AWS CI/CD Explained for Beginners | Understanding AWS CodeCommit, CodePipeline, CodeBuild & CodeDeploy
Introduction
Over the past few articles, we have learned how to create AWS infrastructure manually using services like:
- Amazon EC2
- Amazon S3
- VPC
- Route 53
- CloudFormation
But once an application is developed, another question arises.
How do we automatically deploy a new version of our application whenever developers make changes?
Imagine a company with 100 developers.
Every day developers:
- Fix bugs
- Add new features
- Improve the application
If an operations engineer had to manually deploy every change, it would:
- Take a lot of time
- Be error prone
- Slow down software delivery
This is where CI/CD comes into the picture.
What We Will Learn
In this article, we will cover:
- What is CI/CD
- Why CI/CD is so important
- Common CI/CD tools used in the industry
- AWS Developer Tools
- What is AWS CodeCommit
- Advantages and Disadvantages of CodeCommit
- Hands-on: Creating your first CodeCommit repository
What is CI/CD?
CI/CD stands for:
- Continuous Integration (CI)
- Continuous Delivery / Continuous Deployment (CD)
These practices help development teams deliver software faster, more reliably, and with fewer manual steps.
Instead of manually copying application files to servers every time there is a change, CI/CD automates the entire process.
Think of it like an assembly line in a factory.
As soon as one step is completed, the product automatically moves to the next step until it's ready for the customer.
Software delivery works in a similar way.
Why Do We Need CI/CD?
Imagine you are developing an online shopping application.
Every day, developers:
- Fix bugs
- Add new features
- Improve performance
If every update had to be deployed manually, someone would need to:
- Copy the latest code
- Build the application
- Test it
- Deploy it to servers
Doing this manually every day becomes repetitive and increases the chances of mistakes.
CI/CD automates these repetitive tasks so that software can be delivered quickly and consistently.
Common CI/CD Tools Used in the Industry
Before AWS introduced its own developer tools, companies were already using several popular CI/CD platforms.
Some of the most common ones are:
- GitHub Actions
- Jenkins
- GitLab CI/CD
- Azure DevOps
These tools work with almost every cloud provider and are widely used in the industry.
For example:
- GitHub Actions integrates directly with GitHub repositories.
- Jenkins is highly customizable using plugins.
- GitLab CI/CD is built into GitLab.
- Azure DevOps provides a complete DevOps platform.
Many organizations continue to use these tools even when deploying applications to AWS.
Then Why Does AWS Provide Its Own CI/CD Services?
AWS wanted to provide a fully managed CI/CD solution that integrates seamlessly with other AWS services.
Instead of installing, configuring, updating and maintaining your own CI/CD tools, AWS manages everything for you.
This reduces operational overhead and allows you to focus on building applications rather than managing infrastructure.
AWS provides four main services for building CI/CD pipelines:
- AWS CodeCommit
- AWS CodeBuild
- AWS CodeDeploy
- AWS CodePipeline
Together these services can automate the complete software delivery process.
Understanding AWS CI/CD Workflow
A typical AWS CI/CD pipeline looks like this:
Developer
│
â–¼
AWS CodeCommit
(Source Code)
│
â–¼
AWS CodeBuild
(Build & Test)
│
â–¼
AWS CodeDeploy
(Deploy Application)
│
â–¼
EC2 / ECS / Lambda
AWS CodePipeline sits on top of these services and automates the entire workflow.
Overview of AWS Developer Tools
AWS CodeCommit
AWS CodeCommit is a fully managed Git repository service.
It provides a secure place to store source code, similar to GitHub or GitLab.
Developers can:
- Push Code
- Pull Code
- Create branches
- Merge Changes
- Track Commit History
without managing their own Git servers.
AWS CodeBuild
CodeBuild automatically compiles source code, installs dependencies, runs tests and prepares application artifacts.
Instead of building applications on your machine, AWS performs the build process for you.
AWS CodeDeploy
CodeDeploy automates application deployments.
It can deploy applications to:
- Amazon EC2
- AWS Lambda
- Amazon ECS
- On-premises servers
This helps reduce manual deployment effort.
AWS CodePipeline
CodePipeline connects all the services together.
Whenever developers push code, CodePipeline automatically triggers the next stage such as building, testing and deployment.
It acts as the automation engine for the entire CI/CD process.
Today's Focus: AWS CodeCommit
In today's article, we will focus on the first service in the pipeline: AWS CodeCommit.
Think of CodeCommit as AWS's version of GitHub.
Just like GitHub stores Git repositories, CodeCommit stores Git repositories inside your AWS account.
Why did AWS Create CodeCommit?
Many organizations prefer to keep their code inside AWS rather than using third-party platforms.
AWS created CodeCommit so customers could have:
- Fully managed Git repositories
- High availability
- Automatic scaling
- Tight integration with AWS services
- No Git server maintenance
Instead of installing and managing your own Git server, AWS takes care of everything behind the scenes.
Advantages of AWS CodeCommit
Some benefits include:
- Fully managed by AWS
- No Git server administration
- Highly available
- Automatically scalable
- Secure integration with AWS IAM
- Data encrypted at rest and in transit
Limitations of AWS CodeCommit
Although CodeCommit is a good managed Git service, it has some limitations.
Compared to GitHub, it offers:
- Fewer collaboration features
- Smaller ecosystem
- Fewer third-party integrations
- Less community adoption
Because of this, many organizations prefer GitHub or GitLab as their source code repositories while still using AWS CodeBuild, CodeDeploy and CodePipeline.
Important Note
We are learning CodeCommit to understand the AWS Developer Tools ecosystem and how it fits into a CI/CD pipeline.
In future articles, we will use GitHub as the source repository because it's the most commonly used platform in the industry.
Hands-on: Create Your First CodeCommit Repository
Open the AWS Console.
Search for CodeCommit.
Click Create Repository.
Enter a repository name.
(Optional) Add a Description.
Click Create Repository.
After the repository is created, explore the repository dashboard, including:
- Commits
- Branches
- Pull Requests
- Settings
Upload a file through the AWS Console.
Later, clone the repository using Git, and push files from your local machine.
Conclusion
In this article, we learned the fundamentals of CI/CD and explored the AWS Developer Tools ecosystem.
We also understood where AWS CodeCommit fits into the CI/CD pipeline, its advantages, and its limitations compared to modern Git hosting platforms.
In the next article, we will move beyond source code management and learn how AWS CodePipeline automates the entire software delivery process by connecting source code, build, testing and deployment into a single workflow.
Key Takeaways
- ✅ Understand what CI/CD is and why it is important.
- ✅ Learn the common CI/CD tools used in the industry.
- ✅ Explore the AWS Developer Tools ecosystem.
- ✅ Understand the role of AWS CodeCommit in a CI/CD pipeline.
- ✅ Learn the advantages and limitations of AWS CodeCommit.
- ✅ Create your first CodeCommit repository.
- ✅ Prepare for building complete CI/CD pipelines using AWS services.
What's Next?
In the next article, we will learn about AWS CodePipeline and understand how it automates the complete software delivery lifecycle by connecting source code, build, testing and deployment into a single CI/CD workflow.
We will also see how CodePipeline integrates with services like GitHub, AWS CodeBuild, and AWS CodeDeploy to automate deployments from source code to production.
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