The Application Service Adapter for VMware Tanzu Application Platform, based on the open source project Cloud Foundry Korifi, aims to bridge the developer experience gap between Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes by enabling a Cloud Foundry compatibility layer on top of Kubernetes. Developers will be delighted to see that the classic Cloud Foundry “cf push” workflow is preserved with the Application Service Adapter and can be used in conjunction with the Tanzu Application Platform.
Ease into Kubernetes
Existing VMware Tanzu Application Service customers can ease into their Kubernetes adoption by using the Application Service Adapter. Operations teams can utilize Tanzu CLI tooling based on Carvel to build a new Kubernetes native application platform for their internal customer base. Tanzu Application Platform and the Application Service Adapter will enable compatibility with existing development workflows and pipelines in use with the Tanzu Application Service based on the familiar Cloud Foundry experience.
This release of the Application Service Adapter supports the following core functionality:
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cf push on Kubernetes – One of the most notable features of the Application Service Adapter is providing a seamless Cloud Foundry push workflow on top of Kubernetes and Tanzu Application Platform. Maintaining the cf push workflow is essential as developers and platform operators can skip re-tooling their pipelines and workflows or changing application source code to ensure interoperability with their applications on Tanzu Application Service and Tanzu Application Platform.
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Cloud Foundry Route Support – The Application Service Adapter uses Contour within the Tanzu Application Platform to replicate the goRouter ingress patterns in a traditional Cloud Foundry deployment. This significantly eases the burden of application teams as they do not need to worry about re-creating application routing within the Kubernetes landscape.
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Native Kubernetes role-based access control – The Application Service Adapter uses native Kubernetes role-based access control (RBAC). This allows platform operators to consolidate credentials into a single set versus maintaining both Kubernetes RBAC and Cloud Foundry–specific RBAC for developers.
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Bringing Cloud Foundry orgs and spaces to Kubernetes – The Application Service Adapter re-creates the constructs of Cloud Foundry organizations and spaces backed by native Kubernetes namespaces. The Application Service Adapter transfers over the proper multitenant hierarchy that Cloud Foundry has used for many years, making it available within the Kubernetes ecosystem.
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Tanzu Build Service integration – The Application Service Adapter uses the Tanzu Build Service from Tanzu Application Platform to maintain the Cloud Foundry buildpack experience for both developers and operators. Tanzu buildpacks help ensure application teams can continue to practice the source code to production without having to build, manage, and secure their containers.
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Cloud Foundry log support – Developers and operators can continue to use “cf logs” to retrieve application logs for applications deployed via the Application Service Adapter. This streamlines the developer experience by maintaining the same logging output on both platforms.
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User-provided service support – The Application Service Adapter ensures that apps that depend on external services can continue to run without rewriting their application code by supporting the creation of Cloud Foundry user-provided services. Internally, the Application Service Adapter uses the service bindings for Kubernetes spec from Tanzu Application Platform.
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Cloud Foundry task support – Developers can continue using Cloud Foundry tasks with the Application Service Adapter. Applications using Cloud Foundry tasks to make periodic or one-off requests do not need to be modified.
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Supply chain choreographer integration (experimental) – Platform operators can optionally configure the Application Service Adapter to utilize the Cartographer Workload resource within Tanzu Application Platform. This feature is experimental, and we plan to enhance this functionality with future releases.
You can see the Application Service Adapter in action in this video:
Please see the release notes for the complete list of Cloud Foundry functionality that the Application Service Adapter supports.
Please note: The Application Service Adapter is not a complete replacement for Cloud Foundry deployments. It does not support the full functionality or scale of a classic Cloud Foundry or Tanzu Application Service deployment. VMware plans to continue maintaining and investing in both Tanzu Application Service and Tanzu Application Platform. The Application Service Adapter aims to support interoperability between both platforms, and customers can choose the best use case for their application workloads.
Continued commitment to the Cloud Foundry Foundation
VMware is deeply committed to the Cloud Foundry Foundation and continues to invest heavily in the classic Cloud Foundry experience. In addition, VMware is making significant contributions to the two new projects within the Cloud Foundry Foundation. Korifi and Paketo buildpacks are critical in the ongoing evolution of the Cloud Foundry ecosystem, and VMware is driving these projects forward within the open source community.
VMware’s commitment was very well represented at Cloud Foundry Day 2022, where several VMware engineers presented and demonstrated their involvement with various aspects of the Cloud Foundry ecosystem. Please read this blog for a deep dive into our engineering efforts in the Cloud Foundry landscape.
Furthermore, Catherine McGarvey, vice president of software engineering at VMware, kicked off the event with a keynote highlighting all the extensive work the community has accomplished over the past year. Catherine was recently elected chair of the governing board of the Cloud Foundry Foundation.
Download the Application Service Adapter to see it in action. For more recent news around Tanzu Application Service, check out the a few of the latest updates:
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VMware Tanzu Application Service 3.0 Now Generally Available
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VMware Tanzu Application Service Updates Versioning Format and Long-Term Support Track
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VMware’s Cloud Foundry Support Grows with Tanzu Application Service
Don’t miss the chance to meet the VMware Tanzu team during SpringOne, a virtual event being held January 24–26, 2023.
