AWS CodeDeploy vs AWS CodePipeline: What are the differences?

AWS CodeDeploy and AWS CodePipeline are two popular services offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for automating application deployments. Let's explore the key differences between AWS CodeDeploy and AWS CodePipeline:

1. Deployment Automation: AWS CodeDeploy focuses specifically on deploying applications to Amazon EC2 instances or on-premises servers. It provides the necessary tools to automate the deployment process, handle rollbacks, and manage application updates. On the other hand, AWS CodePipeline is a fully managed continuous delivery service that orchestrates the entire software release process. It allows you to define and visualize the stages of your release process, including building, testing, and deploying your application.

2. Integration and Workflow: AWS CodeDeploy integrates with AWS CodePipeline, and it can be one of the deployment actions within a CodePipeline workflow. AWS CodePipeline acts as the orchestration tool for the entire release process, including CodeDeploy deployments, along with other stages like source code management, build, and testing. CodePipeline allows you to define the sequence of actions and dependencies between them, enabling more complex and customized deployment workflows.

3. Application Type and Compatibility: AWS CodeDeploy supports diverse application types, including EC2 instances, on-premises servers, and Lambda functions, while being compatible with multiple programming languages and deployment platforms. Similarly, AWS CodePipeline accommodates various application types, such as repositories, infrastructure as code templates, and containerized applications, allowing for custom actions to integrate with other tools and services.

4. Deployment Control and Rollbacks: AWS CodeDeploy provides fine-grained control over the deployment process, allowing you to specify deployment configurations, deployment groups, and traffic shifting strategies. It supports automatic rollback capabilities, allowing you to revert to a previous version if deployment issues occur. AWS CodePipeline provides deployment automation, but it does not have the same level of granular control as CodeDeploy. However, CodePipeline allows you to integrate with additional tools and services for more advanced rollback and validation mechanisms.

In summary, AWS CodeDeploy and AWS CodePipeline serve different purposes in the application deployment process. CodeDeploy focuses on automating the deployment process to various target environments, providing flexibility and control over the deployment configurations. CodePipeline, on the other hand, is a continuous delivery service that orchestrates the entire release process, integrating with various tools and services for end-to-end automation.