Automation Techniques for Efficient Container Image Management in CI/CD Pipelines

Abstract

With the advent of cloud computing, things became easier and the infrastructure was moved from on premises to the cloud, making on-demand access to resources just a few clicks away. However, deployment remained a problem due to a major reason: "Code working on developer's machine but not working properly in staging or production environments." Traditional methods used to release the final build as part of distribution process, along with deployment of the MySQL database and code on the on premise infrastructure, which was a lengthy and cumbersome process. CI/CD's primary goal is to provide developers a reliable and timely method for deploying features. Although it primarily helps developers, the software's end users also benefit from it. CI/CD often entails quick feature feedback cycles and little downtime. Fast feedback cycles thus make it possible for developers to provide new features quickly, which benefits other stakeholders as well. These articles provides a high-level overview of how CI/CD might effectively manage the rolling updates process and automate the whole build and deployment process, hence resolving the deployment and rolling upgrade issues. Additionally, it offers a fault tolerance mechanism in case of a failure in staging or production environments, as well as a means of applying the disaster recovery plan independent of the underlying cloud platform.