Docker and CI/CD Pipelines: Automating Builds, Tests, and Deployments with Containers
Securing Docker Containers,Protect your Docker environment with comprehensive container security practices.
Shipping software quickly is easy. Shipping it quickly and reliably, on every commit, is the real challenge. If your team is fighting flaky builds, inconsistent environments, or manual release steps, it’s time to put containers and automation to work.
This practical book shows you how to combine Docker with modern CI/CD to create pipelines that are fast, secure, and reproducible. From first principles to advanced patterns, you’ll learn exactly how to turn containerization into a competitive advantage across GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins.
A Hands-On Guide to Integrating Docker into Modern CI/CD Workflows Using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, and More
Overview
Docker and CI/CD Pipelines: Automating Builds, Tests, and Deployments with Containers is an IT book, programming guide, and technical book that delivers a complete, end-to-end approach to container-driven automation. As A Hands-On Guide to Integrating Docker into Modern CI/CD Workflows Using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, and More, it covers Docker fundamentals, CI/CD pipeline automation, GitHub Actions workflows, GitLab CI/CD implementation, Jenkins pipeline configuration, container image optimization, automated testing strategies, Docker registry management, secrets management, microservices deployment, container orchestration, performance optimization, security best practices, and troubleshooting techniques. You’ll find production-ready examples, concise explanations, and repeatable templates that help your team build, test, and ship with confidence.
Who This Book Is For
- Software engineers and backend developers who want faster feedback loops and reproducible builds—learn how to containerize apps and standardize environments from laptop to production.
- DevOps engineers, SREs, and platform teams seeking clear, vendor-agnostic guidance—gain practical patterns for integrating Docker across GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, and Jenkins with measurable reliability gains.
- Tech leads, architects, and ambitious learners ready to modernize delivery—use this field-tested roadmap to break change risk, simplify releases, and elevate your deployment game.
Key Lessons and Takeaways
- Build production-grade images with multi-stage Dockerfiles that are small, secure, and cache-friendly. Learn layering strategies, dependency pinning, and build-arg patterns that accelerate pipelines and reduce attack surface. Make images reproducible across teams and environments.
- Design robust CI workflows that turn every commit into a trustworthy artifact. Implement GitHub Actions workflows, GitLab CI/CD implementation, and Jenkins pipeline configuration with parallel jobs, matrix builds, and ephemeral environments that run unit, integration, and end-to-end tests inside containers.
- Adopt airtight security and governance without slowing delivery. Master secrets management, Docker registry management, image signing, SBOM generation, and policy checks; bake in vulnerability scanning and compliance gates that keep your supply chain safe.
- Optimize for speed and reliability at scale with smart caching and performance tuning. Use container image optimization techniques, dependency caching, and layer reuse to cut minutes from builds. Instrument pipelines to track performance optimization and continuously remove bottlenecks.
- Deploy microservices with confidence using proven patterns for promotion across environments. Apply container orchestration concepts, blue/green and canary strategies, and rollback mechanisms so you can ship often while preserving stability and user trust.
- Troubleshoot with clarity by using logs, metrics, and structured diagnostics. The book’s troubleshooting techniques help you pinpoint flaky tests, environmental drift, and race conditions—then fix them with simple, repeatable changes to your Dockerfiles and pipeline YAML.
Why You’ll Love This Book
It’s practical, concise, and hands-on, with examples you can paste into your repository and run today. Each chapter pairs clear explanations with real configuration snippets and templates, so you not only understand the “why” but also have the exact “how.” You’ll move from concept to working automation in hours, not weeks.
How to Get the Most Out of It
- Start with the core chapters on container basics and pipeline architecture, then progress to platform-specific sections. This sequence builds a solid mental model before you fine-tune GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins for your stack.
- Apply each concept immediately to a real service in your codebase. Create a branch, add the Dockerfile and pipeline YAML, and measure build time, test coverage, and deployment success rates before and after.
- Tackle mini-projects at the end of each chapter: convert a Dockerfile to multi-stage, add a security scan job, set up a private registry, or implement a canary release. These targeted exercises compound into a production-ready pipeline.
Get Your Copy
Ready to automate builds, harden your supply chain, and ship faster with fewer surprises? Put containers at the heart of your delivery process and level up your pipeline today.
