Smoothing the Kubernetes Path to AWS

Looking to make it simpler to deploy and manage containers such as Docker on top of Amazon Web Services (AWS), CoreOS has launched an AWS Installer that makes use of a CloudFormation tool from AWS and kube-aws, a tool from CoreOS that automates cluster deployments, to simplify the deployment of the open source Kubernetes orchestration framework for managing containers.

Locked in a battle with providers of rival distributions of Linux as well as Microsoft, CoreOS clearly want to become the most efficient platform available running containers that are being widely adopted to rapidly build and deploy applications based on a microservices architecture.

While those applications can naturally run on premise or in the cloud, CoreOS CEO Alex Polvi says that first place many of those applications are manifesting themselves is on public clouds. As the largest public cloud, Polvi said it only makes sense for CoreOS to focus on making it simpler to install both Kubernetes and containers themselves on AWS.

CoreOS has been riding a wave of developer enthusiasm for containers that has extended to adopting lighter-weight implementations of a distribution of Linux on which those containers run. Naturally, rivals such as Red Hat have responded with their own lighter-weight versions of Linux, but CoreOS continues to build momentum behind its Tectonic distribution of Linux. By helping to bring a Kubernetes orchestration framework originally developed by Google to AWS, Polvi said CoreOS is hoping to significantly expand the reach of its customer base.

For solution providers that rapid shift to applications based on microservices architectures creates several challenges and opportunities. The rate at which applications are being deployed in the cloud is increasing significantly because developers find it much simpler to interact with containers than virtual machines. In many instances, however, those containers are being deployed both on bare metal servers and on top of virtual machines, largely because most internal IT operations team don’t have a way to natively manage containers running on a bare metal server. There are also concerns about the security of containers running on bare metal servers. To make matters more interesting for solution providers, providers of virtual machines are in the early stages of building lighter weight virtual machines that are specifically optimized to host containers.

Put it all together and it’s clear that managing IT both inside and out of the cloud is about to become much more difficult than it already is. The plus side of that equation for solution providers is that demand for external expertise to help manage the multiple types of server platforms that are being deployed inside and out of the cloud these days should only increase in the months and years ahead.