D2iQ Aims to Drive Down Cost of Embracing Kubernetes
D2iQ has made it easier for IT organizations to get started with Kubernetes via a starter kit priced starting at $25,000.
Company co-CEO Will Freiberg says given the complexity of Kubernetes, many IT teams need an easier way to stand up their first Kubernetes cluster. The D2iQ Shortcut to Success promotion makes available a bundle consisting of training, professional services and support as part of a pilot Kubernetes cluster project for a flat fee.
D2iQ will also provide access to Dispatch, a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform optimized for Kubernetes, and KUDO Kafka Operator to simplify the deployment of instances of open source Kafka distributed streaming software.
Collectively, IT teams will be armed with all the fundamentals required to deploy, maintain and scale containerized applications in a Kubernetes environment.
Freiberg notes many organizations underestimate not only all the complexity involved in provisioning a complete Kubernetes environment but also what is required to maintain and update it. As a rule, he says, Kubernetes environments wind up being a lot more complex than what may meet the eye.
At the same time, however, he says that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic interest in Kubernetes and other cloud-native technologies is rising as organizations look to deploy applications that are more resilient and flexible.
This exposes IT teams to a set of tools to automate the management of fleets of Kubernetes clusters using tools such as Konvoy from D2iQ, while also introducing them to a set of best DevOps practices for deploying containerized applications, notes Freiberg.
It’s not clear yet what the appetite for Kubernetes will be in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. For every organization willing to move forward with emerging platforms such as Kubernetes, there may be another that will prefer to retrench by focusing on monolithic applications deployed in legacy IT environments they already know how to manage. The D2iQ Shortcut to Success promotion is obviously intended to encourage organizations to move forward in a way that ensures they will not be locked into one specific cloud platform because its platform can run on multiple clouds or on-premises IT environments, adds Freiberg.
In many cases, organizations will have no choice but to move forward as the rate at which applications are being deployed in the cloud accelerate. New application initiatives based on legacy infrastructure are not likely to be approved as readily as applications that run on modern infrastructure such as Kubernetes and can be deployed on any platform. The challenge, as always, is figuring out how to make that transition with the fewest number of disruptions possible.
Of course, D2iQ views Shortcut to Success as a means to introduce IT organizations to a growing portfolio of tools for building, deploying and managing containerized applications running on Kubernetes clusters. The biggest plus to that initiative may very well be the degree to which it forces other providers of Kubernetes-based platforms to respond in kind.
