What is CI/CD and why it has been successful?

CI/CD is the acronym for continuous integration and continuous deployment or delivery. It has been a norm in the IT industry and in very simple terms, this is a modern IT development practice in which incremental upgrades are made frequently.

The process involves continually creating, testing, and upgrading the products to ensure users have access to the latest and greatest updates quickly, while product developers continue to gather user feedback and make further improvements for the next upgrades. Simply think about Spotify and Netflix compared to how we consumed media entertainment a decade ago!

Here are some of the benefits of implementing CI/CD:

Users have access to new and improved features quicker.

Smaller changes and more frequent upgrades. Less major changes mean lower risk.

Easier to isolate problems, therefore easier and quicker to provide solutions.

Less outdated legacy products left in use, therefore better product maintenance.

Tighter user feedback loops, improving user satisfaction.

The advantage of applying CI/CD principles from IT to the maritime industry

So far, CI/CD hasn’t been a standard practice across the maritime industry, as major hardware and civil engineering infrastructure may not be compatible with the practice. Furthermore, this type of infrastructure cannot be upgraded as rapidly as software.

The industry is changing, and today’s infrastructures not only includes civil engineering projects and large vessels, but also IT infrastructures. If ‘IT infrastructure’ seems like an obscure notion, just think of banking apps and online money transactions as examples. If we remove the IT component, then all things money-related would take major steps backward and create major delays. That exemplifies how IT already forms a critical part of our day-to-day infrastructure.

In maritime operations, many tools including data measurement and visualization, component control systems, operational logistics and planning software, communication, and digital twins are IT based. The industry already has a deep usage and dependence of data operations so there is great potential for CI/CD to bring additional value.

Read also: Why subscribe to ‘as-a-service’ over sensor hardware?

Miros pushes CI/CD forward for maritime and offshore operations

Miros is one of the first players in the maritime industry to transition to a CI/CD approach, ensuring that our customers benefit from the latest and greatest updates to their sea-state monitoring solutions.

From adding real-time data access and visualization capabilities beyond our tried and tested wave measurement technologies to utilizing the power of Microsoft Azure cloud as an underlying data handling platform, we offer our users the most modern data handling infrastructure, integration options, data security, uptime, and encryption to back up their data against catastrophic events.

We don’t just want to sell a piece of hardware and never speak to the users again, which is why we are implementing CI/CD – to give the best user experience. We operate using a Sea-State-as-a-Service model, with a commitment to update our products based on customers’ feedback. Our clients’ user requirements and operation methods change over time, so we aim to upgrade our products to remain relevant and to continue bringing value to their operations.

Committed to supporting your vision for the future

We are committed to delivering a great customer experience. As well as top-quality products, this includes reliability, outstanding customer service, and ongoing product developments based on user feedback.

We don’t expect our customers to adapt their operations and work with hardware equipment that was designed years ago and hasn’t been updated since. As our customers’ operation methods and tools improve over time, so do our products, ensuring the harmonization of our tools with our clients’ operations.

Providing the best value and user experience for our customers, we are excited to see how our CI/CD and Sea-State-as-a-Service approaches can continue to grow with your operations as we continue to bring value to your project.

As we never stop learning, we are keen to hear about your experiences: How do our products and services support your operations, and how we can adapt these to fit your vision for the future?

If you would like to share your maritime operation scenarios, discuss a bespoke solution, or learn more about Miros’ Sea-State-as-a-Service offering, please get in touch.

Another blog post that could be of interest to you: The value of understanding waves