Continuous Integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) is a complex part of any development cycle. It involves continuously integrating code into a shared repository to keep code progression amongst a team of developers running smooth and steady. This helps prevent merging errors, duplicated efforts and promoting collaboration to create a better product. That code is then thoroughly and continuously tested to keep problems from arising.

The integration landscape is changing. According to Gartner, “Two-thirds of all business leaders believe that their companies must pick up the pace of digital transformation to remain competitive.” One of the byproducts of this increasing pace is the desire to get results quickly. In a cloud-first world, that means expectations are changing for how products are trialed, procured, and billed. People expect things to be simpler, faster, and more intuitive.

As machine learning continues to address common use cases it is crucial to consider what it takes to operationalize your data into a practical, maintainable solution. This is particularly important in order to predict customer behavior more accurately, make more relevant product recommendations, personalize a treatment, or improve the accuracy of research.