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Oracle Extends Curated Kubernetes Platform

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by Mike Vizard

Oracle this week announced it is extending the scope of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure managed services it provides on top of its managed Kubernetes service to include monitoring, notifications, event, streaming and Oracle Functions, based on the Fn Project, an open serverless computing framework.

Announced at the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2018 conference, these managed cloud services complement existing container pipeline and OCI registry services.  In addition, Oracle announced the Oracle Cloud Native Framework that includes the Oracle Linux Cloud Native Environment, which combines Linux, Kubernetes and Kata containers into a single curated platform. Created by the OpenStack Foundation, Kata containers combine the Clear Containers virtualization software developed by Intel with runV technology from Hyper.sh to enable containers that are compliant with the Open Container Initiative (OCI) specification and the container runtime interface (CRI) for Kubernetes to run on a lightweight hypervisor.

Bob Quillin, vice president for Oracle Cloud developer relations, says that as enterprise IT organizations embrace microservices based on containers and Kubernetes, it’s clear they want more help from the vendor community to manage those platforms on their behalf. The Oracle Linux Cloud Native Environment makes it possible to stand up a Kubernetes cluster in an on-premises environment using a more prescriptive approach defined by Oracle, he says. Oracle customers then have the option of running containers either on-premises or in the Oracle Cloud.

Quillin notes that allowing Oracle to curate the platform on which containers are deployed frees up more time for organizations to build modern applications using best DevOps processes. Most IT organizations have adopted DevOps processes unevenly. But as they begin to embrace microservices based on containers, DevOps becomes a prerequisite set of processes for success. In fact, Quillin says containers are the “killer app” for DevOps. To address that requirement, Oracle Linux Cloud Native Environment includes an instance of Jenkins X, a version of the open source continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD) platform that runs on top of containers.

Oracle, with this release of the Oracle Linux Cloud Native Environment, is now also making its serverless computing framework available outside of its cloud service. The company decided to make its serverless computing framework available as an open source Fn project last year. Serverless computing frameworks based on functions are emerging as a natural complement to container platforms that allow developers to employ an event-driven architecture to spin up short-lived processes within a containerized application, he says.

Going forward, Quillin says Oracle will be focusing on making its container platform more accessible to a broader range of enterprise developers. For the most part, building containerized applications requires a significant amount of skill. The goal now should be to make it as simple for developers to build applications using pre-defined patterns, he says.

It may take a while yet for enterprise IT organizations to come to terms with how Kubernetes fundamentally changes how applications are built and deployed. But it’s also clear that vendors such as Oracle are now determined to at the very least make standing up the container environment as simple as possible.

Mike Vizard

Mike Vizard is a veteran IT journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the technology industry, having previously served as Editor-in-Chief of both CRN and InfoWorld and as editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he oversaw titles including eWEEK, CIO Insight and Baseline. Over his career he has also edited or contributed to a wide range of enterprise technology publications, including IT Business Edge, Channel Insider, ComputerWorld, TMCNet and Digital Review, and he later led editorial for CTOEdge.com. His reporting and analysis span software development, cloud computing, cybersecurity, IT channel strategy and, more recently, artificial intelligence and DevOps practices. A recognized voice in enterprise IT journalism, Vizard is known for tracking emerging technology trends as they move from early adoption into mainstream enterprise use. He now serves as Chief Content Officer for Techstrong Group, where he oversees editorial strategy across the full network — DevOps.com, Security Boulevard, Cloud Native Now, Digital CxO, Techstrong.ai, TechStrong.IT, Techstrong Semi and PlatformEngineering.com — in addition to writing and hosting content for Techstrong TV and the Techstrong Gang podcast.

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