Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice that involves regularly merging code changes from multiple developers into a central repository. This process is automated and typically involves running automated tests to ensure that the new code does not introduce any issues or conflicts with the existing codebase.
Continuous Deployment (CD), on the other hand, is the next step after CI and involves automatically deploying the successfully tested code changes to a production environment. This allows the software to be continuously and frequently updated with new features, bug fixes, and improvements.
CI/CD is a DevOps practice that aims to increase the speed, efficiency, and reliability of software development and deployment. By automating the integration, testing, and deployment processes, development teams can catch issues earlier, reduce manual errors, and deliver new features to end users more frequently.