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PipeCD for CI/CD

Conductor

Article from ADMIN 88/2025

By Martin Loschwitz

PipeCD is a lean CI/CD orchestrator for Kubernetes and other target platforms. We look at how it works in detail and what people migrating from ArgoCD can expect.

In recent years, Linux containers have revolutionized the way developers and administrators roll out and operate applications. They usually come with Kubernetes in tow, which basically serves up a virtual data center, providing dynamic functions such as network and storage, which means workloads can be orchestrated by a fleet of systems.

However, Kubernetes (K8s) is known for its complexity. The symphony of pods, services, namespaces, and volumes alone is enough to drive many a K8s newcomer to distraction. When you add custom resource definitions and endless YAML files, your frustration meter can peak out.

An example quickly illustrates the complexities in rolling out applications in Kubernetes. To package a container with an application in a pod, add some persistent storage, and make the whole thing accessible from the outside, you need at least four independent Kubernetes resources. Seasoned K8s jockeys will be aware of this, but not those who have just begun their own container orchestration journey.

A few tools make life easier for both newcomers and experienced administrators, such as package managers Helm and ArgoCD [1]. ArgoCD not only promises to roll out applications in Kubernetes, but also offers comprehensive lifecycle management. It (Figure 1) is considered the standard solution for continuous integration and continuous development (CI/CD) with Kubernetes, but it is unpopular with many developers (see the "ArgoCD" box).

ArgoCD

ArgoCD has its friends within the community as well as critics, who accuse the tool of having a long list of shortcomings. One central issue is how ArgoCD uses the Helm package manager. Helm is considered an absolute standard tool in the Kubernetes scene. In principle, it does the same thing for

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