Is Jenkins Dead?

Is Jenkins Dead?

Not Really

Despite the growing popularity of cloud-native CI/CD tools like GitLab CI and GitHub Actions, Jenkins remains widely used in many organizations.

According to the Developer Ecosystem Survey by JetBrains (2023), 54% of developers use Jenkins for CI/CD.

Additionally, the Kubernetes job trends report by kube.careers mentioned that Jenkins was the most popular in job postings.

This indicates that Jenkins is still a significant CI/CD tool in the current technology landscape.

However, for those looking to implement CI/CD, I highly suggest considering GitHub Actions or GitLab CI.

Many jobs require Jenkins knowledge because existing CI/CD pipelines are often built on Jenkins.

Although many companies are migrating to other CI/CD solutions, Jenkins is still prevalent, and the demand for professionals with Jenkins expertise remains high.

Is learning Jenkins worth it?

If you are starting your DevOps journey, it's perfectly fine to learn Jenkins.

Once you understand Jenkins, you can easily adapt to any CI/CD tool. The workflows remain consistent; only the syntax and configuration differ.

For example, the concept of ephemeral and static agents is similar in GitLab CI and GitHub Actions.Jenkins shared libraries are equivalent to GitHub Actions' Composite Actions/Reusable Workflows and GitLab CI's YAML Includes.

My team was able to learn and implement CI/CD using Github Actions and Gitlab very easily since they worked on Jenkins extensively.

What is the issue with Jenkins?

Now, lets understand why everyone is moving away from Jenkins.

1. Maintenance Overhead

Maintaining Jenkins can be demanding, involving regular management of plugins, updates, and infrastructure.

I remember having to patch Jenkins every month and thoroughly test it to ensure all pipelines functioned as expected. This process can be both time-consuming and costly for organizations.

2 . Scaling challenges

While Jenkins can scale, it often needs complex setups and additional tools like Kubernetes for large-scale deployments.

3. Security concerns

Past vulnerabilities have raised concerns about Jenkins' security model.

4. Shift towards GitOps

The industry is moving towards GitOps practices, which are more naturally supported by git-native CI/CD tools. Also, Modern CI/CD platforms are designed with containerization in mind.

That said, Jenkins still has some advantages:

1. Extensive plugin ecosystem
2. Flexibility and customization options
3. Strong community support
4. On-premises deployment options, which are crucial for some industries

Conclusion

While Jenkins faces challenges in the modern CI/CD landscape, it's not accurate to say it's "dead." It still has a significant user base and offers unique advantages.

However, its market share is decreasing as newer, cloud-native solutions gain popularity.

For many organizations, especially those with complex, customized build processes or strict on-premises requirements, Jenkins remains a viable and powerful option.

However, for new projects or organizations looking to modernize their CI/CD pipeline, cloud-native solutions often provide an easier entry point and better alignment with current DevOps practices.