Cloud Native Application Delivery

The landscape of application deployment has evolved dramatically, transitioning from local execution and physical transport mediums to sophisticated automated processes. This evolution is significantly influenced by the DevOps movement, which emphasizes collaboration, automation, and continuous processes to enhance software development and deployment.

Key Learning Objectives

Understanding Automation in Deployment

• Importance: Automation in the integration and delivery process marks a pivotal shift in how applications are deployed, enabling rapid, frequent, and more reliable software releases.

• Goal: Gain insight into how automation has transformed deployment processes, making them more efficient and less prone to human error.

Version Control Systems

• Need for Git: Understand the critical role of Git and other version control systems in tracking and managing changes to code, facilitating collaboration among development teams.

• Goal: Comprehend the foundational importance of version control in supporting DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines.

CI/CD Pipelines

• What Is CI/CD: Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) are practices designed to automate the integration of code changes from multiple contributors and ensure that code can be reliably deployed at any time.

• Goal: Explain the components and benefits of CI/CD pipelines, including how they improve deployment frequency and application quality.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

• Understanding IaC: Explore how Infrastructure as Code automates the provisioning and management of infrastructure through code, leading to more predictable, scalable, and efficient environments.

• Goal: Discuss how IaC supports DevOps by enabling quick provisioning and teardown of environments that match production configurations closely.

GitOps: A New Paradigm

• Principles of GitOps: GitOps extends IaC principles by using Git as a single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and applications, emphasizing automated deployment and management.

• Integration with Kubernetes: Learn how GitOps practices are particularly effective with Kubernetes, enabling streamlined deployment, rollback, and management of cluster resources through Git merge requests.

• Goal: Understand GitOps principles, how they enhance CI/CD practices, and their synergies with Kubernetes for managing complex cloud-native environments.

By the end of this chapter, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of the modern methodologies that have revolutionized application deployment. From the automation enabled by CI/CD pipelines and the rigor of version control systems, to the declarative nature of Infrastructure as Code and the operational efficiencies offered by GitOps, you'll be equipped to appreciate and apply these transformative practices in a Kubernetes environment.