Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF)
Continuous Delivery Foundation is a Linux Foundation nonprofit that provides vendor-neutral governance, community, and interoperability standards for open source CI/CD projects including Jenkins, Tekton, and Spinnaker, serving enterprise technology teams and open source maintainers globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) does
The Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) is a vendor-neutral nonprofit foundation established in March 2019 under The Linux Foundation to provide governance, community, and interoperability standards for open source continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) projects. Headquartered in San Francisco and operating with 1–10 staff, CDF hosts seven projects spanning the software delivery control plane: Jenkins (the first graduated project, August 2020), Tekton (a Kubernetes-native CI/CD framework that achieved a 1.0 stable release in July 2025), Spinnaker (a multi-cloud delivery platform contributed by Netflix), Jenkins X, Screwdriver and Ortelius (both incubating), and CDEvents (a specification project standardizing build, test, and deploy event semantics). The foundation serves three primary constituencies: enterprise technology teams implementing CI/CD pipelines, senior leadership measuring DevOps transformation outcomes, and open source maintainers contributing to foundational projects.
CDF's business model is nonprofit and membership-driven. Revenue is generated through tiered corporate membership dues (premier and general levels), event sponsorships for the annual cdCon conference and associated summits, and operational support from The Linux Foundation parent organization. The foundation operates a community-led go-to-market motion, distributing value through free-to-attend events, open source project hosting on GitHub, a quarterly newsletter, the Pipeline podcast, webinars, and authoritative research such as the State of CI/CD Report (2024 edition surveyed 26,000 global respondents) and DORA/Accelerate research (32,000+ participants over seven years). Notable enterprise adopters of CDF-hosted projects span financial services (Capital One, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase, NatWest), technology (Netflix, Adobe, Salesforce, SAP, Cisco, Target, Airbnb), and entertainment (Disney), with sponsors and members including CloudBees, Google, AWS, Armory, Codefresh, Octopus Deploy, and DeployHub. Strategic priorities articulated for 2025–2026 include elevating CDEvents as the semantic substrate for AI-ready developer platforms and joining cross-foundation policy advocacy for sustainable open source stewardship alongside OpenSSF, Alpha-Omega, and the Eclipse Foundation.
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF)
- Legal name
- Continuous Delivery Foundation
- Website
- https://cd.foundation
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Continuous Delivery Foundation is a Linux Foundation nonprofit that provides vendor-neutral governance, community, and interoperability standards for open source CI/CD projects including Jenkins, Tekton, and Spinnaker, serving enterprise technology teams and open source maintainers globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Open Source CI/CD Software Foundation
- NAICS
- Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design Services (541512), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- CI/CD Pipeline Engineering & Automation (BPAEAKAB)
Keywords
Where Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Membership Dues: CDF generates revenue through membership fees from corporate members at various tiers including premier and general membership levels.
- Event Sponsorships: Annual cdCon conference and other events are sponsored by technology companies including CloudBees, Huawei, Netflix, CircleCI, Codefresh, and others.
- Linux Foundation Support: As part of the Linux Foundation nonprofit organization, CDF receives operational support and infrastructure from the parent foundation.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free Community Access |
| Subscription | Annual | Corporate Membership |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels14 records
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) product offering
Product offeringCore offering
The Continuous Delivery Foundation provides vendor-neutral governance, community, and interoperability infrastructure for the leading open source CI/CD projects, including Jenkins, Tekton, Spinnaker, Jenkins X, Screwdriver, Ortelius, and the CDEvents specification. It supports adopters through best practices resources, cybersecurity guidance, the annual cdCon conference, and authoritative research such as the State of CI/CD Report built on DORA findings.
Product overview
The Continuous Delivery Foundation is a vendor-neutral organization that serves as the home for open source CI/CD projects, providing governance and advancement of the software delivery control plane. The foundation hosts founding projects including Jenkins, Jenkins X, Tekton, and Spinnaker, as well as incubating projects such as Screwdriver and Ortelius. It also supports the CDEvents specification project for standardizing events across developer platforms. These projects work together to enable automation, security, and intelligence in software delivery, supporting both traditional and AI-enabled applications.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Jenkins Open source automation server providing continuous integration and continuous delivery capabilities, widely adopted across enterprises for automating build, test, and deployment processes. The first CDF project to graduate.
- Tekton Kubernetes-native framework for building CI/CD pipelines, enabling portable and scalable continuous delivery across cloud environments. Released as version 1.0 in 2025 with a stable API.
- Spinnaker Open source, multi-cloud continuous delivery platform originally developed by Netflix, supporting deployment strategies and release automation across multiple cloud providers including AWS.
- Jenkins X Cloud-native version of Jenkins designed for Kubernetes, providing automated CI/CD with GitOps capabilities for cloud-native application development.
- Screwdriver Container-focused build service and CI/CD platform originally developed at Yahoo, treating continuous delivery as a first-class citizen in the build pipeline. First incubating project at CDF.
- Ortelius Open source microservice management platform that addresses microservices sprawl through configuration mapping and version control. Joined CDF as an incubating project in late 2020.
- CDEvents Open source specification project that standardizes how build, test, and deploy events are described across developer platforms, enabling interoperability and AI-ready DevOps platforms.
Quantifiable outcome
- Organizations practicing CD deploy 46 times more frequently and 440 times faster than peers
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF)
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature7 records
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
13 partnerships are on record, tiered major, core and minor.
- OpenSSF (Open Source Security Foundation)majorCDF signed a joint statement for sustainable stewardship for open source software along with OpenSSF, Alpha-Omega, Eclipse Foundation, and other foundations.
- ArmorycoreArmory joined CDF as a premier member, adding enterprise-grade proprietary features and support to the open-source Spinnaker project. Armory's Director of Community serves as Chair of CDF Outreach Committee.
- CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation)coreCDF co-hosts GitOps Summit with CNCF, demonstrating collaboration between foundations on cloud-native continuous delivery topics.
- DeployHubmajorContributed Ortelius microservice management platform to CDF as an incubating project. CEO Tracy Ragan serves as CDF board member.
- NetflixcoreNetflix contributed Spinnaker to CDF and continues as a key contributor. Netflix engineers actively participate in CDF governance as board members.
- AWS (Amazon Web Services)majorAWS is a significant contributor to Spinnaker, using it to orchestrate software delivery across multiple platforms.
- CodefreshmajorCodefresh joined as a member at cdCon 2020, contributing to GitOps initiatives and the overall CD ecosystem.
- Fidelity InvestmentsmajorFinancial services firm joined as a member, contributing end-user perspective on CD transformation and DevOps practices.
- Octopus DeploymajorJoined as a member at cdCon 2020, contributing expertise in deployment automation and release management.
- ShipaminorJoined as a member at cdCon 2020, providing application deployment management capabilities.
- CloudBeescoreCloudBees was a founding member at CDF launch in March 2019. The company provides enterprise support and features around Jenkins, contributing significantly to the Jenkins ecosystem and CD Foundation projects.
- GooglecoreGoogle was a founding member at CDF launch and contributes Tekton to the foundation. Google engineers actively participate in CDF governance and project development.
- Linux FoundationcoreCDF is established under the Linux Foundation as its parent organization, providing administrative infrastructure, legal support, and operational framework for the foundation.
Scale indicators9 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF): Sister Linux Foundation sub-foundation that hosts overlapping Kubernetes-native CI/CD and GitOps projects (ArgoCD, Argo Workflows, Flux, Keptn). CNCF competes for the same cloud-native developer mindshare, corporate members, and event audiences that CDF targets.
- OpenJS Foundation: Another Linux Foundation sub-foundation focused on JavaScript runtime and tooling projects (Node.js, jQuery). Operates the same vendor-neutral governance model and shares back-office with CDF, and is a natural co-marketing or co-location partner for developer-tooling audiences.
- Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF): Linux Foundation sub-foundation focused on open source supply chain security. CDF already co-signed a joint sustainable stewardship statement with OpenSSF in February 2026, making it a directly collaborating peer on CI/CD cybersecurity and software supply chain integrity.
Broad incumbents
- Apache Software Foundation (ASF): Long-established vendor-neutral open source foundation overseeing a broad portfolio including infrastructure projects adjacent to CD (e.g., Apache Maven, Buildbot-adjacent tooling). Comparable as a governance and community model but covers a much wider project surface than CDF's CI/CD focus.
- Eclipse Foundation: Independent open source foundation hosting enterprise tooling projects including the Eclipse Theia IDE and Jakarta EE-adjacent toolchains. Comparable as a nonprofit governance alternative for companies deciding where to donate developer-tooling IP, though its project mix is broader than CDF.
- The Linux Foundation: Parent organization of CDF, providing administrative, legal, and operational infrastructure to dozens of sub-foundations. Comparable as the umbrella nonprofit model CDF operates within and against which CDF's project portfolio must justify its independence and resource allocation.
Emerging players
- GitLab: Commercial DevOps platform with native CI/CD capabilities that competes head-to-head with Jenkins and the broader CI/CD ecosystem CDF governs. Comparable as a CI/CD solution used by enterprise developers, and a potential member and contributor partner rather than a pure competitor.
- CircleCI: Commercial CI/CD vendor and long-time CDF member/sponsor (named as a sponsor of cdCon). Competes with Tekton and Jenkins for continuous integration workloads but participates in the foundation as both contributor and commercial vendor, similar to CloudBees and Armory.
- CloudBees: Founded by Jenkins creators and a founding CDF member; sells enterprise Jenkins support and CI/CD solutions. Comparable as both a contributor to CDF-governed projects and a commercial alternative for enterprises that want vendor-supported CI/CD without running open source themselves.
Others
- DORA / DevOps Research and Assessment: Research program housed at Google that produces the Accelerate State of DevOps report and the DORA metrics cited across CDF content. Strongly thematically connected as the empirical backbone CDF uses to advocate for CI/CD adoption, though not a foundation or competitor.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks4 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) social profiles
Digital presenceContinuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF)
What does Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) do?
The Continuous Delivery Foundation provides vendor-neutral governance, community, and interoperability infrastructure for the leading open source CI/CD projects, including Jenkins, Tekton, Spinnaker, Jenkins X, Screwdriver, Ortelius, and the CDEvents specification. It supports adopters through best practices resources, cybersecurity guidance, the annual cdCon conference, and authoritative research such as the State of CI/CD Report built on DORA findings.
Is Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) a public or private company?
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) founded?
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) was founded in 2019. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) based?
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Membership Dues are the primary driver. The others are event Sponsorships and linux Foundation Support.
Who are Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF)'s main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), OpenJS Foundation and Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF). Broad incumbents are Apache Software Foundation (ASF), Eclipse Foundation and The Linux Foundation. Emerging players are GitLab, CircleCI and CloudBees. DORA / DevOps Research and Assessment is listed as an others.
Does Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) have an API?
No public API is recorded for Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF).
What industry is Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) in?
Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF)'s product category is Open Source CI/CD Software Foundation. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAEAKAB, CI/CD Pipeline Engineering & Automation. Its NAICS code is 541511 and its SIC code is 7371.