Open-source multi-cloud continuous delivery platform — Spinnaker

Spinnaker is a robust open-source, multi-cloud continuous delivery platform designed to automate the deployment of applications across different environments. It offers a versatile pipeline management system and integrates seamlessly with major cloud providers.

Here’s how CI/CD functions with Spinnaker:

Continuous Integration (CI): Spinnaker can connect with external CI systems like Jenkins, Travis CI, and AWS CodeBuild to trigger pipelines based on code changes and gather artifacts generated by builds, such as Docker images, JAR files, or other deployable units.

Pipeline Creation: In Spinnaker, you can create pipelines that outline the steps required for deploying your application. These steps may include:

• Baking machine images
• Deploying to different environments (e.g., staging, production)
• Running automated tests
• Executing custom scripts
• Monitoring deployments

Automated Triggers: Pipelines can be automatically triggered by events from your CI system (e.g., availability of a new build artifact) or manually initiated.

Deployment Strategies: Spinnaker supports various deployment strategies, including:

• Highlander: Replaces the previous version with the new one.
• Red/Black (Blue/Green): Deploys the new version alongside the old one, then switches traffic.
• Canary: Gradually rolls out the new version to a subset of users.

Rollbacks: In case of issues, Spinnaker allows easy rollbacks to previous versions of your application.

Monitoring: Spinnaker can integrate with monitoring tools to track the health of your deployments and trigger alerts if problems arise.

Benefits of using Spinnaker for CI/CD:

• Multi-Cloud Support: Spinnaker works with major cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure), making it a suitable choice for hybrid or multi-cloud environments.
• Flexible Pipelines: You can create complex, customized pipelines tailored to your specific deployment needs.
• Deployment Strategies: Spinnaker offers various strategies to help reduce downtime and risk during deployments.
• Automated Rollbacks: Rollbacks are straightforward and automated, enabling quick recovery from failures.
• Open Source: Spinnaker is open source, providing free usage and access to a large community of users and contributors.

Highlighting the key differences between Spinnaker, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, GitLab, and Buildkite:

Conclusion

• Spinnaker is best for advanced deployment strategies and multi-cloud environments.
• Jenkins offers extensive flexibility and a large plugin ecosystem for CI/CD.
• Azure DevOps provides an integrated DevOps suite with strong Azure support.
• GitLab offers a comprehensive DevOps lifecycle management tool.
• Buildkite is a robust choice for scalable CI/CD with strong Docker support.

Each tool has its strengths, making them suitable for different use cases depending on the specific needs and infrastructure of your projects.