DEV Community

Gimhan Rajapaksha
Gimhan Rajapaksha

Posted on

Student vs Startup vs Big Tech: Deployments Explained

Ever wondered how deployment practices evolve as you move from student projects → startups → big tech?

This video breaks it down in the most entertaining way possible. Here’s the technical summary:


👨‍🎓 Student: Manual Deployment

  • Uploads files directly to production.
  • No CI/CD, no rollback strategy.
  • Tools: scp, FTP, or manual uploads.
  • Risk: High.

🚀 Startup: Structured but Manual

  • Environments: Local → Test → Production.
  • Backend: Node.js + Express.js.
  • Hosting: AWS EC2.
  • Workflow: Code pushed → tested manually → deployed manually.
  • Better than student level, but still fragile.

💼 Big Tech: Fully Automated

  • CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions).
  • Every commit triggers automated build + integration tests.
  • Auto-deploy to test, then to production if tests pass.
  • Rollback if deployment fails.
  • Consistent, scalable, reliable.

🔑 Key Concepts

  • CI/CD for automation.
  • Environment separation (local, test, prod).
  • Testing & rollback for reliability.
  • AWS EC2 + Node.js/Express.js for hosting & backend.

🎯 Final Thoughts

The video is not only hilarious but also a practical teaching tool:

  • Students see why manual deployments don’t scale.
  • Startups learn why staging environments matter.
  • Developers get a glimpse of how big tech handles deployments at scale.

👉 As your project grows, automation and testing are no longer optional. They’re essential.

Top comments (0)