From Kubernetes to Docker HPE OneSphere is supercharging cloud application development

HPE OneSphere enables users to speed development of container-based applications in their private VMware-based clouds

Providing the right infrastructure for on-demand applications and cloud-native services is critical for today's digital transformation, and enterprises are challenged to find a flexible and agile infrastructure platform. Cloud customers often tell me that consistency across cloud environments simplifies manageability and improves overall operational efficiency. Container technology addresses these key operating principles while enabling developers to accelerate digital innovations and bring them to market faster.

The industry's rapid adoption of containers has created a fundamental need for managed Containers-as-a-Service (CaaS). By 2022, production containers using native services from a public cloud service provider (CSP) will go from 50% in 2018 to more than 70%, according to Gartner. ¹

Kubernetes is the fastest growing container orchestration tool and is widely recognized as the new industry standard. Kubernetes is an open source platform for deploying and scaling containerized workloads. Modern application development is increasingly moving to containers and Kubernetes, enabling applications to be built once and run anywhere. Moreover, the developer community is continually innovating on top of Kubernetes to build extensions and simplify the job of writing applications. Package managers such as Helm for example, allow developers to define, install and upgrade complex Kubernetes applications making deployments repeatable and automated.

However, IT organizations hoping to adopt these rapidly evolving technologies must employ highly skilled staff with deep understanding of open source in order to deploy, operate and maintain these platforms. Such skills are difficult to hire and retain making it a challenge for many I&O teams to adopt these modern frameworks. Moreover, these technologies present unique challenges when coupled with the demands of enterprise governance and policy that must be enforced to ensure compliance with security standards, cost controls and business reporting.

To make it easier for customers to leverage hybrid IT to build and run modern applications with confidence, HPE has expanded its container offering with the latest updates to HPE OneSphere, a unique SaaS-based solutions for managing private and public cloud environments. HPE OneSphere allows users to deploy and manage an enterprise grade Kubernetes cluster from the OneSphere catalog to an existing VMWare environment through OneSphere Catalog UI or by using OneSphere APIs making it easier for customers to integrate with their existing DevOps tool chains. Benefits include the following:

• Consistency, agility and cost advantage - Developers can use standard Kubernetes tools consistently across clouds. The same container workloads can be deployed on a Kubernetes cluster running in AWS or VM ware without any application code changes, so dev/test and production environments can run in different clouds for agility and cost.
• Reduce operational overhead - Customers can consume the deployed Kubernetes clusters for automated deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. This takes away the operational overhead of provisioning infrastructure VMs, configuring the networking model, installing and maintaining the platform life cycle.
• Security and compliance -  IT Ops can deliver a Container-as-a-Service offering to their internal customers with a catalog of public and private cloud native images which have been tested and approved to be secure and compliant.

Both Kubernetes and Docker are essential if you want to build and run a modern cloud infrastructure

Deployed with built-in, open source container technology from Kubernetes and Docker, the latest release of HPE OneSphere enables enterprise IT customers to easily automate deployment, simplify management and operations, and accelerate development of container-based applications in their private VMware-based clouds.

By expanding support for Kubernetes on both AWS and VMware ESXi environments, HPE OneSphere is able to address even more customer challenges. For example, the advent of micro-services architectures leveraging Docker ushered in the benefits of flexible, loosely coupled and highly scalable architectures. But these architectures come with the challenge of integrating and managing them in distributed environments. They require constant monitoring, orchestrating and scaling. Kubernetes solves these problems by helping automate the deployment, scaling and management of applications running on containers.

How to Get Started With Containers-as-a-Service Today

One of the long-standing goals of cloud computing is to be able to run any application in any cloud, or any mix of clouds - public or private. This isnt to avoid vendor lock-in, instead, its more about being able to take full advantage of different features in any one specific cloud. Helping customers to deploy Kubernetes containers in their private VMware-based clouds is a primary objective with the latest release of HPE OneSphere. By expanding HPE OneSpheres capabilities beyond VMware virtual machine-based workload deployments and providing a true private cloud container based workload solution, customers achieve the flexibility to adopt Containers-as-a-Service in their VMware-based private cloud infrastructure. But most importantly, it allows them to supercharge their cloud application development and digital transformation.

HPE is a Global Diamond Sponsor and will be previewing the HPE OneSphere solution at VMworld in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 26 - 30, 2018 (in booth #1300). If you will be at the event, stop by the booth to meet HPE experts and get your hybrid cloud questions answered.

¹ Gartner: Market Guide for Public Cloud Container Services, August 2018

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