Introduction

Welcome back, Geeks. In the previous Jenkins article, we saw “What is Continuous Integration in Jenkins?”. Now it’s the right time to explore What are Continuous Deployment & Continuous Delivery in Jenkins? Both the terms look very similar and most of the time people interchange them with their usage. Continuous Deployment and Continuous Delivery are both practices related to automating and streamlining the software delivery process in Jenkins. They do share similarities, but there is a key difference between the two. So, let’s explore them.

First, we would look into what Continuous Deployment means in Jenkins following which we would also understand how this is different from Continuous Delivery.

What is Continuous Deployment in Jenkins?

Continuous Deployment is an approach where every code change that passes automated testing is automatically deployed to production without any manual intervention. In other words, once the code is tested and validated through the Continuous Integration (CI) process, it would automatically get pushed into production, making it immediately available to end-users. It requires a high level of confidence in the automated testing and release process to ensure that only reliable and stable code reaches production for the end user.

In Jenkins, Continuous Deployment is achieved by setting up a pipeline that automates the entire process from code integration, and automated testing, to deployment. Once the pipeline passes all the tests successfully, the code is automatically deployed to the production environment without any manual intervention.

Block Diagram of Continuous Deployment

What is Continuous Delivery in Jenkins?

Continuous Delivery is similar to Continuous Deployment but with one key distinction. In Continuous Delivery, every code change that passes automated testing is automatically made ready for production deployment. However, unlike Continuous Deployment, the actual deployment to production is triggered manually or through an automated process at the discretion of the development team. The code is kept in a state where it can be deployed to production at any time.

In Jenkins, Continuous Delivery is achieved by setting up a pipeline that automates the entire software delivery process up to the production-ready stage. After the automated tests pass successfully, the code is considered production-ready and can be deployed to production with the push of a button or through an automated process which would be under monitoring process.

Block Diagram of Continuous Delivery

Conclusion

To summarize the topic of discussion in this article –

• Continuous Deployment: Every code change that passes automated testing is automatically deployed to production without manual intervention.
• Continuous Delivery: Every code change that passes automated testing is automatically made ready for production deployment, but the actual deployment to production is triggered manually or through an automated process.

Both Continuous Deployment and Continuous Delivery are key practices in modern software development, helping teams to release software more frequently, reliably, and efficiently while maintaining a high level of quality and automation. The choice between Continuous Deployment and Continuous Delivery depends on the organization’s risk tolerance and the level of automation and confidence in the testing and release processes.

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HAPPY LEARNING!! 😊