Certified Kubernetes: A key step forward for the open source ecosystem.
Today the Cloud Native Computing Foundation launched the Certified Kubernetes program. We are pleased to announce that Heptio is participating, and that the AWS Quick Start for Kubernetes is our first certified release. We are also thrilled the community chose Heptio’s Sonobuoy as the underlying technology to support the certification program.
A key goal for Kubernetes is portability. This is done by creating a framework that could isolate developers from the specifics of a given infrastructure environment. Developers can build an application in one environment and then deploy it into another with minimal changes. Businesses can pick the hosting platform that best meets their needs based on application requirements. Cost of infrastructure, connectivity and quality of service can be evaluated impartially and then the best environment for a specific application selected. If the requirements change or new offerings emerge the application isn’t tied to a single Kubernetes environment.
The best way to provision and run a Kubernetes cluster may vary from environment to environment. Managed offerings like Google Container Engine or Azure Container Service take a lot of the pain out of deploying and managing Kubernetes. Heptio’s AWS Quick Start for Kubernetes is another example that makes it easy way to get a basic Kubernetes running on AWS. These don’t have direct analogies on-premises. The certification program gives users a high degree of confidence the Kubernetes environment they chose meets the standards of the community. It is an important mechanism to avoid vendor lock-in and maintain flexibility.
Heptio built the Sonobuoy project to help support this program, but also as a way that users can independently verify that the environment meets certification requirements. This makes it not only the default certification tool for the Kubernetes community, but a powerful way for users to qualify their own environments. They can ensure that there will be no surprises when they deploy and run their applications. It is particularly useful for users that chose to build and run their own Kubernetes clusters and want to ensure what they have built works as it should.
In addition to the core open source project, we released a simple utility serivce called Heptio Sonobuoy Scanner to help users deploy and process the results of Sonobuoy. You can check it out here.
We look forward to continuing to work with CNCF to ensure that Heptio’s offerings remain true to the upstream Kubernetes project, and will continue to invest in and drive the capabilities of Sonobuoy as a flexible and easy to use conformance tool.
