Azure Pipeline

Introduction: This article is a continuation of the series of articles starting with the description of SignalR service which was followed by a discussion on Azure Gateway service, Azure Private Link, and Azure Private Endpoint and the benefit of diverting traffic to the Azure Backbone network. Then we started reviewing a more public internet-facing service such as the Bing API. and the benefits it provided when used together with Azure Cognitive Services. We now focus internally with infrastructure API such as Provider API and ARM resources and follow it up with a discussion on the Azure Pipeline. 

Description:    

Azure Pipeline is a CI/CD service whose importance is unquestioned. Continuous Integration is the process by which software is tested and continuously merged into a release vehicle. Automated tests assure the quality of the code as it flows to release and facilitate different gates for controlling the flow of code from source to destination. Continuous Deployment is the process by which code is build, tested and deployed to one or more test or production environments. Deployment alleviates the concern that the code may not work under certain conditions by trying it out in controlled environments. Azure pipeline is notable for CI/CD purposes because it supports the following scenarios: 1) working with any language or platform to build, test and deploy code, 2) deploying to different types of targets at the same time, 3) integrating with Azure deployments and building on Windows, Linux or Mac machines and 4) working with all major source control repositories as well as open source. 

Azure Pipelines deploy code to target which can be a virtual machine, environment, container, on-premises, and cloud platforms or PaaS services. It can also publish a mobile application or a store. A release definition helps automate the deployment of application to one or more environments. The automation process is defined as a collection of tasks.

Since it is a cloud service, it facilitates the build-deploy-test workflows both on-premises and in the cloud. Changes can be made and tested in a fast, scalable and efficient manner and the results are visible via rich analytics and reporting. When the build is done, the test results can be reviewed to resolve problems, if any. The build and deploy reports are core tools to the development and test teams of any organization.