Spinnaker's main use case is deployment. We use it to create custom pipelines instead of manually deploying our HAN files. This allows us to deploy different services for staging, production, and other environments.
The tool's most valuable feature is its intuitive interface for converting existing Kubernetes specs into working pipelines. It's easy for anyone to deploy anything on any environment when they need to test or deploy for a specific merchant or use case. Instead of going into the specs and changing different variables, they can do it through the UI, which is very useful.
Regarding areas for improvement, one significant issue is the lack of maker-checker flows to ensure that newly created pipelines are accurate and tested. We currently use an in-house abstraction over Spinnaker to verify pipeline specs, environment variables, etc. It would be beneficial if Spinnaker could offer this functionality within their product.
I have been using the product for more than two years.
The tool is a stable product; we haven't seen many updates. For our use cases, we don't need updates. We'll probably continue using the current version even if updates are available unless they offer features like maker-checker workflows or pipeline tests.
In our company, everyone on the engineering side actively uses Spinnaker, probably at least once or twice a week. That would be around 600 people.
The deployment and setup are straightforward to do.
The solution is open-source.
I would recommend the tool to anyone interested in using it for the right reasons. It's very easy and useful, and depending on your use cases, it can save a lot of time.
Regarding integration with other tools in our CI/CD pipeline, we have something to manage ownership control and access control for different pipelines. Spinnaker has integrated, allowing certain user groups access to specific pipelines or groups of pipelines and controlling access to deployment in different environments.
Overall, based on my experience, I would rate Spinnaker nine to ten out of ten.
