Accelerating Kubernetes Adoption with VMware PKS on Cloud Foundation

VMworld will feature a number of advanced technologies centered around building robust, highly secure, comprehensive container ecosystems that will fuel continued innovation through development of Cloud Native Apps. It’s clear that Kubernetes has taken pole position for Container as a Service (CAAS) deployments and that the industry has embraced VMware PKS as one of the leading container management platforms[1]. The VMware Cloud Native Apps (CNA) team has built an excellent program for VMworld 2019, including breakouts sessions, hands-on VMware PKS demos and showcase keynote. (previewed in this blog).

In order to deliver the complete spectrum of tools and services needed, it’s best to understand the needs of the different personas, best practices on how to deploy, manage and operate Kubernetes clusters to foster higher productivity.  Often times the infrastructure is overlooked when planning these complex systems, but the storage, network and compute systems play critical role in the business outcomes that these organizations are seeking to achieve, especially when done at scale.  In this post, we’ll put a spotlight on the infrastructure required to power these Kubernetes clusters in these fast-paced, agile, devops environments. With the launch of VMware Cloud Foundation 3.8.1, we’re announcing integration of VMware PKS with VMware Cloud Foundation to automate and accelerate the deployment and provisioning of VMware PKS environments in a cloud operating model.

Let’s map out a simplified example of how the different roles within a fast-paced development organization would typically interact when tasked with deploying production grade Kubernetes clusters at scale. The developers and devops teams are typically moving in rapid engineering sprints that require self-service portals that include all of developer dashboards and APIs needed to integrate with their development control plane.  The platform team is standing up the CAAS runtime components, registries (e.g. BOSH, OpsManager, Harbor) and managing the capacity resources to enable real-time, uninterrupted services for the development teams.

When it comes to engaging with the infrastructure teams, there exists a chasm in most traditional IT and app dev environments. This gap typically centers around the fact that most admins are very proficient with VMs and virtual infrastructure, but they lack the tools and expertise to manage infrastructure at scale for these complex Kubernetes environments. This presents some challenges in how to provide a single framework that can manage both traditional VM based workloads and containerized workloads with consistent infrastructure, consistent operations in order to maintain compliance with security and governance guidelines.

Figure 1: Infrastructure Admin Challenges with Kubernetes

The situation becomes a point of frustration for all parties and as a result, the dev teams may either manually build their own infrastructure or more likely swipe a credit card and spin up a cloud instance to meet their sprint goals.

This is exactly the type of scenario that VMware Cloud Foundation addresses with the integration of VMware PKS.  By enabling the infrastructure and cloud admins to deploy and provision Kubernetes clusters within VMware Cloud Foundation workload domains (WLDs), they can accelerate deployments by leveraging the automation and orchestration of SDDC manager to run all of the Day 0 and Day 1 tasks easily and efficiently.  The cloud admin utilizes VMware Cloud Foundation to manage the assignment of the underlying resources (vSAN Storage, vSphere compute and NSX-T network virtualization) for consistent infrastructure, consistent operations and a seamless developer experience.

Figure 2: VMware PKS Integration with VMware Cloud Foundation

This VMware PKS – VCF integration and cloud operating model empowers the infrastructure admins with the ability to standup production grade Kubernetes clusters very efficiently, saving time and money along the way.  This results in predictable, automated on-demand deployments using the same cloud operating model that is used to manage the traditional VM workload domains all running under VMware Cloud Foundation. No special Kubernetes expertise required by the infrastructure team.

Figure 3: Persona mapping with VMware PKS on VCF Integration

With VMware PKS on VCF, the platform team no longer needs to worry about infrastructure and can focus on managing the container runtime elements as well as the registries and libraries.  This allows the developers to focus on getting to their next sprint through their familiar dashboards and API control plane as shown in figure 3.

VMware PKS on Cloud Foundation can be deployed in private cloud configurations using ReadyNodes from a number of qualified ReadyNode partners, can be deployed as a turnkey solution with Dell/EMC VxRail as well as deployed as a service from many VMware Verified Cloud Partners (VCPP).

VMworld Sessions

VMworld 2019 is the place to be to learn more about Kubernetes, VMware PKS and VMware Cloud Foundation, so if you’re attending, you’re encouraged to attend the following breakouts and stop by the VMware booth

Must Read Blogs

If you are not able to attend VMworld or you’d just like to get a sneak peek on what’s happening, it is recommended that you read through the following blog posts to get real-time updates on all of the new announcements at VMworld 2019.

Extending Composable Hybrid Cloud for Workload Mobility Use Cases – Robert Campbell, VMware

Intel and VMware Launch Hybrid Cloud Solution for AI – Intel Data Center Group

Deploying VMware Enterprise PKS on VMware Cloud Foundation – Prasad Kalpurekkal VMware

Private Cloud Powered By VMware Cloud Foundation on PowerEdge MX – Girish Manmadkar VMware

Ready Set Innovate:VxRail Empowers IT to Deliver Cloud Native – Gil Shneorson Dell EMC

HPE and VMware Cloud Foundation at VMworld – Calvin Zito HPE

[1] https://www.infoworld.com/article/3265059/10-kubernetes-distributions-leading-the-container-revolution.html