CI/CD vs. DevOps: Key Differences and Their Collaborative Roles

DevOps and CI/CD services have become indivisible constituents of software development and are nearly synonyms for orderliness, teamwork, and rapid delivery. But what exactly does the difference between them consist of, and how do they support and reinforce one another?

What Is DevOps?

There is no common definition for the notion of “DevOps.” The word “DevOps” comes from the terms software development and IT operations.

In brief, it’s more of a set of postulates or philosophies to compress the software development lifecycle yet provide high-quality software products.

DevOps augments Agile software development with many parts taken from it. It is largely marked by principles of shared ownership, task automation, and immediate feedback.

In fact, high demand for frequent software releases makes DevOps the best fit for many software providers. In 2022, by the way, almost half of respondents admitted they used a DevOps strategy for their software development projects.

Also, DevOps spreads across the entire IT industry and has offspring covering other areas.

• DevSecOps: Security isn’t something to tack on later—it needs to be part of an application and infrastructure design from the start. DevSecOps, in its turn, blends security into the DevOps process right from the beginning to prove the software is safe as it’s built, not after.
• AIOps: Artificial Intelligence Operations and Machine Learning Operations add AI and machine learning tools to everyday DevOps workflows. By automating data investigation, they help teams pinpoint gaps and make the best of processes.
• CloudOps: CloudOps makes the most of the cloud scalability. It allows for ongoing operations and simpler administration of cloud resources.
• GitOps: GitOps is a way to head infrastructure and applications using the same tools and processes developers already use for writing code. It relies on version control systems such as Git to track amendments, cooperate, and automate releases.
• ChatOps: ChatOps uses chat platforms to prune down assignments within DevOps teams. By doing so, it helps direct operations, get updates, and resolve problems directly from a chat interface.

What Is CI/CD in DevOps?

CI/CD, which stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment, basically helps automate the software development process.

In other words, Continuous Integration (CI) means a software development team regularly adds their code to a shared repository, where automated builds and tests inspect for any defects.

Continuous Delivery (CD) ascertains the code is always prepared to be released, though deployment still demands manual approval.

Put simply, Continuous Deployment automates the entire release process, so any modifications that pass testing go live autonomously.

Prime Differences Between CI/CD and DevOps to Know

Despite the truth that CI/CD and DevOps concepts often go hand in hand, they’re not the same thing. If you plunge deeper into both concepts, you’ll see explicit disparities in terms of scope and purpose, participants, and tools.

Extent and Purpose

CI/CD is more about automation. It centers around speeding up the process of incorporating, piloting, and producing code. The goal is simple: quickly get updates out and with fewer flaws.

DevOps takes a bigger-picture practice. It implies forming a culture where designers, architects, operations, and other departments form an alliance and work jointly all over the entire software development lifecycle.

Who’s Involved

CI/CD mainly concerns software engineers and testers. Developers regularly push code changes (CI), and testers confirm the edits are always ready to go live (CD).

DevOps touches everyone possible—programmers, operations, QA, and even business units. It’s about pooling resources and keeping everyone in the loop from A to Z.

Tools vs. Culture

CI/CD is tool-heavy. It largely depends on automation tools and pipelines, such as Jenkins or GitHub Actions to make every single part move quicker.

DevOps is more about attitude and cooperation. While it also uses tools, its main focus is on breaking down barriers, improving discussions and negotiations, and making steady progress.

In short, CI/CD is the technical engine that automates tasks, while DevOps is the cultural glue that helps teams labor better jointly.

Why Is It Better to Use CI/CD and DevOps in Tandem

Shortly, combining CI/CD and DevOps creates a well-ordered, coherent system for software development.

CI/CD automates the process of making, probing, and releasing code, which speeds up how quickly teams can introduce new features or patch bugs.

At the same time, DevOps helps different teams, such as development, operations, and QA, systematize project creation and make the whole process faster and more rational.

This will also lead to the development of higher-quality software, as CI/CD has the capability of catching bugs much faster in its automated tests, and DevOps adds continuous feedback and refinement.

Plus, by automating redundant tasks, for example, testing and deploying code, teams have more time to contribute to meaningful work, like designing new features.

How CI/CD and DevOps Work Together in Practice

There is a direct relationship between DevOps and Continuous Delivery. To see how it all works together, let’s plunge into some situations.

Suppose there is a bug in the payment processing system of an e-commerce application. With CI/CD, developers can quickly nail the problem, and the fix goes through automated tests to demonstrate it works without causing other problems.

When it’s tested, the correction is independently deployed to the live site, minimizing any upset for buyers.

In a mobile app company that frequently adds fresh features CI/CD makes it easy to test and launch new updates. Developers push the new features through the automated pipeline, where they’re tested. If everything works, the features are released directly to users.

Continuous integration/continuous deployment on an e-commerce platform means that when marketing or product teams update listings of products or prices, those updates test and deploy themselves.

The system checks that everything works as envisioned before going live, so hence, the platform keeps renewing itself without any manual interference.

How Can You Implement CI/CD in DevOps?

If implementing CI/CD in a DevOps team seems complicated to you, you’d better stick to a well-arranged process.

First, set up a version control system like Git. It lets everyone work on the same code without stepping on each other’s toes.

Next, you should implement the CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI. Everything gets automated here: creation, testing up to the rollout of the code.

Then, ensure your development, operations, and QA teams are tightly integrated: remember, DevOps is all about open communication, impersonal critique, and everyone’s responsibility; therefore, foster stable teamwork and learning.

Also, use monitoring tools to watch your app when it’s live. Prometheus or Datadog programs, for instance, can help you spot any weak points and get ideas from the operations team to improve the software over time.

Finally, if your company is in need of a hand on getting started with CI/CD, or perhaps implementing DevOps itself, then SCAND is ready to help your company. We have plenty of experience helping teams get automation going, improve teamwork, and make the whole process way more enjoyable.