Cisco believes it is making containers enterprise-ready with the launch of its own container platform.
Called the Cisco Container Platform, the benefit is said to be that customers will get the “pure innovation of the open source environment,” but from a “compliance and security perspective,” it will become enterprise ready, according to Kip Compton, VP, Cloud Platform and Solutions Group.
Made in collaboration with Google, or at least optimised with the inventor of Kubernetes, the solution itself will offer container based applications management based on native Kubernetes – 100% upstream, and will support Docker.
The platform is said to be a key element of the open, hybrid offering from Cisco and Google that was announced in October.
Compton said: “Cisco is focused on enabling customers’ multicloud ambitions. Cisco Container Platform helps customers realise the potential of Kubernetes and containers, simplifying the deployment and management of Kubernetes and containers, simplifying the deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters in a multicloud environment with enterprise-class security and compliance.”
Initially available only on HyperFlex 3.0 from April this year, and later this year with support for VMs, Bare Metal, and public cloud support, the offering from Cisco is a turnkey solution that offers an open architecture and open-source components.
In essence, the offering is aimed at those that want to work with native Kubernetes but don’t really need a full function integrated PaaS, in addition for those that want a more mature solution that is integrated with network security – making it a better fit for enterprises.
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The Cisco Container Platform is also extensible to other open deployment environments and to networking (Contiv), security, analytics, and management tools.
Cisco said that the platform can help to increase operational efficiencies by helping to eliminate the need for IT teams to source, configure, and support multiple disparate solutions.
The platform comes as an extension of Cisco’s plans to help customers’ need to have applications run in the same way on premises and in public clouds.
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Eyal Manor, VP, Engineering, Google, said: “As the adoption of Kubernetes has exploded, container orchestration and management have become of paramount importance to customers because they enable application portability and consistency across on premises and cloud-based environments.
“Cisco Container Platform is optimised in collaboration with Google Cloud to deliver a next-generation open hybrid cloud architecture, and represents an important milestone for our integrated Google and Cisco hybrid cloud solution coming later this year.”
