Leveraging the next wave of application architectures using Docker and Kubernetes

Kubernetes, launched by Google, is used for managing containerized applications – such as those handled with Docker – in a clustered environment. It provides a better way for teams to work with related but distributed components across varied infrastructures. Kubernetes provides the orchestration and support services required in environments such as these. With the Kubernetes plugins, DevOps teams can leverage Jenkins and Docker at scale, while collaborating more readily across different environments.

Building on the recent availability of Jenkins plugins to support Docker container technology, the new Kubernetes plugins now allow DevOps teams operating in massively distributed environments to deliver better software faster with Jenkins and continuous delivery practices. The ability to handle containerized applications so easily also accelerates the adoption of Docker for the next generation of microservices-based applications.

"The strong integration that the Jenkins community previously delivered for Docker is not only useful for users but also provides a powerful foundation for other container technologies; that is how we delivered Kubernetes support quickly. The easy extensibility that Jenkins offers puts Jenkins ahead of the curve when it comes to support for the overall container ecosystem," said Kohsuke Kawaguchi, Jenkins founder and CTO at CloudBees.

Open source Jenkins is the industry standard for continuous integration and delivery, and is used in over 100,000 active installations. Jenkins has become the standard for automating software delivery processes and orchestrating pipelines across an organization and facilitating collaboration between teams. At the same time, Docker’s lightweight container technology is disrupting the market by making it easier for DevOps teams to package and run applications. Used together, Jenkins, Docker and Kubernetes give DevOps teams a powerful set of tools that streamline the end-to-end delivery process by helping them speak the same language, share the same pipeline processes and work towards the same goals.

The specific plugins announced by the Jenkins CI community include the following:
? Kubernetes Plugin – Easily run Jenkins slaves elastically within a Kubernetes cluster of Docker containers
? Docker Build and Publish Plugin – Easily prepare Docker images and push them to a Docker registry. With help from the Google Container Registry Auth plugin, it can be used to push to the Google Container Registry in a Kubernetes cluster
? Docker Custom Build Environment – Allow developers to easily define custom build environments with Docker containers running within a Kubernetes cluster. The plugin can now pull in Docker containers from the Google Container Registry