Consulting

CI/CD Pipeline

Dozens of deploys per day, zero manual intervention. Pipeline processes standardised with centralised YAML templates and GitOps — no more deployment knowledge locked in one person.

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Supported Tools

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

ArgoCD

Jenkins

Tekton

Helm

Harbor

Scope

What we cover

Replace manual deployments with a reliable pipeline infrastructure that stays out of your way. Greenfield setup or modernising what you already have — delivered with full ownership transfer.

Pipeline Design and Best Practices

Stage-based, parallelised, cache-aware pipeline architecture. Fast feedback loops without unnecessary dependencies or redundant steps.

Branch Strategy

GitFlow or trunk-based development — chosen based on team size and release cadence, not habit. Guidance and team enablement included.

Test Automation Integration

Unit, integration, and e2e tests wired into the pipeline. Failing tests block merges automatically; results are linked back to pull requests.

Artifact Management

Docker image push to Harbor or Nexus, semantic versioning tag strategy (commit SHA + SemVer), and automated cleanup of stale artifacts.

Environment Promotion

Automated or approval-gated deployment flow from Dev → Staging → Production. Every transition is traceable and reversible.

Existing Pipeline Optimisation

Audit of slow or broken pipelines: identify cache opportunities, remove redundant stages, and cut build times without reducing coverage.

Process

Our Engineering Approach

Every engagement starts with measurement and ends with ownership transfer. The goal: your team runs the pipeline independently.

1

Audit & Inventory

Measure current pipeline durations, failure rates, and where teams are blocked. Identify what to fix first — with data, not guesswork.
2

Pipeline Architecture

Define stages, parallel job groups, caching strategy, and a centralised YAML template repository. Every decision documented before implementation.
3

Build & Security

Modular pipeline setup with Trivy image scanning, secrets vault integration, and idempotent deployment steps that work the same every time.
4

Handover & Observability

Pipeline ownership transferred to your team. SLA metrics, alert thresholds, and a Grafana dashboard for continuous monitoring.

Visual Proof

Pipeline Standardisation

The difference between a pipeline copied into every project with hardcoded secrets, and one derived from a centralised template that meets GitOps standards.

Current State — Spaghetti Pipeline

# .gitlab-ci.yml — bad example (separate copy in every project)
image: node:latest         # no pinned version

variables:
  DB_PASSWORD: "prod123pass!"    # ← hardcoded secret!
  SONAR_TOKEN: "sqa_4f9a2b91e7c3" # ← visible in Git

before_script:
  - cp /builds/bak/build-v3.sh . # ← unknown origin
  - chmod +x build-v3.sh

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - npm ci && npm run build
    - docker build -t myapp:latest .  # ← latest: untrackable
    - docker push 10.0.0.5:5000/myapp:latest

deploy_prod:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - ssh root@10.0.0.5 "./restart.sh" # ← where's the SSH key?
  when: manual
  # only: main  # removed in 2022 "it wasn't working"

KubeAtlas Approach — Template Pipeline

# .gitlab-ci.yml — centralised template approach
include:
  - project: 'kubeatlas/pipeline-templates'
    ref: main
    file:
      - '/templates/node-build.yml'    # standard build
      - '/templates/trivy-scan.yml'    # mandatory for all projects
      - '/templates/gitops-deploy.yml' # GitOps CD

variables:
  APP_NAME: payment-service
  IMAGE_TAG: $CI_COMMIT_SHA      # ← fully traceable

build:
  extends: .node-build-template  # ← centralised, versioned

container_scan:
  extends: .trivy-scan-template
  allow_failure: false          # ← CVE finding = build fails

deploy:
  extends: .gitops-deploy-template
  environment:
    name: $DEPLOY_ENV           # ← environment variable
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"

Secret Management

✕ Hardcoded YAML variable

✓ Vault / CI secret store

Image Tag

✕ :latest — who deployed what?

✓ $CI_COMMIT_SHA — full traceability

Maintenance Cost

✕ Separate .gitlab-ci.yml per project

✓ Centralised template, single update point

Technologies

GitLab CI GitHub Actions Jenkins ArgoCD Tekton Docker Harbor Nexus Helm

Who is this for?

Teams still deploying manually, or where one person holds the deployment knowledge and everyone else waits. Also engineering teams with pipelines that take 20+ minutes, break frequently, or where nobody's sure which test checks what — and who want that fixed properly, not patched around.

Ready to talk through your stack?

A direct technical conversation about where you are and what needs fixing.

Request a free assessment