Azure Container Service (now AKS where the K stands for Kubernetes) is now offers managed Kubernetes as Tech Preview. This new service provides single-line install (az aks create –n myCluster –g myResourceGroup), automated upgrades, self-healing, and scaling. Microsoft promises that the Azure control plane for Kubernetes will remain free (AWS charges for management servers), with customers only paying for worker nodes running applications. Like all other major vendors, Microsoft declares Kubernetes the winner of the container orchestrator and scheduler race and stresses its contribution to the open source project (only 37 commits, compared to 114 by IBM, 668 by Red Hat, and 1543 by Google as of October 25, 2017). Microsoft also stresses the importance of its Draft project (acquired through Deis) to make Kubernetes accessible to developers without any container experience. Today, Amazon does not offer managed Kubernetes, but it is expected that there will be an announcement in this regard at re:Invent in November.
Torsten Volk
Recent Posts
Microsoft Pulling ahead of Amazon with its fully Managed Kubernetes Offering
The Scheduler Race is Over – Why Kubernetes Won and What it Means to the Market
What Happened?
Struggling to Turn Around – Finally Docker Announces Kubernetes Support
Docker used the picturesque setting of its Copenhagen DockerCon event to announce Kubernetes support for both, Docker Enterprise Edition and Docker Community Edition. The company plans to deliver betas for end of 2017.
EMA Enterprise Decision Guide: Container Management in Production and at Scale
I’m excited to kick off this project, as no other topic in IT seems to have so many different aspects to consider and so many points to attack it. As, hopefully, in all our EMA research projects, we will look at this topic from all angles without any predetermined outcomes. The project will be exclusively guided by what’s best for the customer when it comes to ramping up a container strategy.
Top 3 Guidelines for Leveraging Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to Lower OPEX and Increase Competitiveness
“Machine learning (ML) today is frustrating. There is so much potential and the algorithms are all there, but I just do not know how I can leverage it for my organization,” says the CTO of a major professional services firm. “My CEO wants me to ‘leverage ML to lower OPEX and differentiate our service offerings, but there is nothing out there in the market that would allow me to get this done in a manner that has a high probability of success.” Then of course he asks me what I would do and where I would start, because the guy with “Machine Learning and AI” in his job title must know for sure…
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence: The Promised Land for Lowering IT OPEX, Decreasing Operational Risk and Optimally Supporting Business Goals
What should machine and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) do for IT operations, DevOps and container management? The following table represents my quick outline of the key challenges and specific problem ML/AI needs to address. The table is based on the believe that ML/AI needs to look over the shoulder of IT ops, DevOps, and business management teams to learn from their decision making. In other words, every virtualization administrator fulfills infrastructure provisioning or upgrade requests a little bit differently. Please regard the below table as a preliminary outline and basis for discussion. At this point, and probably at no future point either, I won't claim to know the 'ultimate truth.'
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence: The Promised Land for Lowering IT OPEX, Decreasing Operational Risk and Optimally Supporting Business Goals
What should machine and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) do for IT operations, DevOps and container management? The following table represents my quick outline of the key challenges and specific problem ML/AI needs to address. The table is based on the believe that ML/AI needs to look over the shoulder of IT ops, DevOps, and business management teams to learn from their decision making. In other words, every virtualization administrator fulfills infrastructure provisioning or upgrade requests a little bit differently. Please regard the below table as a preliminary outline and basis for discussion. At this point, and probably at no future point either, I won't claim to know the 'ultimate truth.'
Prologue for EMA Research Project: Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Enterprise IT and DevOps
Why are there still so many repetitive tasks in data center and cloud management today? Why does application management still contain so many manual steps? Why do most organization still suffer from automation and monitoring silos that prevent them from avoiding preventable application outages and service degradations?
VMworld 2017 – vRealize 2017 Announcement
Accelerated Deployment and Lower OPEX
Faster time to value, lower OPEX and deeper multi cloud support are the key elements of VMware vRealize Suite 2017, as it was presented at VMworld 2017
in Barcelona. The new vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSCLM) provides
one central user interface tying together the formerly fragmented and complex deployment process for new vRealize environments. Additionally, vRSCLM enables health monitoring, product con guration, IAM integration, and simpli ed upgrades.
[embed width=500]https://youtu.be/Mk3b5UVaFIU [/embed]
Should You Care about the Release of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager?
VMware vRealize Suite has received much criticism in the past for its complicated and too brittle deployment, con guration, and integration process. Considering that vRSCLM addresses exactly this critical issue by offering a uni ed installation wizard and a centralized operations dashboard for one or multiple vRealize Suite environments, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) can only conclude that this new release is signi cant and deserves a close look.
New Deployment Wizard
The new vRS deployment process has been simplified and reduced to the following few steps:
Select whether to import an existing vRS environment or install a new one.
The “import” option lets enterprises manage and upgrade existing vRS environments. The installation process begins as follows:
- Review the compatibility matrix
- Select the target version for each component
- Pick a deployment sizeSelect target data center for new deployment
Select the vRealize Suite license to apply directly from MyVMware.com Provide the required network details, certi cates and product parametersReview the summary and start the installation process. Due to the new pre-checks it is now less likely for the installation process to fail and in the event of failure, the installation can be resumed from the administration panel, once the root cause has been addressed.
New Operations Management Dashboard
The vRLCM admin panel provides provides a UI to manage, upgrade, and con gure all corporate vRS environments, even across data centers or clouds, through a single pane of glass. vRLCM leverages vRealize Operations (vROps) for health monitoring and root cause analysis and enables administrators to set alerts in case of con guration drift.
Upgrade preparation: Before an upgrade, admins can create a complete snapshot of the environment and view the compatibility matrix.
Upgrades through GUI or Con g File: While the rst upgrade will often be done through the UI, future upgrades could simply leverage the con guration le created through the UI-driven process.
Best practice con guration: vRLCM tracks con guration drift, enables admins to restore previous con gurations, and apply best practice architectural principles.
Leverage VMware Identity Manager: Admins can either leverage an existing installation of VMware Identity Manager or use vRLCM to install a new one.
Final Words
After the initial private cloud hype died down, the race for market leadership is on once again. EMA research shows that in 2017 private cloud is high up on the list of investment priorities for enterprises
of all verticals and sizes. Vendors who will succeed in capturing a signi cant market share have to check the following boxes:
Support any cloud, offer developer friendly APIs and provide customers with a near turn-key deployment experience. With its recent announcements –Vmware Cloud Services, VMware Cloud on AWS, and Pivotal Container Service- Vmware is doing all the right things to be successful.
And then there’s of course one thing that’s needed to juggle apps between clouds and data centers: software de ned networking, where VMware is strategically well positioned with its NSX solution.
