VMware's new product and service portfolio VMware Tanzu is set to transform how enterprises use Kubernetes for software development, management, and deployment.

VMware Tanzu includes a management platform called Mission Control, which is a single point of control from which customers will manage all their Kubernetes clusters regardless of where they run.

Enterprises will be able to build modern applications, run Kubernetes with consistency across environments, and manage all their Kubernetes clusters from that single control point.

A core principle of the VMware Tanzu portfolio is to make best use of open source software. VMware Tanzu Mission Control will leverage Cluster API for Lifecycle Management, Velero for backup/recovery, Sonobuoy for configuration control and Contour for ingress control. VMware says it is now a top three contributor to Kubernetes.

Tanzu also includes a technology preview of Project Pacific, which can enable VMware vSphere to transform into a Kubernetes native platform in a future release.

VMware notes that its upcoming acquisition of Pivotal will allow the company to deliver a comprehensive Kubernetes-based portfolio to enterprises.

VMware chief operating officer of products and cloud services, Raghu Raghuram, says organisations seek partners that work with current requirements and become a guide as they move to modern applications.

 “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.

Capabilities include:

Build modern applications with a modern software supply chain with the use of:

• 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.

Run modern apps leveraging Kubernetes

The introduction of VMware Tanzu was anchored on the announcement of Project Pacific, focused on transforming VMware vSphere into a Kubernetes native platform—unlocking its potential for the hundreds of thousands of vSphere customers.

This re-architecture of the platform will enable enterprises to accelerate development and operation of modern apps on vSphere while continuing to take advantage of existing investments in technology, tools and skillsets. Project Pacific will deliver the following capabilities:

• 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. 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.

Manage multi-cloud, multi-cluster infrastructure

VMware Tanzu includes a tech preview of VMware Tanzu Mission Control. With VMware Tanzu Mission Control, customers will have a 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. Capabilities will include:

Administrator visibility of all Kubernetes clusters

• VMware Tanzu Mission Control will provide administrators with observability of all Kubernetes clusters, including assessment of cluster and component health. Customers seeking greater diagnostic or full stack detail will be able to drill directly into Wavefront by VMware via VMware Tanzu Mission Control.
   
• Operator control of policy
  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. This is consistent with VMware's commitment to supporting customer choice in cloud, helping customers run Kubernetes everywhere.
   
• Developer independence
  VMware Tanzu Mission Control will enable developers to access resources via workspaces— collections of namespaces—through self-service methods, powered by Kubernetes APIs.

"VMware's announcement shows the growing importance of Kubernetes to cloud computing,” says Catalyst Cloud managing director Bruno Lago.

“As a provider of cloud in NZ, at Catalyst Cloud we've been driving forward with Kubernetes for a long time.

“The more players supporting Kubernetes, the easier multi-cloud computing becomes and the stronger a digital economy in New Zealand we can build together."