Kubernetes and containers have driven the transformation of applications to cloud-native platforms, yet they have carried a great deal of complexity along the way. This has led to the rise of out-of-the-box solutions designed to let companies focus on key goals instead of the computerized pipes that run the business.

One company that has built its model around meeting this need is container management and orchestration solution provider Platform9 Systems Inc. Founded in 2013 by former VMware Inc. engineers, the company has targeted Kubernetes complexity at the very center of its approach.

“The bullseye is that Kubernetes infrastructure is really hard; it’s really hard to create and run,” said Emilia A’Bell (pictured), chief revenue officer of Platform9. “We introduce a time to market efficiency, let’s get this up and running and let’s get you into production and producing results for your customers fast. At the same time, let’s reduce your cost and complexity and increase reliability.”

A’Bell recently spoke with John Furrier, industry analyst for theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming video studio, and they discussed how Platform9 has helped enterprises streamline Kubernetes and cluster management. (* Disclosure below.)

Bridging the gap

Last fall, Platform9 introduced Arlon as a way to bridge the gap between workload and infrastructure management. The open-source tool was part of Platform9’s set of solutions to address a chaotic environment of clusters and workloads as Kubernetes deployments scale.

“If you have a look at Kubernetes platform, it’s made up of many, many components, and that’s where it gets complex,” A’Bell said. “It’s not just Kubernetes; there’s load balances, networking. There’s observability. All these things have to operate together.”

Cluster management is a key element behind Platform9’s offering. The company’s version 5.6 addresses cluster administration while simplifying how developers and DevOps engineers manage live workloads.

“We bring the agility and the flexibility because we bring the control plane that allows you to spin up clusters and lifecycle manage them very quickly,” A’Bell said. “They get choices on how they build it and then we run and operate it for them. If something goes wrong, we fix that. Just drive the car; let us worry about the engine.”

As edge computing has become more prevalent, Platform9 has geared its technology to simplify remote application deployment.

“When it comes to edge, it gets complex pretty fast because it’s highly distributed,” A’Bell said. “How do you have standardization and governance across all of the different edge locations? What we bring into play is an ability to, at each edge location, provision from bare metal up, all the way up to the application.”

Plug and run

A’Bell cited an example of a large customer that needed to provision servers across a network of store locations. The “old” way to do this would have been to send engineers to each location, a time-consuming and expensive process. Platform9 has eliminated this step.

“We’ve created the ability where the server can just be sent to the store, you can get your barista or your chef to just plug it in,” A’Bell said. “We get access to it, and we provision the whole thing from bare metal up and then we can maintain it according to the standards that are needed and upgrade accordingly. From my understanding, we’re the only people that can provision it from bare metal up.”

This remote site capability has allowed Platform9 to provide its services at significant scale.

“We’re scaling one particular distributed environment from 2,200 nodes to 10,000 nodes by the end of this year, and 26,000 nodes next year,” A’Bell said. “We have some very large scale, but some smaller ones too, and we’re happy to work with either end.”

The complexity of Kubernetes and cluster management has been amplified by a shortage of engineers with the expertise to provide support. A 2022 Evaluator Group survey found that more than half of participating companies were struggling to hire the expertise for Kubernetes technology internally, and 35% were encountering difficulty bringing in talent from outside.

“Skill shortage is something that everyone is facing right now,” A’Bell said. “The pitch is let us do it for you. We will create your environment for you; we will get it up and running.”

What does the roadmap for Platform9 look like in the near future? A’Bell indicated that the company was working to bring virtual machines into cloud-native infrastructure using KubeVirt, a virtualization add-on for the container orchestration tool.

“That provides an excellent stepping stone for those who are in the virtualization world and they can’t move to containers, they can’t refactor their applications and workloads fast enough,” A’Bell said. “Just bring your virtual machine and put it onto the container infrastructure.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video with Emilia A’Bell:

(* Disclosure: Platform9 Systems Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Platform9 nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE