VMware Tanzu Updates Simplify Kubernetes Management
VMware today simultaneously moved to make it simpler to build cloud-native applications and manage the fleets of Kubernetes clusters they are deployed on.
Version 1.5 of VMware Tanzu, a curated distribution of Kubernetes, streamlines deployments on the Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) from Amazon Web Services (AWS) in addition to adding support for AWS Quickstart, a reference framework for provisioning infrastructure, and expanded Microsoft Azure support. It also provides additional cybersecurity tools such as auto-configuration of Transport Layer Security (TLS) and support for external secrets management tools.
The Tanzu Mission Control module now also supports full life cycle management of new and existing AWS EKS clusters, the ability to mutate the security context for containers and pods and allows the modification of all Open Policy Agent (OPA) Gatekeeper policy settings.
Finally, VMware has added Aria Hub powered by Aria Graph, Aria Cost powered by CloudHealth and Aria Guardrails to the VMware Aria cloud management platform to make it simpler to deploy Kubernetes clusters and virtual machines across multiple clouds.
VMware Aria Hub also now supports Google Cloud in its free tier alongside AWS and Azure, adds support for Kubernetes environments within a dashboard that provides views into service-to-service topology and VMware Aria Guardrails capabilities to provide landing zones policies templates and configuration drift management capabilities within the free tier of service.
VMware Aria Operations introduces a new integration with Aria Observability to enable IT teams to provide more visibility across their infrastructure, Kubernetes environments and applications.
Meanwhile, VMware Aria Cost now provides expanded Kubernetes reporting capabilities by adding the ability to right-size Kubernetes environments in addition to adding support for Alibaba Cloud.
Betty Junod, vice president of product marketing for VMware, says the updates will improve overall developer productivity while also helping to make it simpler for platform engineering teams to centrally manage both Kubernetes clusters and virtual machines.
Not every IT organization has enough DevOps expertise to programmatically manage Kubernetes environments, so graphical tools that make Kubernetes accessible to IT administrators are crucial if Kubernetes is to be widely deployed across an enterprise IT environment, she adds.
That’s especially challenging as IT teams find themselves managing instances of Kubernetes running on multiple clouds, notes Junod.
In general, the adoption of Kubernetes in enterprise IT environments is steadily increasing as more organizations build and deploy cloud-native applications. The issue is that if Kubernetes was more accessible to developers and IT operations teams, the pace at which those applications are being built and deployed would accelerate considerably.
It’s not clear just how many organizations are opting for VMware Tanzu over other distributions of Kubernetes to achieve that goal, but it’s apparent that there is a need for higher levels of abstraction to make these environments more accessible and less intimidating to developers and IT administrators. Kubernetes, after all, may be the most powerful IT platform to find adoption in mainstream IT environments, but it is also the most complex to manage.
