Cloud technologies and containerization technologies make it easy to set up and configure a (complete) environment on-the-fly. For every CI/CD pipeline stage a different fresh environment can be set up with a preloaded start situation. These environments can also exist in parallel next to each other. After the stage is completed and the data is analyzed and saved when needed, the environment can then be teared down as fast as it was created. Using containerization technologies has various advantages. One of which is that it becomes very easy to verify the behavior of an IT system with an upgraded operating system or upgraded libraries.
| Containerization is a lightweight alternative to full machine virtualization that involves encapsulating an application in a container with its own operating environment. This provides many of the benefits of loading an application onto a virtual machine, as the application can be run on any suitable physical machine without any worries about dependencies [Webopedia 2020]. |
| Cloud technology is the use of various services, such as software development platforms, servers, storage and software, over the internet. |
In general, there are three cloud computing characteristics that are common among all cloud-computing vendors:
- The backend of the application (especially hardware) is completely managed by a cloud vendor.
- A user only pays for services used (memory, processing time and bandwidth, etc.).
- Services are scalable [Techopedia 2020].
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