Developer Ready Cloud App Launchpad VMware Cloud Provider

App Launchpad 2.1.1 is Generally Available

Cloud Providers can leverage App Launchpad Extension to provide a modern-day developer experience for their customers. App Launchpad provides Applications Catalog management and Cloud Market place integration within Cloud Director provider portal. The developer can launch VM or Container-Based applications on VMware Cloud Director with a single click. App Launchpad release 2.1 introduced many features. Some of them are – secured access to Cloud Marketplace, Automated detection of Customers Kubernetes clusters, and enhanced Tenant admin role. The App launchpad release 2.1.1 is now GA introducing the following enhancements for cloud providers as well as tenant users.

Deploy Containers on CSE provisioned TKG clusters

Customers and developer users can now deploy Containers and helmcharts from App Launchpad Catalog to Tanzu Kubernetes Grid(TKG) Clusters. App Launchpad extension discovers two information for TKG cluster discovery: 1. IP address of Control Plane VM of TKG Cluster 2. DNAT rule mapped with Control VM IP to identify allocated External Network IP address.

Once the information is available, App Launchpad can read the kube-configuration to facilitate app deployment for developer within customer organization. The following figure showcases a user launching helmchart from App Launchpad on TKGm cluster within the organization.

User launching Bitnami Hemchart from Cloud Marketplace on Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster

App Launchpad supports new OS

Starting version 2.1.1, App Launchpad service can run on following list of Operating systems. This support offers increased options for cloud providers.

  • Photon OS 3 and above
  • Ubuntu 18 and above
  • Debian 10 and above

Further Reading:

  1. App Lauchpad 2.1.1 Release Notes
  2. App Launchpad 2.1 Release Blog