Virtual Server Infrastructure

Open Source Project vcluster Now Runs Upstream Kubernetes Natively

Loft Labs, a venture-backed startup working on developer tooling and platform technology for Kubernetes, announced that the popular open source vcluster project now supports upstream Kubernetes.

Although engineers have already been able to deploy virtual clusters using vcluster on top of vanilla Kubernetes clusters, the virtual clusters themselves have always been using the opinionated K3s distribution internally rather than upstream Kubernetes. With this release, vcluster users will now be able to deploy Kubernetes-powered virtual clusters to improve and optimize utilization of computing resources without the need to use K3s within the virtualization layer.

We expanded vcluster support to vanilla Kubernetes in response to feedback from our user community. Many companies working with vcluster want to start leveraging the benefits of virtual clusters in production. Making these virtual clusters run with Kubernetes rather than K3s is a big step towards production-readiness for vcluster.”

Lukas Gentele, co-founder and CEO, Loft Labs

With the availability of upstream Kubernetes in vcluster, users can now also use any new Kubernetes feature immediately after its release and will not have to wait for K3s to ship their adapted Kubernetes version.

First launched in April 2021, vcluster is used to create lightweight Kubernetes clusters that run inside the namespaces of underlying Kubernetes clusters. Using virtual clusters solves the majority of multi-tenancy issues of Kubernetes because they offer:

  • Better isolation than simple namespace-based multi-tenancy;
  • Reduced cloud computing cost because virtual clusters are much more lightweight and resource-efficient than spinning up separate single-tenant clusters;
  • Logical separation and encapsulation of application workloads from the underlying cluster’s shared infrastructure workloads (such as shared ingress controller or network plug-ins).

At the same time, virtual cluster users can expect that their virtual cluster behaves just like any regular Kubernetes cluster because vcluster is a certified Kubernetes distribution, which means that it passes all conformance tests that CNCF requires. Virtual clusters are often used as development environments when engineers are building, testing and debugging cloud-native software, but they are also frequently used as ephemeral environments for executing continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. Also, an increasing number of companies are starting to explore virtual clusters in production, where virtualizing Kubernetes can be a great way to: surpass the scalability limits of regular Kubernetes clusters; isolate heterogeneous workloads in shared clusters; and streamline and simplify cluster operations when working with large-scale multi-tenant clusters.

Loft Labs builds on top of vcluster and provides an enterprise-grade Kubernetes platform called Loft which is used by large organizations to create a self-service platform for their engineering teams. When an enterprise runs Loft, their engineers can provision virtual clusters on-demand whenever they need them, either using the Loft UI (user interface), the Loft CLI (command-line interface) or even using the Kubernetes command-line tool kubectl via the custom resources provided as part of Loft.

About Loft Labs
Loft Labs was founded in 2019 to create open-source developer tooling and virtual cluster technology for Kubernetes, with the goal to increase developer productivity and to help engineers gain secure but unimpeded access to cloud infrastructure.

Spotlight

Spotlight

Related News

Server Virtualization, VMware

StorMagic Introduces Edge Control Software to Simplify SvSAN Monitoring and Management

Business Wire | October 18, 2023

StorMagic®, solving the world’s edge data problems, today announced the immediate availability of a new Software as a Service (SaaS) tool that allows users to easily monitor and manage all of their SvSAN clusters around the world. StorMagic Edge Control simplifies the process and tools required for day-to-day SvSAN cluster administration. SvSAN customers with multiple locations can significantly reduce the time spent managing their edge sites, whether they are using VMware, Microsoft or KVM hypervisors. “ESG research shows increasing demand for data storage at the edge which fuels an increased need for monitoring solutions that can help address the complexity of storage at the edge,” said Scott Sinclair, practice director at Enterprise Strategy Group. “SvSAN customers can greatly benefit by adding StorMagic Edge Control into their toolkits; the dashboard views and list formats will make centralized data management much easier and more accessible.” Edge Control delivers centralized administration for SvSAN environments of all sizes. Customers can now manage all SvSAN deployments in any location from a single pane of glass. Dashboard and system views provide a fast but comprehensive status of all of their virtual storage appliances (VSAs), allowing them to keep their environment up-to-date more easily and react faster as needed. “StorMagic customers of any size can now manage their entire SvSAN estate, whether it’s one site or thousands of sites around the world,” said Bruce Kornfeld, chief marketing and product officer, StorMagic. “Edge Control is particularly interesting for customers who are considering switching from VMware to Microsoft or Linux KVM because SvSAN and Edge Control are both hypervisor agnostic.” Pricing and Availability Edge Control version 1.0 is available today from StorMagic. SvSAN customers can download and begin using the software immediately, free of charge. About StorMagic StorMagic is solving the world’s edge data problems. We help organizations store, protect and use data at and from the edge. StorMagic’s solutions ensure data is always protected and available, no matter the type or location, to provide value anytime, anywhere. StorMagic’s storage and security products are flexible, robust, easy to use and cost-effective, without sacrificing enterprise-class features, for organizations with one to thousands of sites.

Read More

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Pure Storage Simplifies Data Resilience and Enables an Enhanced Service Operations Experience For Enterprises Everywhere

PR Newswire | October 12, 2023

Pure Storage® the IT pioneer that delivers the world's most advanced data storage technology and services, announced critical new data resilience offerings, including the introduction of Pure Protect™//DRaaS, a unique Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution, new energy efficiency guarantees for its Evergreen® portfolio, and scalable AI-powered storage services via its Pure1® management platform to global enterprises. With the introduction of consumption-based disaster recovery via Pure Protect, a unique data resilience scoring system via Pure1, and updates to Evergreen subscriptions that include a new Paid Power and Rack commitment, Pure Storage enables enterprises to adopt a complete, end-to-end storage strategy that assures data resilience, reduces labor costs, accelerates sustainability initiatives, and delivers unrivaled TCO benefits. Industry Significance The rate of devastating ransomware attacks and the increasing frequency of natural disasters are upending business continuity more often each day. While many organizations recognize the importance of a disaster recovery (DR) plan, current DR solutions on the market are complex, expensive, and disruptive. Likewise, the current energy crisis, new environmental regulations, and ethical imperatives to improve corporate sustainability have led companies to set ambitious net-zero goals, but reckoning with the typical data center's power demands has remained challenging. And with digitization at scale and data proliferation and fragmentation, end-to-end operations management further aggravates the skill and budget shortages for IT. Today's introduction of Pure Protect //DRaaS and updates to the Pure Storage Evergreen portfolio not only address these critical industry pain points, but also set new milestones for customer-centricity with compelling guarantees. News Highlights Assured Data Resilience: Pure Storage enables enterprises everywhere to maximize data protection with a complete, multi-layered data resilience strategy built from the ground up. With intrinsic data protection built into its Evergreen architecture via ActiveDR™, ActiveCluster™, and SafeMode™ Snapshot capabilities, Pure Storage has now expanded data resilience with new trusted operations capabilities and a new disaster recovery service: Pure Protect //DRaaS, a new consumption-based Disaster Recovery as-a-Service solution, drastically reduces complexity, cost, recovery time, and business disruption in the wake of disasters and cyber disruptions. Organizations now have clean environments with multiple restore points to recover clean copies of their on-premises vSphere data, to native AWS EC2, no matter what underlying storage infrastructure it is, while ensuring data centers remain isolated for investigation. Data Resilience Score, within the Pure1 Data Protection Assessment, underscores Pure Storage's trusted operations by providing better transparency in the adoption of Pure Storage and industry-leading data protection and backup partner technologies, while offering the ability to assess entire fleet configurations against leading practices. Zero Data Loss Guarantee, across the Evergreen portfolio, provides peace of mind that customers data will not be lost due to Pure Storage hardware or software issues. In the rare case of any data corruption, Pure Storage assures data protection with advanced data recovery services for any hardware or software product-related incidents, at no cost. Enhanced Service Experience, Everywhere: With Pure Storage's AI-powered asset and lifecycle management services and policy-based automation, customers can achieve operational excellence, anywhere and on any scale. Asset Management and Genealogy allows customers and Pure Storage to jointly optimize Labor costs to run and operate storage. Customers get full transparency to manage Evergreen assets, contracts, subscriptions, and lifecycle, and get visibility into capacity, energy, and rack space usage. Customers can also view how each asset or subscription has evolved over time, including software updates, ramps, expansions, and renewals, and gain insight into upcoming lifecycle events such as EOL, upgrades, or contract expiration. Subscription Lifecycle Operations: Customers now benefit from a subscription viewer to understand when subscriptions require attention and renewal, predictive tracking of capacity utilization with actionable alerts to optimize reserve commit vs on-demand consumption, and new SLA indicators to track how well Pure Storage is meeting performance and efficiency SLAs. Customers can plan for future demand, trigger in-app workflows to request quotes, or use the new Pure1 Marketplace for a simplified subscription shopping experience. Partners can take advantage of these capabilities via APIs and early notifications of lifecycle events (EOL, renewal) to deliver seamless procurement experiences to joint customers. Policy-driven Upgrades take the guesswork out of choosing the right Purity release and simplify fleet management. They help customers strike the right balance between frequent upgrades and maintaining a secure and supported storage environment based on their organization's goals. Pure1 Mobile App enables customers to get insights and alerts even on the go as well as manage cases and get the latest information and news from Pure anywhere in the world. Guaranteed Energy Efficiency While Saving Money: With the only Paid Power and Rack Space commitment in the enterprise Storage as-a-Service market, and unique energy, density, and upgrade guarantees, Pure Storage is not only committed to providing the most sustainable storage solutions in the industry, but is also determined to make being green easier and more affordable for global customers. About Pure Storage Pure Storage uncomplicates data storage, forever. Pure delivers a cloud experience that empowers every organization to get the most from their data while reducing the complexity and expense of managing the infrastructure behind it. Pure's commitment to providing true storage as-a-service gives customers the agility to meet changing data needs at speed and scale, whether they are deploying traditional workloads, modern applications, containers, or more. Pure believes it can make a significant impact in reducing data center emissions worldwide through its environmental sustainability efforts, including designing products and solutions that enable customers to reduce their carbon and energy footprint. And with the highest Net Promoter Score in the industry, Pure's ever-expanding list of customers are among the happiest in the world.

Read More

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Expedient Announces Partnership with Kyndryl to Deliver Disaster Recovery as a Service

PR Newswire | October 03, 2023

Expedient, a Full-Stack Cloud Service Provider, announced a partnership with Kyndryl the world's largest IT infrastructure services provider. Through this collaboration, Expedient's robust data center colocation and cloud infrastructure will enhance Kyndryl's industry-leading cyber resilience offerings to customers. By joining forces with Kyndryl, Expedient is extending the reach of its state-of-the-art data center colocation and cloud infrastructure known for its reliability, scalability, and security capabilities. Expedient's award-winning infrastructure is an integral element of its Cloud Different™ multi-cloud services and is delivered across a nationwide network of highly interconnected data centers. Infrastructure is available in dedicated, private cloud, and VMware-based Expedient Enterprise Cloud configurations to meet the needs of customers and prospects across regions and industries. This partnership will enable Expedient and Kyndryl to extend the reach and effectiveness of security and cyber resilience services to a wider range of customers, helping organizations across various industries strengthen and fortify their cybersecurity posture while further mitigating the risks associated with data breaches. "We are excited to partner with Kyndryl, a company known for its excellence in cybersecurity services, cyber resilience services and Disaster Recovery as a Service," said Dennis Musolino, Chief Revenue Officer of Expedient. "Expedient has a more than 20-year history and expertise in delivering unmatched disaster recovery and data center infrastructure solutions. We are proud and excited to be providing our data center and cloud infrastructure to help augment the comprehensive resiliency services that Kyndryl delivers to its array of clients nationally. Together, we will empower businesses to proactively protect their digital assets and maintain operational resilience in an increasingly complex digital landscape." "We're dedicated to helping customers navigate their ever-evolving cybersecurity challenges," said James Carrigan, Jr., VP, US Security Practice Leader at Kyndryl. "Partnering with Expedient will allow us to further provide our customers with access to a flexible, robust and security-rich infrastructure that supports their cybersecurity and cyber resilience needs and enables the uptime and availability of their most critical applications." About Expedient Expedient is a full stack cloud service provider, helping companies transform their IT operations through award-winning multi-cloud solutions and managed infrastructure services including enterprise cloud, disaster recovery, virtual desktop infrastructure, data center colocation, edge computing, security and compliance, and more. The company's Cloud Different™️ approach provides an on-ramp to the cloud, supporting the optimization and delivery of all applications. Named VMware's Americas Cloud Partner of the Year and acknowledged in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service, Expedient eases a customer's transition to the cloud by providing curated and bundled best of breed solutions backed by "white glove" services and support. Expedient data centers are compliant with a variety of regulatory mandates, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as well as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) service.

Read More