Maximizing Efficiency: Reducing AWS CodePipeline Build Time and Costs by 60%
Accelerated build times, cost optimization, and seamless deployments
When you're deploying an enterprise application 10–15 times a day, each minute is precious. However, each build was spending about 30 minutes in AWS CodeBuild and costing us money. Developers would sip on coffee, waiting for dependencies to download (again), and management was abundantly aware of an accumulating AWS invoice. It was a classic case of "the cloud will save you money" - unless you allow inefficient pipelines to run rampant.
Challenges
- Frequent deployments: With 10–15 builds daily, long build times directly impacted developer velocity.
- Slow builds: A 30-minute CodeBuild job meant painfully long waits and delayed feedback loops.
- High costs: Longer build durations translated into higher AWS CodeBuild billing, eroding the cost advantages of the cloud.
The Solution
Knackforge optimized the build pipeline and made it lean and lightning fast.
- First, we parallelized the CodeBuild steps so that tasks not dependent on each other could happen simulataneously.
- Next, we used an Amazon EFS file system to cache dependency packages, so we didn’t have it download them over and over again, while also keeping commonly used libraries within reach.
- Finally, we turned on Docker layer caching in CodeBuild so container layers were reused among builds. All of this took wasted time out and put the craft back into the pipeline, twenty first century style.
The Impact
- Three‑times faster builds: Build duration dropped from ~30 minutes to around 10 minutes—developers barely have time to tweet about it before it’s done.
- 60 % cost reduction: Shorter build times slashed CodeBuild costs by more than half, making management (and Finance) very happy.
- Seamless deployments: No more long waits or stalled releases; faster builds mean smoother, more frequent deployments.
Technologies Used:
- AWS CodeBuild
- Amazon EFS
- Docker layer caching