Company
Date Published
Author
Victor Savkin
Word count
1949
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Continuous Integration (CI) systems have traditionally relied on a static execution model using a directed acyclic graph of virtual machines (VMs), which often results in inefficiencies such as flakiness and slowness, particularly as the scale of testing increases. This model struggles with effective communication between nodes and is not well-suited to handle failures, whether they be hard or soft, leading to frequent CI execution failures. Nx Cloud proposes a solution by shifting from this VM-based model to a task-based approach, where tasks are distributed across interchangeable Nx Agents. This dynamic model allows for greater resilience and performance, as tasks can be reassigned in case of agent failures and slowdowns are amortized across multiple agents. Additionally, Nx Cloud's ability to rerun flaky tests on separate agents significantly reduces the likelihood of CI failures due to flakiness. This innovative approach not only enhances the robustness of CI systems but also improves their speed and efficiency, demonstrating the benefits of adapting the CI execution model to better align with modern development needs.