Individuals and businesses love containers, but managing them is a different story.
Cisco’s new Container Platform wants to remove all the hassle that comes with balancing configurations across applications living on premise and on the cloud.
Google’s Kubernetes, an open-source platform for deploying, scaling and operating application containers, is a big part of the new product. But what makes Cisco’s platform unique, is its ability to launch on Cisco HyperFlex, virtual machines (VMs) and bare metal, according to the company. Cisco’s Cloud Center management service can be linked to the platform as well. Channel partners will be able to offer the platform to customers, especially large and mid-size enterprises with IT operations teams and software developers, a Cisco spokesperson told CDN.
Ed Horley, Groupware Technology’s VP of engineering, added that more customers will be exposed to the benefits of container platforms. “By advising, consulting and migrating our customers to Kubernetes and containers, they are now one step closer to freeing themselves from cloud provider lock-in,” he said in a statement.
Because of containers’ lower memory consumption and ability to help organizations go from testing to launching a product quickly, the adoption of Kubernetes has exploded, added Eyal Manor, VP of engineering at Google. Cisco formed a partnership with Google last October. The first release of the Platform, slated for this April, will be tied to Cisco’s HyperFlex software and will provide storage services. A second edition will add support for VMware, plus installation on bare metal and public clouds, by the end of the summer, Cisco says. The release will also allow it to work across HyperFlex and Google’s cloud.