Kuberns Blog

A CI/CD pipeline is the foundation of modern software development. It automates the way your code is tested, built, and deployed, so you can release features faster, with fewer bugs, and less manual work.

Instead of manually pushing code to production, running scripts, or hoping things don’t break, a CI/CD pipeline does it all for you.

Every code change is automatically tested and deployed, giving your team instant feedback and a reliable path to release.

Whether you’re working solo or part of a fast-moving team, automating your CI/CD pipeline is the single best way to speed up development without sacrificing quality.

In this article, we’ll break down what CI/CD is, the challenges teams face without automation, and how you can automate a robust CI/CD pipeline in just 10 minutes.

Whether you’re a solo developer or running a fast-moving team, this guide is for you.

What is a CI/CD Pipeline?

A CI/CD pipeline is a series of steps that automatically test, build, and deploy your code every time you make a change. Think of it as a digital assembly line for software development.

Here’s how it typically works:

Continuous Integration (CI): Every time you push code to your repo (e.g., GitHub), it automatically triggers a process that installs dependencies, runs tests, and verifies that the code works. This helps catch bugs early.
Continuous Delivery (CD): After CI passes, the build is prepared for deployment. You can choose to release manually or automatically to staging or production.
Continuous Deployment: This takes it a step further; if everything looks good, the new version of your app is deployed to production automatically.

These pipelines reduce manual work, increase speed, and bring consistency to your releases.

Why does it matter?

Bugs are caught before they reach users.
Developers ship code faster, without depending on manual ops teams.
Customers get new features and fixes faster.

According to GitLab’s 2023 DevSecOps survey, teams that adopt CI/CD pipelines experience:

60% faster time-to-market
38% fewer bugs reaching production
More developer satisfaction due to reduced context switching

How to automate CI/CD in just 10 minutes?

Setting up an automated CI/CD pipeline doesn’t have to be a daunting task, Kuberns makes it effortless, allowing you to go from code to production in under 10 minutes.

Kuberns automatically creates a CI/CD pipeline for any application you deploy, ensuring every Git push triggers a seamless build, test, and deploy process.

Here’s how you can get started:

Head to kuberns.com and sign up for an account.
Create a new project in the Kuberns Dashboard by clicking the “Add New” button and giving your project a memorable name.

Step 2: Connect your GitHub repository

Link your GitHub account to Kuberns with one-click integration, authorising access to your repositories.
Choose the repository and branch containing your application code.
Kuberns AI auto-detects your app’s stack, configures runtimes, and sets up dependencies, no manual YAML or scripts needed.

Step 3: Configure environment variables

Add your environment variables manually or upload a .env file.
Kuberns ensures these variables are securely encrypted and applied to your deployment.

Step 4: Deploy and Watch the Magic Happen

Click the Deploy button, and Kuberns takes over, automating the entire CI/CD pipeline.
Every Git push to your connected branch triggers a new build, running tests, building your app, and deploying it to production automatically.
Monitor the process in real-time via the Kuberns Dashboard, which shows logs, build status, and deployment history.

Problems in the current CI/CD methods

While CI/CD pipelines are designed to speed up software delivery, many teams struggle with outdated, overly complex, or misconfigured CI/CD setups that create more friction than value.

Let’s look at the most common problems in current CI/CD implementations and why they’re holding teams back.

Too many tools

Most CI/CD setups involve juggling multiple tools, build servers (like Jenkins), version control (like Git), deployment scripts, container orchestration (like Kubernetes), and cloud providers.

The more tools you use, the harder it is to maintain the pipeline. Even small changes (like updating a build script) can break the workflow.

”According to StackOverflow’s 2024 Developer Survey, 42% of developers cited tool integration as a major pain point in their CI/CD workflow.”

Stop using multiple tools and automate the CI/CD process

Slow build and deployment times

CI/CD pipelines should speed up releases, but ironically, poorly optimised pipelines often slow them down. Builds can take 15–30 minutes or longer due to unnecessary steps, unoptimized caching, or large dependencies.

Developers are left waiting, context switching, and losing momentum.

”Report found that 57% of teams experience delays due to slow pipelines, especially during peak dev hours.”

Manual steps still exist

Despite having a “CI/CD pipeline,” many teams still rely on manual approvals, scripts, or ad-hoc fixes before deployment. Manual processes lead to inconsistency and human error.

Works on my machine” issues, last-minute fixes, and late-night production bugs.

“A major outage at GitHub in 2023 was caused by a missed configuration in a manual deployment step that bypassed CI validation.”

Lack of visibility and monitoring

Once the code is deployed, what happens next? Many teams have no real-time visibility into whether the deployment succeeded or if users are seeing issues. No centralised dashboard, no logs, and no alerts.

When something breaks in production, it’s hard to trace it back to a specific change.

“Datadog’s 2024 report showed that nearly 35% of deployment-related incidents take more than an hour to diagnose due to poor pipeline observability.”

Too much DevOps burden on developers

CI/CD should empower developers, but when it’s too complex or custom-built, it ends up being a DevOps tax. Developers are forced to write and maintain YAML files, Dockerfiles, Helm charts, etc.

More context switching, burnout, and missed deadlines.

In a recent Reddit thread on r/devops, one user noted, “My team spends more time debugging Jenkins than building features.”

Expensive infrastructure and hidden costs

CI/CD pipelines often rely on self-hosted runners, dedicated servers, or complex cloud setups that rack up costs over time. You may be paying for underutilised compute time or unnecessary VM uptime.

“Companies using Kuberns for CI/CD automation reported up to 40% cost savings on AWS bills by eliminating inefficiencies in deployment workflows.”

What can companies and developers achieve through automation?

Automating your CI/CD pipeline isn’t just a tech upgrade; it’s a measurable business and engineering win. From cutting costs to freeing up developer hours, companies that adopt automated CI/CD workflows consistently see a higher return on their time, talent, and infrastructure.

Save developer time (and Multiply Output)

Manual testing, deployment, and troubleshooting consume hours that could be spent writing features or fixing bugs.

Teams spend 35–50% of their development time managing build and deployment processes without automation (Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 2023).
With automation, these tasks are handled in the background, 24/7.
Even saving 2 hours per developer per week translates to over 100 hours saved per year, per engineer.

Reduce infrastructure and cloud Costs

Automated pipelines help you optimise compute usage, reduce idle resources, and prevent costly deployment errors.

AI-powered CI/CD tools can auto-scale runners, use spot instances, and shut down environments when not in use.
Teams using Kuberns report up to 40% lower AWS cloud bills.
Failed or partial deployments (a common manual error) cost real dollars. Automation prevents that.

Cut down time to release by 10x or more

When deployments are automated, releasing new features is a button-click or fully automatic.

According to DORA’s Accelerate State of DevOps report, elite teams with CI/CD automation deploy 973x more frequently than low performers.
Manual release cycles that used to take a week now happen daily, even hourly.

Shrink your QA and debugging workload

CI/CD automation integrates testing into every step, so broken code never reaches staging or production.

Bugs caught early are 6x cheaper to fix (IBM Systems Sciences).
Automated testing reduces QA effort by up to 80%, freeing up testers for high-value tasks like UX testing.

Eliminate costly downtime from deployment errors

Poorly managed manual deployments can take down production, causing direct revenue loss.

The average cost of downtime is $5,600 per minute (Gartner).
Automated pipelines include rollback, validation, and monitoring hooks to catch problems early.

Get started in minutes

Automating your CI/CD pipeline doesn’t need to be complicated. You don’t need Kubernetes mastery or multiple tools. You just need the right tool.

Kuberns makes it ridiculously simple:

One-click Git integration
Zero config auto-deployments
Built-in CI/CD, monitoring, and rollback
Cut your AWS cloud bills by up to 40%

👉 Start Your First CI/CD Pipeline in 10 Minutes