Continuous deployment Continuous deployment is a process where software code changes are automatically deployed into pre-production or production staging. Continuous deployment requires that there is automation along each step of the delivery pipeline. The role of opinionated continuous delivery Starting from scratch with CI/CD is a difficult proposi- tion. As the adoption of continuous delivery practices in- creases at a rapid pace, there is a growing demand for simple solutions that allow developers and development teams to get started quickly. These fast, quick-start solu- tions provide an “opinion” on how continuous delivery should be achieved. An opinionated solution serves as a starting point for teams, without the need for developers to get slowed down by complexity of process design and custom pipe- lines. An opinionated solution is also attractive to small teams and organizations with limited staff or expertise. These smaller, more lean teams need to focus on deliver- ing value, not building and maintaining custom pipe- lines. As we have already noted, continuous delivery is ideally built on a foundation of microservices, containers and other elements that make it possible to modularize appli- cations for flexible deployment across multiple environ- ments including the cloud. It’s important to note that while cloud native applications are where the industry is going, existing assets (applications, tools, and systems) 26