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Vardhan NS

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last updated on December 9, 2022
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Why do you need to modernize Jenkins pipelines with CD Automation?

If there’s one Continuous Integration (CI) tool that software delivery teams swear by, it is undoubtedly Jenkins. Jenkins has been an indispensable CI tool for DevOps for over a decade. Jenkins is a flexible, open-source CI tool that  software delivery teams use to build, test and deploy code. Many organizations implement Jenkins for their Continuous Delivery (CD) needs but face challenges when scaling. When using Jenkins, developers must inevitably maintain thousands of scripts and plug-ins, which is cumbersome and inefficient. This is why they must modernize their Jenkins pipeline with Continuous Delivery (CD) automation.

Challenges of Deploying with Jenkins

  • Deployment Complexity
  • Workflow Orchestration
  • Security and Compliance automation
  • Developer-First mindset

Deployment complexity

When trying to improve their software delivery performance, organizations tend to complicate the process by implementing inefficient tools for the process. Software deployment to multi-cloud environments must be safe, easy, and scalable. Teams must avoid scripting, enable automatic rollback and safe deployment strategies, and most importantly, support large-scale deployments. Teams can easily achieve these goals by employing a purpose-built CD automation tool. Doing so will help them accelerate software delivery while also enabling incremental changes reliably.

Workflow orchestration

When working with multiple pipelines, teams must have complete visibility and deep insight into every stage of the pipeline. This allows them to remediate pre-and post-production issues. Unfortunately, Jenkins provides limited visibility into the build stage only. As a result, managers may not be able to share an update on the deployment status. That is why automating CD processes can be helpful. It simplifies the management of large teams by seamlessly connecting the workflow, providing deep insight into the pipeline itself, and also offering rich metrics around the delivery performance. This, in turn, helps stakeholders automate the approval and verification process.

Integrating Jenkins with Spinnaker

Security and compliance

When deploying software delivery changes with other tools, one of the biggest concerns is achieving security. Most organizations are now looking to integrate security apps into their pipeline. That is why integrating intelligent risk assessment within the pipeline can help DevSecOps make informed decisions and speed approvals. Securing the entire delivery process means implementing a role-based access control policy and managing keys and secrets. Automating security and compliance helps teams to standardize security checks so they can speed vulnerability, and remediation, based on real-time data insight.

Developer-first mindset

As the pipelines rapidly scale, it is imperative that organizations adopt a developer-first mindset and empower DevOps engineers to identify the risk of a release prior to deployment. As such, Jenkins doesn’t offer visibility into all stages and pipelines or provide access to the right tools to manage complex apps and pipelines, and lastly, allows to intuitively roll back with just a click. 

Benefits of Modernizing Jenkins Pipelines With CD Automation

Eliminate manual deployment scripts

Automating pipelines with a modern CD solution can help you eliminate the challenges faced with Jenkins. Modern CD solutions, such as OpsMx ISD, help DevOps engineers deploy rapidly and reliably without any scripting. It is a highly scalable tool that is suitable for increasing deployment workloads, but it is also easily extensible in supporting integrations with over 50 of the most common DevOps tools.

Get real-time data intelligence

Identifying and removing bottlenecks in your deployment pipelines rapidly can speed deployments.  This is why developers need real-time data intelligence or a real-time dashboard that can gather data from existing toolchains. The OpsMx ISD improves visibility and enables developers to monitor applications during and after deployment to production. This, in turn, empowers them to easily detect issues and request rollback quickly, thereby avoiding disruptions. 

Increase the velocity and accuracy of your software delivery

When releasing software changes, businesses must verify risks and enable an auto-rollback option in case things don’t turn out well. This is a key step that can ensure customer satisfaction. OpsMx ISD helps minimize errors during the build, deploy, test, and release processes. Its Delivery Intelligence module gathers data from various CI/CD tools, APM, and log analyzers and enables teams to scan and report software risks throughout the software delivery pipeline through advanced machine learning. Thus, teams can confidently deliver software with speed.

Increase developer and DevOps productivity

Cultivating a developer-first mindset by empowering DevOps engineers with the right tools, and enabling them to manage complex apps and pipelines can improve developer productivity.  

Automate security and regulatory compliance policies and audits

Integrating security policies in every stage of the software delivery pipeline can be a sure-shot way of enforcing security and compliance in your deployment. With OpsMx ISD, DevSecOps can easily define security policies in the software delivery pipeline. This security policy template/parameters improves the security posture of your business and ensures that the DevOps process always complies with the organization’s governance and rules. For instance, by incorporating frameworks like LDAP/SAML and enabling role-based access controls for Dev, Ops, and security, organizations can automate security and audits.

Last Word

Automating CD pipelines with the right kind of tools can make a huge difference in helping you deliver software with speed and accuracy. While Jenkins is a great Continuous Integration tool, it was simply not built for Continuous Delivery purposes. With this said, there are better tools than Jenkins that can help you automate and modernize CD processes and offer other benefits too. Additionally, OpsMx ISD integrates seamlessly with a wide range of tools, including Jenkins!

The OpsMx Intelligent Software Delivery (ISD) platform is an open, intelligent, automated Continuous Delivery solution that provides deep end-to-end insights and control over the software delivery process through a single user interface. Organizations implementing the platform can use the Continuous Delivery engine they prefer – it includes native integrations with Spinnaker and Argo – and their preferred CI/CD toolchain. OpsMx ISD is available as a Continuous Delivery-as-a-Service (CDaaS) or a managed on-premises solution.

Watch the full webinar to learn more about how to modernize Jenkins pipelines with Continuous Delivery (CD) automation.

Vardhan NS

Vardhan is a technologist and a marketing professional, currently working as a Sr. PMM at OpsMx. His strength lies in understanding complex technologies, and explaining them in un-complicated ways. Vardhan is a passionate Product Marketer with a keen focus on Content, helping brands Position themselves uniquely with clear messaging and competitive differentiation. Outside of work, he is an athlete that is passionate about Football, Swimming and Surfing.

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