Hello Reader,

Building something that runs on your computer is the easy part. Turning it into a product other people can actually use, and keep using as you improve it, is called DevOps (short for "development operations").

Here's what you'll learn, explained:

🐳 Containers and Docker: An app that works on your computer might break on someone else's, because of differences in software versions or settings.

Docker solves this by packaging your app with everything it needs into one self-contained unit called a container. That container runs the same way on any computer. You'll also learn Docker Compose, for running multiple containers together, and volumes, a way to keep data around even after a container restarts.

🚀 Deployment: This means taking your app off your computer and putting it on the internet so anyone can visit it.

You'll deploy a real app using a hosting service called Render, set up a custom web address, and add a health check, a simple page your app uses to tell the outside world "I'm still working." You'll also learn how to shut your app down safely, so a restart doesn't cut people off mid-action.

🔁 Continuous Integration (CI): A system that automatically checks your code every time you make a change, before anything reaches real users.

You'll set this up with GitHub Actions, plus automatic formatting (Prettier) and error checking (ESLint), so mistakes get caught early, rather than after they've shipped.

📦 Continuous Delivery (CD): What happens after your code passes its checks, getting it live safely.

You'll learn how to automate deployments, how to change your database's structure without breaking things people are already using, and how to use feature flags, a way to turn a new feature on or off without redeploying your app. You'll also learn rollbacks: undoing a bad release in seconds if something goes wrong.

🌍 CDNs (Content Delivery Networks): When your app suddenly gets a lot of visitors, a single server can slow down or go offline.

A CDN is a network of servers around the world that stores copies of your content closer to your users, so your app stays fast no matter where people are visiting from. You'll also cover caching and basic protection against traffic-based attacks.

Put all that together, and you've got what it takes to run a real, live product, something you could sell, maintain, or hand off to a team.

If you're ready to graduate from toy projects to real apps for real users, head to the course!

Feature Update: Can you support Explain by Scrimba on Product Hunt?

Have you tried Explain by Scrimba yet? It lets you type any question and get an instant video explainer back. We just crossed 10,000 explainer videos, and it only took one month! All this for free while it's in beta.

Speaking of Explain, we'd like to ask you a favor. We’re launching it on Product Hunt next Thursday, August 13, and we’d love your support.

Here’s the catch. Your upvote only counts if your PH account has some activity first. So this week, go follow us via producthunt.com/products/scrimba, poke around, and upvote a few other products you genuinely like.

Then come back Thursday and give us the thumbs up.

Click below to add the reminder to your calendar. Thank you for supporting Scrimba!

Let's build something incredible!

PS: I'll be chatting to Tom, our Devops instructor and Head of Education, at the Scrimba Town Hall on Discord today at 5pm BST. Would love to see you there!