Continuous Delivery, often referred to as Continuous Deployment, encompasses a set of advanced software development practices that are recognized as best practices for managing the release and deployment of new versions of cloud-based software. These practices include:

• Automation: Development, testing, and production environments are generated automatically without requiring developer intervention, utilizing automation tools and Infrastructure as Code.
• Frequent, Small Releases: Software is deployed frequently with small, incremental changes, enabling greater agility and faster customer feedback on new features.
• Gating Tests: New deployments undergo a series of increasingly rigorous tests, including unit, functional, integration, stress, and performance tests, before reaching production.
• Monitoring and Observability: The effectiveness of Continuous Delivery relies on precise instrumentation of applications and evaluating the impact of changes on user experience.

Continuous Delivery is vital for deploying large-scale web applications in the cloud, as it significantly reduces both downtime and time-to-recovery in the event of failures. This ensures that applications can continue to serve customers effectively, even when issues arise. The use of CD tools supports sophisticated deployment strategies, such as incremental deployment ("Canary builds"), allowing new versions to be tested in production with a small segment of the user base. This approach facilitates A/B testing of user interfaces, enabling developers to identify and reverse changes that may degrade service quality.

Effective Continuous Delivery practices also streamline the process of adopting new deployment architectures, such as integrating Ampere CPUs, providing assurance that the infrastructure will continue to function as intended.

• Ampere Developer Summit: Making the Change https://amperecomputing.com/blogs/developer-summit-part-4
• Embracing Efficiency: The Future of CI/CD with Ampere on GitHub Actions https://amperecomputing.com/blogs/ci-cd-with-ampere
• Jenkins and Ampere: The Backbone of Modern CI/CD Pipelines https://amperecomputing.com/blogs/backbone-of-modern-ci-cd-pipelines