use of it is to separate your applications from the infrastructure. Hence, the speed of delivery is so fast.
Dockers in Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD)
In recent times, for Docker with CI and CD has become a new sensation. Docker has given a fresh meaning of deployment for the CD and CI. It is possible for development teams to design, distribute, and launch their applications quickly with Docker.
Now the main question is how docker helps CD or CI. Well, this starts with helping with the building and testing the code. Docker assists the developer to create and test their software to any environment they want to play on.
Docker’s Contribution to CI/CD
What Docker does here is quite impressive. Docker will search for bugs that are early in the process of application development. Developers will benefit greatly from this as their work is greatly streamlined. Furthermore, they can save a lot of time while building the application. And the fun part, you can run multiple tests simultaneously.
Dockers help developers to build their code and test their code in any environment to catch bugs early in the application development life cycle. Dockers help streamline the process, save time on builds, and allow developers to run tests in parallel.
There are two prominent tools in the DevOps community. One is a great tool for source control management which is GitHub and another one is Jenkins, an excellent tool for integration. Docker can integrate with both of them seamlessly.
A developer can submit his or her code into Github to test. This will also automatically trigger Jenkins to create an image. Here’s where Docker comes in. Then, you can add this image to Docker to find out what the problems are when dealing with different types of deployment environments.
Benefits of Using Docker with CI and CD
If you are wondering what are the benefits you will get while using Docker with CI and CD, we got you covered. Below are the benefits that will amuse you if you use Docker with CI or CD.
- You can save time on the build and setup processes
- Inconsistent environment setups will no longer be an issue
- With Docker images, you can standardize your environments and improve version control
- A Docker Image can be used on any machine running a Docker
- Developers can focus on developing apps, while System Administrators can handle deployments with Docker
- Tests can be run at the same time by developers
Conclusion
In this fast-moving world, to keep up with the competitors, you need to be fast. You need to build applications fast, test them fast and deploy them fast. If you are not fast enough, you will be losing your customer base.
Hence, the methods are moving towards faster but reliable approaches. One of which is CI-CD Docker. How quickly this newer form of software development has taken over the community is astonishing. Apparently, being reliable is another key factor in this.
In this article, we tried to reciprocate the reasons why you need Docker with CI and CD. We hope we were able to convey the benefits Dockers can provide. Now go on, and build software faster than ever before.
