CloudBees, a leading provider of software delivery platforms, has introduced a significant improvement to its popular Jenkins CI servers. Users can now benefit from horizontal scaling, which allows for greater scalability and performance. Furthermore, CloudBeesCI, the commercial version of open source Jenkins, will soon offer high availability and scale-out cluster deployment options. These updates are part of CloudBees’ ongoing efforts to enhance its software delivery platform, with the next iteration scheduled for launch in the next quarter.
Key updates to CloudBees CI
The upcoming release of CloudBees CI brings several noteworthy updates to the platform. Firstly, it incorporates high availability and scale-out cluster deployment options for Jenkins team controllers. This means that organizations can effectively handle increasing workloads by distributing them across multiple Jenkins team controllers within a cluster. This ensures improved performance, resilience, and fault tolerance.
Another significant addition is the introduction of caching data associated with Jenkins workspaces and directories used to create build jobs. This caching feature allows users to write and read data from a shared cache, boosting job execution speeds by at least 20% to 30% on average. This improvement is particularly beneficial for large-scale projects with numerous interconnected jobs.
Cluster Capacity and Team Controllers
CloudBees’ introduction of horizontal scaling capabilities addresses the potential bottleneck of limited team controllers in a Jenkins cluster. Normally, a single cluster would have a maximum capacity for a specific number of team controllers. When teams exceed this limit, they end up handling a larger number of jobs within each team controller, potentially impacting efficiency and resource allocation. With the new high availability and scale-out cluster deployment options, the workload can be distributed more effectively across multiple team controllers, ensuring optimal performance.
Open Source Considerations
While CloudBees has not yet open-sourced these Jenkins CI improvements, they have not ruled out the possibility of doing so in the future. Open-sourcing these enhancements would further align with the Jenkins community’s collaborative spirit and ethos. It remains to be seen whether CloudBees will decide to share these developments with the wider community, potentially enabling even broader adoption and contributions.
CloudBees’ Regrouping and Acquisitions
CloudBees underwent a period of regrouping last year, which included executive changes and efforts to launch a new progressive delivery platform. The company appointed its current CEO, Anuj Kapur, in August 2022, and in September, it finalized the acquisition of ReleaseIQ, which offers SaaS-based pipeline automation. These strategic moves demonstrate CloudBees’ commitment to advancing its software delivery solutions.
Furthermore, CloudBees is set to launch a new DevSecOps platform on November 1, leveraging all the acquired intellectual property, including CloudBees Compliance. This comprehensive platform will consolidate various capabilities such as value stream management, feature flags, and compliance, enabling organizations to streamline their development processes while prioritizing security and compliance requirements.
CloudBees’ Differentiation Strategy
In a competitive landscape, CloudBees aims to differentiate itself through a three-pronged strategy. Firstly, it emphasizes providing the best platform support for Jenkins’ extensibility and custom plugins. This allows users to customize their Jenkins environment to suit their specific needs, enhancing productivity and flexibility.
Secondly, CloudBees prioritizes security by centralizing and tokenizing secret data outside delivery pipelines. By removing sensitive information from the pipeline itself and relying on secure secret management, organizations can mitigate the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.
Lastly, CloudBees adopts a user-based pricing approach, as opposed to feature- or resource-based licenses. This pricing model allows organizations to align costs with actual usage and provides the flexibility to scale their DevOps initiatives without incurring unnecessary expenses.
Analyst Perspective
Jim Mercer, an analyst at IDC, acknowledges that CloudBees may be slightly late in positioning itself as a DevSecOps platform due to past acquisitions. However, he highlights the unique capabilities CloudBees brings to the table, such as value stream management, feature flags, and compliance. These features set CloudBees apart from certain competitors and offer organizations valuable functionality for efficient software delivery, risk management, and governance.
CloudBees’ recent enhancements to Jenkins CI servers, including horizontal scaling and high availability options, demonstrate the company’s commitment to continuously improving its software delivery platform. By offering greater scalability and performance, CloudBees equips organizations with the tools they need to handle increasingly complex development projects. Additionally, the forthcoming release of CloudBees CI and the launch of a new DevSecOps platform underline CloudBees’ focus on delivering comprehensive solutions to meet the evolving needs of modern software development teams.