Continuous integration and continuous delivery are essential concepts in modern cloud application development, aiming to automate the deployment process by integrating code changes into a shared code base. A CI/CD pipeline consists of various steps, such as testing, building, packaging, delivering, and deploying, which work together to transform a change from inception to production. The main vehicle for this process is the CI/CD pipeline, which can be thought of as a production line in a car factory. Continuous integration refers to integrating changes with an existing code base, while continuous delivery (or deployment) prepares a deployment artifact for production or automates the last part of making it run in the production environment. A good CI/CD pipeline is fast, reliable, automated, and easy to maintain, including code testing, builds, deployments, and rollback mechanisms. It ensures quick feedback, integrates seamlessly with version control, and supports parallelism and scalability. Best practices for CI/CD include starting small, using version control and infrastructure as code, automating repeatable tasks, shifting security left, securing the CI/CD environment, and using safe deployment strategies with rollbacks. Implementing a CI/CD platform or tool can be overwhelming, but it's essential to start small, onboard a single team, and scale up slowly. Security should be a priority for your CI/CD platform, as it is often an entry point to the rest of your cloud environments. Monitoring your CI/CD environment is crucial, including monitoring for failures and efficiency, and securing your environment with safe deployment strategies and rollbacks.