Semaphore 2.0 Brings Continuous Delivery to Teams of All Sizes

Since its inception in 2012, Semaphore has been focused on making code testing and deployment a quick and easy process. The cloud-based CI/CD platform from Rendered Text enables users to get up and running within a matter of minutes—which the company claims is at least twice as fast as other offerings.

The company is releasing Semaphore 2.0 Nov. 6, which will expand the platform to enable continuous delivery, for a product that allows teams of any size to automate any continuous integration or continuous delivery workflow with custom pipelines so users can model their CI/CD however they prefer. The latest version also better supports CI/CD for containers, giving users the ability to use Docker or Kubernetes tools in building within container environments. Other features of Semaphore 2.0 include support for YAML files and command line interfaces, so teams can manage a large number projects more easily.

Marko Anastasov, founding partner at Rendered Text, spoke with me about the latest version of Semaphore and his thoughts on the continuous integration and continuous delivery space at large. Read on for his insights:

Can we start with some background about Semaphore? What was the catalyst for creating it?

Our company was an early adopter of agile software development practices, including test-driven development and continuous deployment. We relied on cloud-based products like GitHub, which were simple to use and made software development easier.

However, when it came to implementing continuous integration, we were out of luck. I remember spending days setting up Jenkins for just one of our projects. We saw how expensive and time-consuming it would be to make it fast and scalable. It felt as if by continuously verifying our code, we were doing something wrong. Developers need to set up a fast and functional CI process in minutes, and not worry about how it works.

What’s new in Version 2.0 that’s worth mentioning?

Semaphore 2.0 is made to enable continuous delivery in organizations of any size. Previously, like other hosted CI/CD services, Semaphore focused on solving the integration process: building code and running tests. Delivery features were limited and tailored for classic web development.

This time we asked ourselves, What would a continuous delivery product focused on speed and simplicity look like in the age of cloud-native computing? I’d highlight three things that stood out.

First, for DevOps transformation to succeed, we need to automate, visualize and accelerate all software development processes in our organizations. So at the heart of Semaphore 2.0 are infinitely customizable code pipelines, configured as code, run as a service.

Second, infrastructure should be ephemeral and scale in real time. When CI/CD capacity is limited, developers are blocked in busy times of the day. Semaphore adopts the “pay only what you use” cloud model, in which CI/CD resources scale automatically to support the team’s actual needs.

And third, we can’t manage what we don’t measure. It doesn’t make sense to prescribe the same metrics for every project and organization. So Semaphore lets users choose their own metrics and define their own dashboards.

What feature or features do you believe will have the most impact with users?

In building Semaphore 2.0 we were very careful not to add any unnecessary features. All parts are designed to support each other and provide a harmonious user experience.

For example, Kubernetes wasn’t the first solution to run software in the cloud, but it made vendor-neutral cloud computing as easy as describing what you need to run. Similarly, developers can now describe any CI/CD process they need, and Semaphore will run it immediately at any scale.

In day-to-day use, I expect users to like how much control they have via command line and autoscaling resources. It’s the overall boost in productivity that will make the most impact.

How important is Semaphore’s increased support for container environments?

Containers are the biggest change in the development stack in recent history. In the transition to container-based software delivery, many teams needed to maintain their own CI/CD infrastructure, since none of the existing solutions were flexible or easy enough to use. This takes valuable time away from delivering value to customers. Semaphore 2.0 is built to support the next-generation of cloud architectures based on containers.

What are some of your thoughts on the current state of the CI/CD market, and where do you see it heading?

For the continuous integration part of the equation, there are many options to choose from. There’s a wide spectrum from managed to DIY solutions, and from specialized vendors to those who provide basic tools for every aspect of software development. I think the shift that’s going to happen is from basic automation to optimization. For example, Semaphore provides bare-metal performance at convenience of cloud. When a customer tells us that they’ve combined that with our test optimization features to reduce build time from hours to minutes, that makes us so happy because we know what tremendous difference that makes in their workplace.

On the continuous delivery front, I think there’s less maturity and that the market is still developing. So far, developers have needed to build their own solutions based on complex open source tools and self-managed infrastructure. Cloud vendors have entered the space, not with complete products but low-level tools that leave a lot of complexity for the end user to manage. The next phase will be about making the entire CI/CD process easier and more accessible. At Semaphore, we’re committed to making that happen.

— Charlene O’Hanlon