Knowing the difference between continuous delivery vs continuous deployment is paramount in today’s rapidly progressing world. That is because your users should be able to update the software without much hassle. 

It is something that you are aware of through your smartphone, laptop, or computer software. Software updates for a wide range of applications are a regular occurrence. Without them happening, developments cannot take place. 

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So, what can you do about it?

In this internet era, you should be able to meet your user’s requirements in a matter of time. When you rectify errors or issues quickly, you can retain your clients. At the same time, when you find it challenging to do so, it can cause drowning profits. 

So, when you opt for the usual slow and obsolete process of finding, analyzing, and planning methods, you are well out of the market. You have lost the plot altogether. To avoid being left out in the lurch, what you require is agile development. 

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Opt for agile development

Agile development is the process or framework where you can test, plan, and eventually implement your ideas. The best part is that you can do it immediately. Instant results are the order of the day. 

Those businesses and companies that have embedded agile development into their processing plans stand to gain from it. When you can achieve continuous delivery as well as constant deployment in your solution delivery pipeline, your firm can release the updates efficiently. 

For our readers, who are not aware of the difference between continuous delivery and continuous deployment, then we will try and clarify through this post. Not to mention, you will also learn how they fit into an agile environment. 

When you want to understand both continuous delivery and continuous deployment, then you must first understand, continuous integration. 

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It is an essential element for agile practice. 

An Agile Developer knows the significance of implementing this process because it gives them the ability to manage smaller components. This way, they can design quality software. For agile concepts, all the teams know what is going on, unlike the waterfall concept. 

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Developers must use deployment automation tool       

That is why developers must consider using automation of continuous deployment at the development stage itself. Solutions should be given to ensure that continuous integration and continuous delivery are smoothly handled through a consumption-based model.

What is continuous integration?

Continuous integration is a process where, several methodologies are used from several sources, automatically to integrate the code for designing and testing purposes. As a DevOps Developer, when your design code can pass the test, then it is deployed automatically. 

Further testing is then conducted on your code like manual exploratory test and load test. You would be surprised to know that the process can take several days. It entirely depends on the requirements. 

What is continuous delivery?

Continuous delivery enables you to design a high-quality version of your code. This classic version helps you to decide when you want to release your software for your clients, based on the feedback. In most cases, the timing of the release matters depending on the market condition. 

Continuous delivery vs. continuous deployment

It is the main difference between continuous delivery vs continuous deployment. Continuous deployment is the process where the software to be released undergoes an automated pipeline.

Developers need not worry about the release, but rather ensure that the code developed, is regularly tested, updated, and then released. More importantly, it must work fine from the client’s end. 

The continuous delivery consists of a time lag before the release of the software. The product gets reviewed, and changes, if any, is done before the release. Continuous deployment involves automated testing throughout the entire process until the release of the product. 

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How can you consolidate delivery and deployment to attain common goals?

It is when some developers get tempted to think that continuous deployment may be advantageous for the software. It depends on the CI/CD practices implemented in your organization. 

However, there are some constraints that you might want to beware of before making use of continuous deployment.

• Market conditions and regulatory compliances, usually restrict IT firms from making use of continuous deployment.
• The levels of the DevOps concepts implemented in an IT firm also dramatically influences the usage of continuous deployment. 

Continuous delivery requires manual code changes, and that can delay in the deadline for deploying the code. 

But, there are some benefits to using it. IT firms may want to consider using continuous delivery because of the convenience. It enables IT firms to have a competitive advantage for deploying the code, ably supported by human intelligence. 

Developers can come up with many new features that can be designed and ready for implementation. It enables them to develop robust and resilient systems. What this does is, reduces the production costs, and allows developers to improve the quality of the product. 

But, continuous delivery and continuous deployment may not be that relevant in some areas of work. You may not require a deployment phase when contributing to a library or designing an artifact.

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Likewise, many web applications do not have to come up with a design and deploy phases. These days, there is a new development for designing high-end tools for application release that can effectively manage software releases.

Few of them include:

• Packaging of the applications 
• The version of the release 
• When updating the database 
• Managing the configuration of the server 
• Rollback and roll forward 
• Auditing and access for security purposes

To summarise, the main difference between continuous delivery vs continuous deployment would be that continuous delivery is the ability to release a version on any platform. On the other hand, continuous deployment is your ability to deploy the versions continuously. 

Both the concepts need a framework, where you can work on small, but effective changes that can be implemented immediately in the market. It would help if you learned how your updates had affected the users, in a good and bad way. 

You will need to communicate with your clients to achieve what you intend to by finding out how it helped or did not help them. However, to make that, you need to bring value to your users. 

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Do you want to learn more?

If you are keen on developing your DevOps skills and learning more about the continuous delivery vs continuous deployment, then we would recommend you take up courses taught from an online higher education platform. 

Only a handful of these online education platforms have tie-ups and partnerships with universities like IIT Madras, IIIT-B, MICA, NMIMS, and Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education.

When they certify you, it elevates your knowledge and enables you to stand out from the crowd.

The above-mentioned reasons are why an online course in full-stack software development can kickstart your career in tech, especially if you are looking to switch lanes.