Continuous Delivery & Deployment
We like frequent deployments!If you already use Continuous Integration (CI) then the next step is Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CD). Continuous Delivery will take your tested code and deploy it to your pre-production/staging or any other environment of your choice, so you can verify how any new features and changes are working against the non-production DB.
Deployment is typically triggered by a code comment in a specific branch. We automate deployments to production environments in order to minimize potential human mistakes.
The Advantage of Continuous Delivery
Having an automated deployment system lets you skip the boring and repetitive manual commands you’d to push your changes. Ultimately, it gives you and your development team more time to spend on more important things.
Deployment can be completely automated or have additional manual confirmation from the lead developer/engineer if you prefer to maintain control and supervision over the deployment process.
Do You Need It?
If you have or are planning to have a CI step - then you need a CD step as well. A development team with limited resources reaps enormous benefits from continuous delivery, especially if the team cannot have a dedicated person responsible for deployment.