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Pipeline As Code For Continuous Delivery

Updated: Oct 9, 2024

Continuous Delivery Pipeline As Code

Modern infrastructure faces various challenges especially due to manual setups which leads to untraceable changes in systems making every server a work of art on its own.

Then there are classic issues like code that works in a local machine or container, but fails in Production, testing takes forever etc.

For secure, scalable and sustainable software development and delivery you need that end to end testing can happen faster and efficiently.


Infrastructure Delivery:

When it comes to infrastructure provisioning it's better not to just execute commands manually from a local host or any remote machine. Instead create parameterised jobs/tasks that can be executed in stages in a pipeline.


Create version controlled CI/CD pipelines as code for provisioning infrastructure. There must be separate stages for specific tasks. For example, you can have one pipeline for creating a Kubernetes cluster with separate stages for different environments like dev, test, prod etc.


Pipeline as code can be used beyond provisioning, for upgrades, patching, data migration, in short any automated task that happens in infrastructure. And not to mention the logs and historical tracing reports that can be generated from pipeline code are a must during infrastructure audits. It's not possible to do the same from any cli or terminal of a standalone machine.


Other benefits include parallel execution of a variety of tasks from a CI/CD platform, which otherwise is not possible from a standalone machine.


Data Migration:

In one of my cloud migration projects, we had to migrate a live digital bank from one cloud to another. Being live it had around 3 TB of assets to move. These were mostly images and videos of users and could not afford to be missed/corrupted. 


One of the approaches I had adopted for data migration was to codify the db and file migrations such that we could batch transfer most of the data a day or two prior to the actual migration/switch over day. And then on the day of prod migration we had to just re-rum the data migration pipelines to copy the deltas. That saved us from major data corruption risk which could have happened if we initiated 3 TB data transfer all at once.


If you try to do manual data migration from your local system or any ssh console, if you run into a network issue the entire process has to be re-initiated. Codify the steps, run it through a CI/CD agent pipeline which has a direct/better connection with both the source and the destination clouds. 


Traceability and Audit Ready:

Critical organisations such as banking, fintech, healthcare have  to go through various compliance and regulation checks and since it was a change of infrastructure every step and process had to be documented and audit ready so that nothing is missed. In-fact there had to be a DR and rollback plan incase of any emergency situation.

Codification of steps involved from infrastructure creation & configuration to service deployment and data migration enabled the audit ability and traceability that was need to be proven to the auditors. In-fact it was as easy as to just trigger the pipelines in stages and just screen-record or screenshot the process.

We could even go back and capture the pipeline data/history if needed to present at a later stage.


Continuous Software Delivery Pipeline:

Last but not the least, the most common use case is that of application development where you build, deploy, test & release code through a CI/CD pipeline. 

Pipeline-As-Code is a game-changer in software development, particularly in continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) processes. The traditional challenges of deploying code safely and quickly are mitigated by PaC, enabling the creation of resilient CI/CD pipelines. The ability to build, deploy, test, and release code seamlessly through PaC contributes to the core principles of continuous delivery.

Continuous Delivery ensures that code is always in a deployable state, fostering a responsive and efficient development lifecycle. PaC streamlines the development pipeline, reducing the likelihood of errors, enhancing collaboration, and providing a structured approach to software development.


Conclusion:

Pipeline as Code has emerged as a fundamental approach to addressing the challenges faced by modern infrastructure. 
From infrastructure provisioning to data migration and software development, PaC offers a systematic and automated solution. 
The ability to enforce traceability, ensure audit ability, and streamline software development processes positions Pipeline-as-Code as a critical element in the toolkit of organisations aiming for secure, scalable, and sustainable software delivery. 
As industries continue to evolve, embracing PaC becomes not just a choice but a necessity for staying competitive and resilient in the rapidly changing landscape of technology.

If you like this article, I am sure you will find 10-Factor Infrastructure even more useful. It compiles all these tried and tested methodologies, design patterns & best practices into a complete framework for building secure, scalable and resilient modern infrastructure. 


 


Don’t let your best-selling product suffer due to an unstable, vulnerable & mutable infrastructure.




 

Thanks & Regards

Kamalika Majumder

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