Cloud is continuing to develop new features and capabilities at a rapid pace, the latest of which will see OpenStack able to run in containers on top of Kubernetes.
Collaborative work between Mirantis, Google, and Intel will see the OpenStack Fuel deployment tool capable of using Kubernetes as its orchestration engine in a move that will make it easier to manage deployments of the open source cloud at scale.
The evolution of the architecture of the lifecycle management tool will see Fuel use Kubernetes as its underlying orchestration engine and the companies will work together in order to package OpenStack into Docker containers, which Kubernetes will manage.
The result of this will see software capable of providing fine grain control over the placement of services used for OpenStack control plane and the ability to do rolling updates. It will also make the OpenStack control plane self-healing and more resilient, and smooth the path for the creation of microservices-based applications on OpenStack, the companies say.
Boris Renski, Mirantis, CMO, said: “With the emergence of Docker as the standard container image format and Kubernetes as the standard for container orchestration, we are finally seeing continuity in how people approach operations of distributed applications.
“Combining Kubernetes and Fuel will open OpenStack up to a new delivery model that allows faster consumption of updates, helping customers get to outcomes faster.”
What this also means is that OpenStack will soon be able to run in containers on Google’s Cloud, or any cloud service that support Kubernetes.
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This is a benefit for Google as it looks to increase its play as not just a link to public cloud, but also a route to private clouds. OpenStack has recently been positioning itself more as the ‘standard’ for private cloud deployment and has seen a number of large customer deployments in this fashion with the likes of VW.
“Leveraging Kubernetes in Fuel will turn OpenStack into a true microservice application, bridging the gap between legacy infrastructure software and the next generation of application development. Many enterprises will benefit from using containers and sophisticated cluster management as the foundation for resilient, highly scalable infrastructure,” said Google Senior Product Manager, Craig McLuckie.
Mirantis is also planning to become an active contributor to the Kubernetes project and has set the aim of becoming the top contributor over the next year.
For Intel the play is to help with the continued maturing of OpenStack as an enterprise ready cloud, the hope for them is that a more mature OpenStack will lead to more deployments and more business for Intel.
Jonathan Donaldson, VP & GM, Software Defined Infrastructure Group, Intel, said: “Combined open source leadership of Intel and Mirantis will be instrumental in bridging the OpenStack and Kubernetes communities. Our joint efforts will marry two complementary and powerful open source communities, making it simpler for enterprises to manage private clouds.”
