Project Nephio leverages Kubernetes to scale 5G across edge locations

A new open source project called Nephio has been launched by the Linux Foundation and Google Cloud aimed at simplifying the deployment and management of scalable 5G networks across multiple edge locations.

Project Nephio aims to deliver carrier-grade, simple, open, Kubernetes-based cloud native intent automation and common automation templates that materially simplify the deployment and management of multi-vendor cloud infrastructure and network functions across large scale edge deployments. 

Additionally, Nephio will enable faster onboarding of network functions to production including provisioning of underlying cloud infrastructure with a true cloud native approach, and reduce costs of adoption of cloud and network infrastructure.

Nephio has support from several founding organizations including Service providers: Airtel, Bell Canada, Elisa, Equinix, Jio, Orange, Rakuten Mobile, TIM, TELUS, Vapor IO, Virgin Media O2, WINDTRE as well as Network Function, Service and Infrastructure Vendors: Aarna Networks, ARM, Casa-systems, DZS, Ericsson, F5, Intel, Juniper, Mavenir, Nokia, Parallel Wireless, VMware. 

“Telecommunication companies are looking for new solutions for managing their cloud ready and cloud native infrastructures as well as their 5G networks to achieve the scale, efficiency, and high reliability needed to operate more cost effectively,” said Amol Phadke, managing director, Telecom Industry Products & Solutions, Google Cloud. “We look forward to working alongside The Linux Foundation, and our partners, in the creation of Nephio to set an industry open standard for Kubernetes-based intent automation that will result in faster and better connected cloud-native networks of the future.” 

“Collaboration across Telecom and Cloud Service Providers is accelerating and we are excited to bring Nephio to the open source community,” said Arpit Joshipura, GM Networking, Edge & IOT, The Linux Foundation, “As end users demand end to end open source solutions, projects like Nephio complement the innovation across LFN, CNCF, LF Edge for faster deployment of telecom network functions in a cloud-native world.” 

https://nephio.org

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Rancher raises $40 million for Kubernetes management

Rancher Labs, a start-up based in Cupertino, California, closed a $40 million Series D funding round for its Kubernetes management platform.

Sheng Liang, CEO at Rancher Labs said, “In 2019, we experienced 169% year-on-year revenue growth, and this round of funding is the ultimate validation of the market and our unique technologies. Just as Linux became the standard computing platform for the data center, cloud, and devices in the 2000s, we fundamentally believe Kubernetes is fast becoming the ubiquitous enterprise computing platform for multi-cloud, heterogenous IT environments in the 2020s.”

Rancher Labs said it will use the funds to continue executing against their Run Kubernetes Everywhere strategy, specifically in three areas:

• Accelerate Innovation – Leveraging Kubernetes as the common computing standard, the company will continue to innovate in key areas including heterogenous cluster federation, fleet management, and Kubernetes at the edge.
• Go-To-Market Expansion – The company will expand sales coverage, marketing, finance, operations, customer success, and customer support. Additionally, the company has plans to expand geographic coverage within and beyond the fourteen countries where they currently operate.
• Market Expansion – Leveraging their leadership in Kubernetes at the edge, the company will work with leading technology companies to develop innovative solutions in markets including 5G, digital factories, connected cars, video surveillance, and medical research.

The round was led by Telstra Ventures. One of its investors, Telstra Corporation, is a Rancher Labs customer and is Australia’s largest telecommunications company. The funding round also included participation from existing investors Mayfield, Nexus Venture Partners, GRC SinoGreen, and F&G Ventures, bringing total funding to date to $95 million.

http://www.rancher.com

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Rancher Labs adds support for Windows containers

Rancher Labs introduced support for Windows containers, integration of Istio service mesh, and new cluster templates that provide enhanced security for large scale deployments of Kubernetes.

The new capabilities, which are included in the latest Rancher 2.3 release strengthen Rancher’s Run Kubernetes Everywhere strategy by enabling an even broader range of enterprises to leverage the transformative power of Kubernetes.

“Gartner estimates that by 2022, more than 75% of global organizations will be running containerized workloads in production,” said Sheng Liang co-founder and CEO of Rancher Labs. “Rancher 2.3 expands our market leadership by bringing the benefits of Kubernetes to Windows applications and providing enterprises global control and visibility of all containers no matter where they are running – from the data center, to the cloud, to the edge.”

Highlights:

• Support for Windows containers-- Rancher 2.3 can now manage Windows Server Container based applications, allowing Windows developers to further benefit from the power of Kubernetes and its’ strong and diverse ecosystem
• Strengthened Kubernetes Security -- Rancher 2.3 introduces cluster templates. Operators can create, save, and confidently reuse well-tested Kubernetes configurations across all their cluster deployments. Administrators can enable configuration enforcement, thereby eliminating configuration drift or improper misconfigurations which left unchecked can introduce security risks as more clusters are created.
• Support for the Istio Service Mesh -- Istio eliminates the need for developers to write specific code to enable key Kubernetes capabilities including fault tolerance, canary rollouts, A/B testing, monitoring and metrics, tracing and observability and authentication and authorization. Rancher 2.3’s simplified installation and configuration of Istio comes with built-in support for Kiali dashboards for traffic and telemetry visualization; Jaeger for tracing; Prometheus and Grafana for observability. Rancher 2.3 also introduces support for Kubernetes v1.15.x and Docker 19.03. 

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VMware Tanzu portfolio targets Kubernetes

VMware unveiled a portfolio of products and services for building, running and managing software on Kubernetes.

VMware Tanzu includes a technology preview of Project Pacific, which is focused on transforming VMware vSphere into a Kubernetes native platform—unlocking its potential for the hundreds of thousands of vSphere customers. This includes:

• vSphere with Native Kubernetes - embedding Kubernetes into the control plane of vSphere will transform the platform—enabling it to converge containers and VMs onto a single platform. Project Pacific will also add a container runtime into the hypervisor. New ESXi native pods will combine the best properties of Kubernetes pods and VMs to help deliver a more secure and high-performance runtime for mission-critical workloads.
• App-focused Management - Project Pacific will enable app-level control for applying policies, quota and role-based access to developers. With Project Pacific, IT will have unified visibility into VMware vCenter Server for Kubernetes clusters, containers and existing VMs, as well as apply enterprise-grade capabilities such as High Availability (HA), Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), and vMotion at the app level.
• Dev and IT Ops Collaboration - IT operators will use vSphere tools to deliver Kubernetes clusters to developers, who can then use Kubernetes APIs to access SDDC infrastructure. With Project Pacific, both developers and IT operators will gain a consistent view via Kubernetes constructs in vSphere.
• Enterprises that want to start down the path of Kubernetes on vSphere today can adopt VMware PKS now. VMware PKS is the company’s flagship Kubernetes offering, used by many of the largest and most complex enterprises worldwide, helping them to deploy, run and manage Kubernetes for production across multiple clouds.

VMware Tanzu will offer a "Mission Control" single point of control to manage all their conformant Kubernetes clusters regardless of where they are running—vSphere, public clouds, managed services, packaged distributions and do-it-yourself (DIY) Kubernetes. The new service will offer broad capabilities powered by VMware’s extended product portfolio.  VMware Tanzu Mission Control will make it simple for operators to apply policies for access, quotas, back-up, security and more to individual clusters or to groups of clusters that span environments.

VMware Tanzu products and services also include :

• Pivotal – VMware recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Pivotal. Pivotal offers a comprehensive platform and deep connection to the developer community. Every month, Spring Initializr is used by developers to start 1.5 million new projects, and Spring Boot is downloaded more than 75 million times. Pivotal Application Service (PAS) has more than 750,000 enterprise production instances running globally, and Pivotal has announced that PAS and its components, such as the Pivotal Build Service and Pivotal Function Service, are being developed to run on Kubernetes.
• Bitnami – Bitnami provides the largest catalog of pre-built, scanned, tested, and continuously maintained application content for Kubernetes clusters to an audience of 2.5 million developers. VMware today introduced Project Galleon—a beta offering that will enable enterprise IT to deliver customized, up-to-date application stacks and formats to their end developers, that are multi-cloud ready.
• ISV Ecosystem – VMware continues to expand its broad ISV ecosystem to offer value-add services through Kubernetes and build applications on Kubernetes that can be made available via the Bitnami Community Catalog. VMware has also significantly grown the number of partners that have completed the VMware PKS Solution Competency.

“Organizations are seeking a partner to meet them where they are today and guide them as they move to modern applications,” said Raghu Raghuram, chief operating officer, Products and Cloud Services, VMware. “We’re positioned to help customers succeed along each step of their journey—building their applications with the addition of Pivotal’s developer platform, tools and services; running their applications with the groundbreaking Project Pacific which will transform vSphere into a Kubernetes native platform; and managing their growing Kubernetes footprint across environments from a single control point with VMware Tanzu Mission Control.”

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