Jenkins

Jenkins is an open-source automation server that is a leading platform for continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD). Its primary goal is to enable developers to automate the different stages of the software delivery pipeline, including building, testing, and deploying applications. Jenkins aims to accelerate the software development process and help organizations deliver software more rapidly and reliably.

Jenkins is widely recognized in the DevOps community and is utilized by numerous organizations globally across various industries. It has a strong market reputation for its extensibility, largely due to a vast ecosystem of over 1,800 plugins that allow integration with a multitude of tools and technologies. This flexibility makes Jenkins highly adaptable to diverse development workflows and complex CI/CD pipelines. While it is praised for its robust capabilities and large community support, some users note its configuration complexity and a user interface that is perceived as less modern compared to newer tools.

Offerings, Capabilities, and Integrations

Jenkins is an open-source automation server that provides continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) capabilities. Jenkins allows developers to automate various parts of the software development lifecycle, including building, testing, and deploying software. Its extensibility through a vast ecosystem of over 2,000 plugins is a key aspect of its offerings, allowing integration with a wide array of tools and technologies in the CI/CD toolchain. This flexibility enables Jenkins to support building, deploying, and automating virtually any project. Jenkins can be used as a simple CI server or can be transformed into a continuous delivery hub for any project. This adaptability, combined with its robust and mature nature, gives Jenkins a competitive edge, making it a widely used platform across various industries. Jenkins’ ability to distribute work across multiple machines enhances its capability to drive builds, tests, and deployments faster across different platforms. Jenkins’ reputation is that of a leading and long-established automation server, known for its flexibility, strong community support, and extensive integration capabilities.

Products and Services

Jenkins’ core offering is its open-source automation server. Jenkins itself is the primary product, which is a self-contained Java-based program. Key services and functionalities provided by Jenkins include:

• Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD): Jenkins automates the different stages of the software delivery process, including building, testing, packaging, and deployment. This is considered its flagship capability.
• Jenkins Pipeline: This suite of plugins allows users to define and manage their entire delivery pipeline as code, typically in a Jenkinsfile. It supports the implementation and integration of CI/CD pipelines. Jenkins Pipeline usage has seen significant growth, indicating its importance in CI/CD automation.
• Plugin Ecosystem: With over 2,000 community-contributed plugins, Jenkins offers extensive integration capabilities with numerous tools and technologies, such as version control systems (Git, Subversion), build tools (Maven, Gradle), testing frameworks, notification systems, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Distributed Builds: Jenkins supports a controller/agent architecture (formerly master/slave) that allows it to distribute build and test workloads across multiple machines (agents), improving performance and scalability.
• Jenkins X: A newer offering designed for CI/CD automation in cloud-native applications on Kubernetes. Jenkins X combines Jenkins with other open-source tools like Helm and Docker to automate the installation, configuration, and upgrade of these tools for CI/CD processes.
• CloudBees Jenkins Platform: While Jenkins itself is open-source, companies like CloudBees offer enterprise versions of Jenkins with additional features, support, and services, such as CloudBees CI (formerly CloudBees Jenkins Enterprise) and CloudBees Jenkins Operations Center. These are commercial offerings built upon the open-source Jenkins.

Jenkins is continuously evolving, with new plugins and features being developed by its active community. For instance, recent plugin additions include those for integrating with tools like ORAS and enhancing support for AWS services. Finite State also recently launched new Jenkins CI/CD plugins for integrating their security platform.

Target Customers

Jenkins is utilized by a wide range of users, from individual developers and small teams to large enterprises across various industries. Its open-source nature makes it accessible to organizations of all sizes. The primary target customers are software development teams, DevOps engineers, and organizations looking to automate their software development and delivery processes.

Specific market segments and company types that benefit from Jenkins include:

• Software Development Companies: Companies of all sizes that develop software applications across various platforms (Java, Python, C/C++, etc.) use Jenkins to automate their build, test, and deployment pipelines.
• Enterprises: Large organizations, including those in critical sectors like finance, healthcare, and government, rely on Jenkins for its maturity, reliability, and scalability in managing complex software delivery pipelines. Many large enterprises constitute a significant portion of Jenkins users.
• DevOps Teams: Jenkins is a cornerstone tool for teams practicing DevOps, as it facilitates the automation and integration required for CI/CD workflows.
• Cloud-Native Development: With offerings like Jenkins X and integrations with Docker and Kubernetes, Jenkins targets teams developing and deploying applications in cloud environments and using containerization technologies.
• Companies using a diverse set of development tools: Jenkins’ extensive plugin ecosystem makes it attractive to organizations that use a variety of version control systems, build tools, testing frameworks, and deployment platforms, as Jenkins can integrate them into a unified pipeline.

These target customers benefit from Jenkins by achieving increased efficiency through automation, reduced human error, faster time-to-market for software releases, and improved code quality through continuous integration and testing. Jenkins provides a centralized platform for managing and monitoring the software delivery process, fostering better collaboration and transparency within development teams.

Cloud Integrations and Marketplaces

Jenkins offers various integrations with cloud platforms and is available on several cloud marketplaces. Jenkins can integrate with practically every tool in the continuous integration and continuous delivery toolchain due to its extensive plugin ecosystem.

• AWS Marketplace: Jenkins is available on the AWS Marketplace through various offerings. These include Jenkins server software on Amazon Linux 2, enabling users to deploy CI/CD infrastructure. Offerings from third-party vendors like Matoffo and SolDevelo also provide Jenkins on AWS, sometimes with additional pre-configured features or on specific operating systems like Ubuntu. CloudBees, a contributor to Jenkins, has also historically offered its CloudBees Jenkins Platform on the AWS Marketplace, allowing interaction with AWS services like Amazon EC2, S3, Route53, and Lambda from within Jenkins. These marketplace solutions aim to provide scalability, security, and ease of management for CI/CD workflows on AWS.
• Microsoft Azure Marketplace: Jenkins is available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. Offerings include Jenkins Server on Windows Server 2022, designed for robust automation and seamless integration with Azure services. Another listing provides Jenkins with free support on Ubuntu 20.04. Historically, CloudBees also made its CloudBees Jenkins Platform available on the Azure Marketplace, enabling DevOps teams to host Jenkins-based continuous delivery processes within their Azure environment. These marketplace offerings allow users to deploy Jenkins, sometimes pre-configured, to accelerate software delivery on Azure.
• Google Cloud Marketplace: Jenkins is present on the Google Cloud Marketplace. Offerings include Jenkins on Windows Server 2019, configured for deploying services into GCP. There are also container image options for Jenkins, packaged by Google, which can serve as base images for applications on App Engine Flexible Environment, Kubernetes Engine, or other Docker hosts. These listings facilitate the deployment of Jenkins for CI/CD automation on Google Cloud.
• Other Cloud Integrations: Jenkins possesses a broad range of plugins that facilitate integrations with numerous cloud services and tools. For instance, the GoAnywhere MFT Jenkins Cloud Connector allows for automating and managing jobs on Jenkins servers. Jenkins can also integrate with SonarQube Cloud for code quality analysis within CI/CD pipelines. The CyberArk Conjur Secrets plugin enables Jenkins to authenticate to Conjur Cloud and retrieve secrets for use in Jenkins pipelines. Grafana Cloud also has a Jenkins integration for monitoring. Cloudsmith can be integrated with Jenkins for cloud-native artifact management.

Key People

• Board Member: Valentin Delaye.
• Board Member & Core Maintainer: Alexander Brandes.
• Board Member & Core Maintainer: Basil Crow.
• Board Member: Alex Earl.
• Board Member: Mark Waite.
• Creator of Jenkins: Kohsuke Kawaguchi.
• Infrastructure Officer: Damien Duportal.
• Release Officer: Tim Jacomb.
• Security Officer: Wadeck Follonier.
• Events Officer: Alyssa Tong.
• Documentation Officer: Kevin Martens.

Key Facts

• Headquarters Location: San Francisco, California, U.S. (via The Linux Foundation)
• Number of Employees: Community-driven with over 600 active contributors; the Jenkins project itself does not have traditional employees. Owler lists 28 employees for “Jenkins” in Software Asset Management with a London, England HQ, but this information may not directly pertain to the open-source Jenkins project defined by jenkins.io.
• Annual Revenue: Not directly applicable (Open-source project funded by sponsors and donations through the Continuous Delivery Foundation and The Linux Foundation). CloudBees, a major contributor to and commercial supporter of Jenkins, has an annual revenue of $150 million, but this is not the revenue of the Jenkins project itself.
• Parent Company: Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF), which is a part of The Linux Foundation.
• Subsidiary Companies: None
• Publicly Listed: No

Analyst Recognition

Jenkins, as an open-source automation server, is foundational to CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) practices. Analyst firms often evaluate Jenkins as part of broader technology categories related to DevOps, software development, and IT automation. Recognition is frequently attributed to companies that provide enterprise support and distributions of Jenkins, such as CloudBees.

• Gartner: While Jenkins itself as an open-source project is not typically directly ranked in Gartner Magic Quadrants or Critical Capabilities reports, solutions and platforms based on Jenkins, like those from CloudBees, have been recognized. For example, CloudBees has been mentioned in relation to Gartner’s reports on Application Release Orchestration, Continuous Delivery, and Software Delivery Management. Jenkins is also mentioned in the context of hyperautomation services. An analyst named Amy Jenkins works at Gartner, focusing on technology and service provider product marketing.
• Forrester: Forrester has recognized the importance of Jenkins in the DevOps landscape. CloudBees, a significant contributor and enterprise provider for Jenkins, has been mentioned by Forrester in the context of DevOps and continuous delivery. Forrester analysts have also participated in events related to Jenkins and its ecosystem, such as Jenkins World. A Forrester analyst also attended and was mentioned in relation to the Zero Trust World conference hosted by ThreatLocker, whose CEO is Danny Jenkins.
• IDC: Jenkins is acknowledged as a key tool in DevOps and CI/CD automation. Companies that leverage Jenkins as part of their DevOps and cloud enablement services are sometimes recognized by IDC in their MarketScape reports or other analyses.
• Everest Group: Jenkins is mentioned in the context of companies providing DevOps automation and CI/CD pipeline services. Companies utilizing Jenkins as part of their service offerings have been recognized by Everest Group in their PEAK Matrix® assessments for various technology and service categories.

It is important to note that direct “analyst recognition” for an open-source project like Jenkins often manifests through the evaluation of commercial entities that build upon, support, or integrate Jenkins into their enterprise offerings. Jenkins’ role is typically as a core enabling technology within categories such as CI/CD, DevOps toolchains, and Application Release Automation.