Two hundred years ago Charles Darwin said: “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” The capability to build own internal processes to quickly and correctly integrate new functionality into existing software is the key to successfully adapting to the ever-evolving financial sector.

WORKING TOGETHER

DevOps methodology, and particularly the CI/CD strategy is the development philosophy which improves collaboration and productivity, merging development and operation processes, from source code creation to production environment release, in the automation CI/CD pipeline.

This allows to reduce release cycles and accelerate software deployment and implementation, while also reducing labor intensity in case of defect early detection and improve the quality of releases.

Container environments (such as Docker) will simplify implementation and maximize the benefits of the CI/CD pipeline. Based on built containers — software packages that contain all the dependencies for the application — teams can develop, test, and deploy changes faster and easier, and deliver applications to end users in the shortest possible time.

ALL SOLAR PRODUCTS CAN BE DELIVERED AS CONTAINERS AND EASILY INTEGRATED INTO CLOUD ENVIRONMENTS. FLEXIBLE AND HIGHLY SCALABLE, SOLAR SOLUTIONS ARE EXTREMELY EFFICIENT WHEN WORKING WIH THE CI/CD PIPELINE

CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION (CI)

Continuous Integration (CI) aims to automatically check the integration between the developer’s changes and the rest of the code. Using CI means that code updates are regularly created, tested and combined into a common repository. Component compatibility is checked at an early stage, which means fewer errors in the production environment, easier code build preparation and lower testing costs.

TRUST BUT VERIFY

In order to ensure there are no errors during integration, a well-established testing process is essential when developing novation. Manual testing is labor-intensive, time-consuming and involves the potential for human error. Automated testing allows institutions to promptly monitor their current program code status.

THE SOLAR TESTING TOOLKIT IS AN OFF-THE-SHELF SOLUTION FOR FUNCTIONAL, INTEGRATION, REGRESSION AND LOAD AUTOMATED TESTING. THE PRODUCT CAN EMULATE MULTIPLE SYSTEMS IN THE SAME SCENARIO, PERFORMING FINANCIAL TRANSACTION TESTING REPRODUCING TO REAL CONDITIONS

CONTINUOUS DELIVERY (CDL)

This stage delivers the changes made into operation. After automating the build and testing, Continuous Delivery (CDL) automates the tested code release to the repository. To ensure an effective CDL, it is important that CI is already embedded in the development pipeline. The goal of continuous delivery is to always keep the codebase up-to-date, ready for deployment to the production environment. Thus, the deployment of new code will require minimal effort, which means releases can be built more often, therefore speeding up the user feedback cycle.

CONTINUOUS DEPLOYMENT (CDP)

Continuous Deployment (CDP) is the final stage of the CI/CD pipeline. As an extension of continuous delivery that automates the release of a production-ready code build to the code repository, continuous deployment automates the release of changes to the selected environment.

CDP consists of the following mandatory steps:

1. Receiving the information necessary for deployment — distribution kit, user and operational documentation, deployment scripts, configurations.

2. Preparing the deployment environment — checking access rights, scripts and its readiness for deployment.

3. Performing the deployment.

4. Checking the success of the deployment and operability check (i.e. smoke testing).

5. If the verification results are insufficient, possible restoring the application to the previous version and informing the persons in charge.

CONTINUOUS TESTING

As part of the CI/CD pipeline, continuous monitoring of the correct functioning of the system is required. To minimize the risks of errors and prevent malfunctions and break—ins, Continuous Testing is used — a series of automated tests that are run at a certain point in the pipeline. A properly coordinated end-to-end process between development teams, testers and operation allows you to react quickly and make the necessary edits so updates can be launched as soon as possible.

Working together, all CI/CD stages reduce risks while releasing applications, making it easier to deploy and verify changes by small chunks rather than all at once. To take into account the various stages of testing and release in the CI/CD pipeline it is necessary to write in advance automated tests.

MULTITASKING

The big idea of CI/CD is to reduce the time-to-market for new functionality. The ability to adapt to customer needs and maintain the stable operation of the product is the direct result of correctly performed testing. The most reliable way to quickly and accurately perform all test scenarios is to use automation.

The various test type generation in CI/CD pipeline brings up the question of allocating resources for its execution. Some businesses postpone the release of their products due to lack of time for testing. This problem can be solved by using parallel testing — running multiple test scenarios at the same time.

THE SOLAR TESTING TOOLKIT ALLOWS YOU TO RUN TESTS ON MULTIPLE DEVICE COMBINATIONS, PROVIDING ACCURATE EMULATION OF THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT. THE SOLAR ESTING TOOLKIT SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES TEAM’S TIME AND EFFORT — DEVELOPERS CAN TEST THEIR CODE SIMULTANEOUSLY. AS A RESULT, CUSTOMERS GET IMPROVEMENTS FASTER AND BENEFIT FROM QUALITY ENHANCEMENT