This is NOT a Continuous Deployment which is normally happening in production server. Here I am trying to depict the environment where we need to automate the process using pipeline in which we can auto deploy the software to UAT and Staging so we can run the automated tests in it.

Automated Deployment to preprod(UAT/Stage) environment mights need OS provisioning, configuration of environment variubles, installation of apps etc. Which should be done automatically. Currently there are many software available in market such as Chef, Puppet which may help us to create a Automated Deployments to all pre-prod environments for Automated testing.
QA is an effort, not a role. So instead of batching up lots and lots of stuff and throwing it over the wall to QA, you make one change, have humans and robots test it, and deploy that change. Deploy to a QA server first to give the QA people some time to check before stuff goes to production. Your automatic (unit, functional, system) tests assure stuff doesn’t break (too much), and manual QA happens after deploying. If something is broken, you can fix it very fast, since you are deploying continuously. The mindset shifts from “features per release” to “releases per feature” so with truly friction-less automated deployments, you can release very small changes individually.

QA is an effort, not a role. So instead of batching up lots and lots of stuff and throwing it over the wall to QA, you make one change, have humans and robots test it, and deploy that change. Deploy to a QA server first to give the QA people some time to check before stuff goes to production. Your automatic (unit, functional, system) tests assure stuff doesn’t break (too much), and manual QA happens after deploying. If something is broken, you can fix it very fast, since you are deploying continuously. The mindset shifts from “features per release” to “releases per feature” so with truly friction-less automated deployments, you can release very small changes individually.

Continuous Pre-prod Deployment can be in UAT, System testing and Functional Testing.