CloudBees CI feature comparison

4 minute read

On this page

Community
Support services
Installation, updates, and maintenance
Managing at scale
Configuration as Code (CasC)
Continuous integration
Team management
Security and governance
Developer productivity
Resiliency
Cloud platform

CloudBees CI is an end-to-end continuous software delivery system.

The following section describes the features and services in CloudBees CI.

To purchase additional features or services, contact your account manager, Customer Success Manager, or CloudBees Sales.

Legend:

Supported "out-of-the-box"
Not supported
Kubernetes-only feature

Community

Table 1. Community features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
The leading automation platform for continuous integration and delivery
Ecosystem of 1,800+ plugins
Online documentation	docs	docs	docs
Online tutorials and workshops	docs	docs	docs

Support services

Table 2. Support services features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
24/7 expert support available depending on your support agreement		docs	docs
Dedicated expertise to accelerate your DevOps transformation		docs	docs
Analysis of your Jenkins environment (alerts you to out-of-date components, security vulnerabilities, and issues impacting performance)	docs	docs	docs

Installation, updates, and maintenance

Table 3. Installation, updates, and maintenance features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
Rolling releases		docs	docs
Assisted updates available
Tested/validated build of Jenkins to ensure plugin compatibility		docs	docs
Curated list of 200+ plugins to ensure compatibility with each other and the Jenkins build instance		docs	docs
Upgrade plugins with the Beekeeper Upgrade Assistant		docs	docs
Cluster operations such as performing backups or restarts on controllers, or installing or upgrading plugins		docs	docs
Manage plugin compatibility and updates with custom plugin catalogs		docs	docs
Report on plugin usage		docs	docs
Jenkins Health Advisor	docs	docs	docs

Managing at scale

Table 4. Managing at scale features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
Centralized management of controllers and a central view into a CI cluster		docs	docs
Plugin management (verify compatibility, manage plugin versions, and enforce compliance)		docs	docs
Cluster operations such as performing backups or restarts on controllers, or upgrading or installing plugins		docs	docs
Optimizing resources with hibernation of managed controllers			docs
Share build agents across connected controllers		docs	docs
Horizontal Scalability for automatic scaling and load balancing of workload
Pipeline template catalog to centrally share and organize Pipeline templates		docs	docs
Auto-discovery of Pipeline templates in repositories

Configuration as Code (CasC)

Table 5. CasC features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
CasC for controllers	docs	docs	docs
CasC for the operations center		docs	docs
Simplified CasC bundle composition and maintenance with bundle inheritance for controllers		docs	docs
Item creation for controllers (create folders, freestyle jobs, Pipeline jobs, Multibranch Pipeline jobs, SCM organizations, instances based on CloudBees templates, backup, and restore)		docs	docs
Item creation for the operations center (create folders, freestyle jobs, cluster operations, managed controllers, client controllers, shared agents, shared cloud agents, and backups)		docs	docs
Install required plugins		docs	docs
Configure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for controllers		docs	docs
Configure RBAC for the operations center		docs	docs
Distribute and manage CasC bundles from the operations center to connected controllers		docs	docs

Continuous integration

Table 6. Continuous integration features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
Build complex delivery Pipelines	docs	docs	docs
Builds that survive controller and agent failures	docs	docs	docs
Ephemeral build agents		docs	docs
User-friendly declarative syntax for Pipeline modeling	docs	docs	docs
Restart builds from check-pointed locations		docs	docs
Detects restore scenario and attempts to bring your instance back up quickly after loss of environment		docs	docs

Team management

Table 7. Team management features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
Organize jobs with folders	docs	docs	docs
Define environment variables that are passed to the builds of all jobs within a folder		docs	docs
Display selected jobs from subfolders in a higher-level view		docs	docs
Restrict which kinds of items may be created in a folder		docs	docs
Move jobs (or subfolders) from one folder to another (or to or from the root of Jenkins )		docs	docs
Restrict which agents each team has access to		docs	docs
Share build agents across connected controllers		docs	docs
Self-service controller provisioning			docs
Share standardized build environments (including Docker configurations) across a cluster of controllers		docs	docs
Store controller configuration to file for easy replication		docs	docs

Security and governance

Table 8. Security and governance features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
Centrally enforce common security options, including authentication across a cluster of controllers		docs	docs
Centrally managed and flexible RBAC model that introduces roles and groups	docs	docs	docs
Single point of configuration for single sign-on (SS0) across multiple controllers		docs	docs
Support for self-signed certificates (cluster configuration)			docs
Cloudbees-provided CyberArk plugin, allowing storage of Jenkins credentials in an external CyberArk vault		docs	docs
Signed Docker images		docs	docs
Signed Helm chart			docs
Trigger restrictions (restrict which upstream jobs are allowed to trigger builds of other jobs)		docs	docs
Enforce best practices on Pipelines		docs	docs
Manage objects in folders to enable access control to controllers and agents		docs	docs

Developer productivity

Table 9. Developer productivity features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
Modern and performant Pipeline troubleshooting		docs	docs
Shared and centrally organized Pipeline templates		docs	docs
Auto-discovery of Pipeline templates in repositories
Build-time optimization with workspace caching		docs	docs
Build strategies that prevent build storms by establishing a repository baseline without triggering any builds		docs	docs
Receive automatic granular, actionable build data directly in GitHub		docs	docs
Receive automatic granular, actionable build data directly in Slack		docs	docs
Automate Pipelines across teams and controllers		docs	docs
Manage inbound events across multiple controllers		docs	docs
Create and manage ServiceNow change requests and incident tickets from your Pipeline		docs	docs

Resiliency

Table 10. Resiliency features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
High Availability (active/active)		docs	docs
High Availability (active/passive)		docs
Kubernetes resiliency

Cloud platform

Table 11. Cloud platform features
Feature	Jenkins LTS	CloudBees CI on traditional platforms	CloudBees CI on modern cloud platforms
Auto-configured Kubernetes agent
Jenkins build validated for AKS, EKS, GKE, PKS, and OpenShift (Kubernetes)
Windows container support on AKS, EKS, and GKE			docs
Share cloud agent configuration across a cluster of controllers		docs	docs
Convenient controller management and scaling			In EKS and GKE
Elastically scale infrastructure and agents up and down dynamically based on workload