Hitachi Vantara Unveils Kubernetes Management Platform
Hitachi Vantara today launched a platform for managing Kubernetes environments that span multiple clouds and on-premises IT environments.
Colin Gallagher, vice president for infrastructure solutions product marketing at Hitachi Vantara, says the Hitachi Kubernetes Service is designed to enable IT organizations to manage the complete life cycle of a Kubernetes environment from a single console.
At the same time, Hitachi Vantara is also launching its own distribution of Kubernetes, dubbed Hitachi Kubernetes Engine, for IT organizations that would prefer to have a vendor curate the open source platform on their behalf. That distribution is designed to enable IT teams to update a fleet of Kubernetes clusters with a single click. It also can be bundled with servers from Hitachi Vantara should IT teams decide they also want to deploy Hitachi Kubernetes Engine on a modern IT platform.
IT teams can access Hitachi Kubernetes Service via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform or deploy it themselves in an on-premises IT environment or public cloud. In addition to tools for managing Kubernetes clusters, it gives IT teams access to an application catalog through which to automate the deployment of complementary tools and applications. Hitachi Vantara has also included a suite of tools for securing Kubernetes environments to reduce the need for IT teams to use multiple consoles.
Hitachi Vantara is also offering free training and support for Hitachi Kubernetes Service, Gallagher says. The goal is to transfer as much control over the Kubernetes environment to an internal IT team as they prefer, he says.
As Kubernetes clusters proliferate across the enterprise, Gallagher says IT organizations need a centralized approach to managing both the clusters themselves and the tools and applications deployed on top of them. The Hitachi Kubernetes Service will eventually be extended to integrate with the various storage systems that Hitachi Vantara already offers, Gallagher says.
Hitachi Kubernetes Service is accessible to both DevOps teams and IT administrators that are tasked with managing Kubernetes environments. Gallagher says managing Kubernetes environments at scale has become a major challenge for most IT organizations, regardless of which team ultimately ends up managing those environments. A more comprehensive approach to managing Kubernetes clusters, and the software deployed on those platforms, is required, Gallagher says.
IT teams looking to deploy and manage cloud native applications and their associated platforms are deploying Kubernetes clusters on virtual and physical servers running in the cloud, on-premises IT environments and the network edge, and the management challenges are substantial. The number of components required to successfully manage a highly distributed Kubernetes environment today requires significant time and effort from an IT team to master and deploy.
Hitachi Vantara is making a case for a pre-built platform so that IT teams can focus more on the applications they are building and deploying, rather than building and maintaining their own platform to manage those applications.
