Why do we still use Jenkins Software in 2024?

Jenkins Software is great for DevOps

DevOps is an integral part of today's software projects. It removes friction in the software development process by automating the life-cycle management of source code across the various refinement stages like test, build, and deployment. The key to Jenkins' success lies in its remarkable extensibility.

With over 1,800 plugins readily available, Jenkins is a highly customisable platform, allowing teams to tailor it to their needs and preferences. These plugins enhance Jenkins' capabilities, adding additional features and functionalities and transforming it into a versatile tool that can adapt to any software development process. Moreover, Jenkins supports a wide range of programming languages, including Java, Python, Nodejs, C, C++, Ruby, PHP, Go, Rust, Swift, dotnet, and C# etc, and it integrates with various version control systems, such as Git, Subversion, and Mercurial.

As Jenkins power users, we know no programming language or source control management system is incompatible with Jenkins.

To further enhance its user experience, Jenkins provides a user-friendly web interface, making it accessible to developers of all skill levels. Through this intuitive interface, teams can effortlessly configure and manage their CICD pipelines, gaining complete control over the software development process. However, one advantage of Jenkins Software for DevOps is the powerful domain-specific language based on Groovy. This language enables DevOps engineers to construct software development pipelines efficiently, harnessing the full potential of Jenkins' automation capabilities in code.

By utilising Jenkins for DevOps, teams can automate their software development processes, embracing frictionless CICD to achieve unparalleled efficiency and software quality.

Plugins make Jenkins extensible

Plugins play an essential role in extending and enhancing the capabilities of Jenkins Software. The Jenkins ecosystem boasts over 1,800 plugins, each meticulously designed to cater to specific requirements. This diversity guarantees that no matter the complexity or uniqueness of a software development project, there's a plugin to meet its needs.

Pipeline plugin | link

Pipeline plugin. With its intuitive visual interface, the Pipeline plugin simplifies the creation of complex software delivery pipelines. It empowers teams to orchestrate a series of build, test, and deployment stages, enhancing collaboration and efficiency.

GitHub plugin | link

The GitHub plugin stands out for its seamless integration with the GitHub service. This plugin enables developers to trigger effortlessly builds from GitHub commits, integrating Jenkins with the GitHub workflow.

JIRA plugin | link

The Jira plugin facilitates the Integration of Jenkins Software with the popular JIRA Cloud Service, bridging the gap between development and project management.

Sonar plugin | link

Improve code quality quickly with the SonarQube plugin. It seamlessly integrates with Jenkins Software to perform static code analysis, identifying potential issues and vulnerabilities. The Sonar plugin enables teams to maintain high coding standards and deliver bug-free software.

Ec2 plugin | link

The Ec2 plugin caters specifically to software projects that leverage Amazon Web Services. It allows Jenkins Software to interact with Amazon Web Services - EC2 Service, enabling the provisioning, configuration, and termination of instances based on specific build requirements. The Ec2 plugin facilitates efficient resource allocation and optimises build utilisation.

Kubernetes plugin | link

The Kubernetes plugin empowers Jenkins Software users to leverage Kubernetes and Docker capabilities in their software delivery processes. With this plugin, teams can seamlessly provision pods on Kubernetes to build applications, providing a dynamic environment for configuring and provisioning Kubernetes clusters.

In summary, the vast array of plugins available for Jenkins Software empowers teams to integrate the various tools to enhance efficiency, collaboration, and software quality throughout the development lifecycle.

Continuous integration

Continuous Integration (CI) is the process of building code after every commit. Code errors are more straightforward to debug if identified soon after committing to the repository, making errors more straightforward to discover and remedy. If the code fails after the commit, then identifying the root cause is reasonably straightforward by looking at the content of the previous commit. It also helps teams collaborate because developers might work on different components that share some code. CI tests code to make sure the various components work.

With Jenkins, you can set up Continuous Integration (CI) to monitor your version control system for code changes. When changes are detected, Jenkins will automatically build and test the modified code, allowing you to catch and fix any issues. Jenkins has many features to optimise this even further. For example, if you are used to developing and merging code across multiple branches, it might get repetitive if your CI only supports building on main branches. Jenkins has a solution to this, and it is called Pipeline: Multibranch. With this feature, Jenkins will automatically create a pipeline on a branch so that the code can be built and tested in isolation of merging. It is then also possible to build and test the pull request that is created to manage the integration of the branch into the main branch.

1. Pipeline: Multibranch plugin | link

The source control plugins for your source code manager also provide various capabilities. For example, the Github, Gitlab and Mercurial plugins allow you to receive events via webhooks that can automatically trigger builds.

Additionally, you can configure Jenkins to send developers notifications on build and test results. This way, developers can stay up-to-date on the status of their code and make informed decisions about its quality.

1. Slack Plugin | link

2. Teams Plugin | link

Continuous delivery

With continuous integration, your code is regularly built and tested. Continuous delivery is set up to automate the deployment of this code to the non-production and production environments. If deployments are a manual process, it takes more time to resolve any issues, which can be frustrating for developers. Automating the deployment of code on commit is a game-changer in productivity and a major improvement in developer experience.

Jenkins is not a continuous delivery tool out of the box, and while we can create deployment features with Jenkins pipelines, we don't think it can compete with dedicated tools for deployment. However, with plugins, and tools like Cloudbees CD/RO and Octopus Deploy, it is fairly trivial to integrate continuous delivery capabilities into Jenkins Software.

1. Cloudbees CD/RO | link

2. Octopus Deploy | link

Jenkins enables DevOps teams to orchestrate the software development life-cycle from development to production seamlessly.

Multi-platform software development

We know that software development is a huge field covering many industries and today software development teams build software in many languages and for many platforms so it makes sense for us to consider the many benefits Jenkins has supporting software development on different platforms like MacOS, Windows, Arm and Intel.

The benefit selecting Jenkins for multi-platform software development is the ability to consolidate integrations on a single tool. Jenkins can build software on multiple platforms enabling software development teams to optimise the refinement of multi-platform software products.

Jenkins software security "Dos and Don'ts"

Here are some considerations for securing your Jenkins CI.

1. Don't commit secrets to your source code repositories. So many organisations have been caught out by developers who accidentally commit access keys and security tokens to the source code manager. Accidentally exposing secrets is a concern for most organisations.

2. Implement the separation of concern to prevent non-production environments from accessing production.

3. Use the principle of least privilege when setting up the pipelines to avoid creating privileged pipelines.

4. Consider establishing ground rules with your colleagues regarding the use of the source code manager. Discuss and create patterns for merging code, creating pull requests, and approving pull requests.

5. Only ever serve Jenkins over a TLS connection.

In modern software development teams, security continues to take precedence. As an integral part of this strategy, Jenkins offers robust security features to protect your software projects. Implementing role-based access control ensures that only authorised individuals can access sensitive information and perform specific actions. Regular updates and security patches from the DevOps team are crucial in safeguarding against vulnerabilities.

Furthermore, utilising encrypted connections (SSL/TLS) for all communications between Jenkins and its components adds a layer of protection.

Remember, security is an ongoing process that requires constant vigilance and adaptation to evolving threats. By prioritising security and implementing these measures, you can harness the full potential of Jenkins Software in your modern software development endeavours.