Jenkins is a community-driven open-source automation server used to automate software build, test, delivery, and deployment workflows. It is part of the Continuous Delivery Foundation and is designed as a self-contained platform that can run through native packages, Docker, or a Java runtime while distributing work across multiple machines.
Rather than a fixed SaaS product, Jenkins is an extensible automation platform built around plugins, pipeline-as-code, and reusable project components. Its ecosystem supports continuous integration, continuous delivery, and broader automation use cases, with capabilities that extend into reproducible configuration, controller-to-agent communications, and Kubernetes-based operation.
Offerings, Capabilities, and Integrations
Jenkins delivers automation through a controller-agent model, pipeline-as-code workflows, and a plugin architecture with more than 2,000 community-contributed extensions. That ecosystem allows teams to connect source control, build management, administration, user interface, and platform integrations into one automation environment instead of relying on a closed toolchain.
Jenkins supports installation across package-based, containerized, and standalone deployments, and it can distribute workloads across agents for faster execution. Its broader capabilities include YAML-based configuration management, Kubernetes-oriented operations, and integrations for major cloud environments including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Products and Services
- Jenkins: Self-contained open-source automation server for building, testing, and delivering or deploying software, extended through a large plugin ecosystem.
- Pipeline: Suite of plugins for implementing and integrating continuous delivery pipelines as code, typically defined in a Jenkinsfile with the Pipeline DSL.
- Jenkins Configuration as Code: YAML-based configuration approach that lets administrators define, validate, and apply Jenkins controller settings in a reproducible way.
- Jenkins Operator for Kubernetes: Kubernetes-native operator for running Jenkins with declarative configuration and lifecycle management in cloud-native environments.
- Jenkins Remoting: Library and executable archive that implements the communication layer used primarily between the Jenkins controller and Jenkins agents.
- Blue Ocean: Pipeline-focused user experience for creating, visualizing, and diagnosing Jenkins pipelines with a more visual interface.
- Kubernetes plugin: Plugin that provisions dynamic Jenkins agents as Kubernetes pods so build capacity can scale with workload demand.
Target Customers
Jenkins serves software development teams, DevOps and platform engineering groups, and administrators that need to automate build, test, and delivery workflows. Its documentation and project structure explicitly address end users, Jenkins administrators, and plugin developers, reflecting a broad audience from day-to-day engineering teams to platform owners extending the system.
Jenkins is especially relevant for organizations that need customizable, self-managed CI/CD across mixed tools and infrastructure. Pipelines can be versioned in source control, workloads can run across distributed agents, and environments can extend into Kubernetes and major public clouds, making Jenkins suitable for teams standardizing automation without giving up infrastructure choice.
Cloud Integrations and Marketplace
- AWS Marketplace: AWS Marketplace includes Jenkins server images, and Jenkins provides official guidance for deploying on Amazon EC2 and integrating with AWS services such as CodeCommit, CodeDeploy, EC2 Spot, and EC2 Fleet.
- Microsoft Azure Marketplace: Microsoft Azure Marketplace offers Jenkins server images, while Microsoft documents Jenkins on Azure for installation, scaling, and CI/CD use across Azure services and resources.
- Google Cloud Marketplace: Google Cloud guidance includes provisioning Jenkins through Cloud Marketplace, and Jenkins offers plugins for Google Compute Engine, Google Cloud Build, and Google Cloud Storage workflows.
Key People
- Alexander Brandes: Governance Board Member
- Basil Crow: Governance Board Member
- Daniel Krämer: Governance Board Member
- Valentin Delaye: Governance Board Member
- Alex Earl: Governance Board Member
- Wadeck Follonier: Security Officer
- Tim Jacomb: Release Officer
- Damien Duportal: Infrastructure Officer
- Stefan Spieker: Events Officer
- Kris Stern: Documentation Officer
Key Facts
- Headquarters: Undisclosed
- Employees: Undisclosed
- Annual Revenue: Undisclosed
- Parent Company: Continuous Delivery Foundation
- Subsidiaries: None
- Publicly Listed: No
