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Portworx by Pure Storage Extends Kubernetes Backup Reach

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by Mike Vizard

Portworx by Pure Storage today during KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2020 virtual conference announced it has added support for the Container Storage Interface (CSI) to the latest version of its backup and recovery software for Kubernetes.

Michael Ferranti, vice president of product and corporate marketing for Portworx, says that capability makes it possible to use version 1.2 of its PX-Backup software to move data to any platform, including cloud services, that supports CSI to integrate with Kubernetes clusters. Previously, data backed up using PX-Backup had to be stored on a platform running PX-Store, the layer of software the company developed to store persistent data on Kubernetes clusters.

Now IT teams can store backup data in the cloud in addition to other on-premises storage systems that support CSI, such as the arrays provided by Pure Storage, which acquired Portworx earlier this year.

Ferranti notes that recovery point and time objectives are shrinking. DevOps teams expect to be able to employ a tool that can recover applications and data within hours with just a few clicks. A recent survey published by 451 Research notes 53% of companies now have application recovery point objectives (RPO) of less than 24 hours even for non-critical apps and data.

As stateful applications become more widely deployed on Kubernetes clusters, the need to recover increasingly large amounts of data is becoming a more significant issue. At the same time, IT teams are taking advantage of graphical tools such as PX-Backup to move data from both on-premises IT environments to the cloud as well as between clouds that support Kubernetes. The more platforms an organization embraces, the less tolerance there is for cumbersome data migration tools.

It’s not clear whether IT teams are now evaluating data protection tools for their ability to easily move data as much as they are for backup and recovery capabilities. However, as organizations move to make sure they are not locked into a specific cloud service, many of them are starting to move data between platforms more frequently.

Regardless of the motivation, many IT teams now want a backup and recovery tool that will run natively in a Kubernetes environment. There are plenty of choices available when it comes to data protection platforms for Kubernetes but Portworx is making a case for a suite of data management tools that all run natively on Kubernetes. That’s a requirement because Kubernetes clusters are designed to dynamically scale up and out as applications require access to more compute and storage.

The bulk of container applications deployed on Kubernetes clusters are stateless, which for the most part means IT teams simply elected to store data somewhere outside of the Kubernetes cluster. Now that more stateful applications that require access to databases and other types of data are being deployed on Kubernetes clusters, however, more organizations require expertise in managing across a fleet of Kubernetes clusters deployed across an extended enterprise.

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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