Google and Mesosphere's work on Docker cluster manager Kubernetes pays off
After months of work, Google and Mesosphere say Docker cluster-manager Kubernetes will be part of the startup's Mesos-centred datacenter platform, enabling firms to build and deploy Kubernetes cloud-native apps on clusters with other services, on-premise or in the cloud.
Mesosphere's Datacenter Operating System (DCOS) is based on the open-source Apache Mesos cluster manager used by firms such as Twitter, Airbnb and Hubspot. DCOS is designed to pool datacenter compute resources and automate common operations, making it easier to manage and run massive distributed applications.
Google started work on the Kubernetes framework in mid-2014, modelling it on its own Borg internal infrastructure system. It is designed to work with microservices, managing container deployments with a high level of automation.
Mesosphere said the collaboration between the two firms will allow companies to run Kubernetes apps on clusters consisting of thousands of nodes across several datacenters and multiple clouds.
"We've worked with Google to package a robust common stack for running cloud-native applications anywhere," Mesosphere co-founder and CEO Florian Leibert said in a statement.
"We're giving enterprises the first real architecture that allows cloud-native applications to run in a rich, multi-service environment with other services like Spark and Hadoop, in a reliable, secure and elastic way."
Mesosphere will be packaging what it calls Mesosphere Enterprise Kubernetes as a standard component of DCOS and is launching an early-access scheme to the technology for companies to test it out.
Google product manager Craig McLuckie described the addition of Kubernetes to DCOS as a significant step forward in cloud-native application management.
"[It] should lay to rest many questions we hear about, 'Kubernetes or Mesos, which one should I use?'. Now you can have your cake and eat it too: use both," he said in a statement.
McLuckie added that today's announcement extends the reach of Kubernetes to a new class of users, adding new capabilities in the process.
"Now developers can build container-packaged, microservices-oriented applications the way we do at Google and run them side by side with their existing Mesos workloads in any cloud or on premises without lock-in," he said.
According to Mesosphere, Kubernetes on DCOS will enable users to launch Kubernetes pods directly from the DCOS command-line interface, with the same commands used to manage Kubernetes on any other platform.
"It's also a big deal if you're into things like Spark, Cassandra, Hadoop, Chron, Marathon or Jenkins and would like to launch jobs on those systems from the same command line on the same cluster of machines. Or if you're into portable infrastructure that can travel with you between public cloud platforms and private datacenters," Mesosphere said in a statement.
Mesosphere unveiled DCOS and a $36m funding injection in December, taking the total it has raised to $50m. The San Francisco-based company, which hired Mesos co-creator Benjamin Hindman as chief architect from Twitter in September 2014, has engineering staff in Hamburg and California.
Last summer Google and Mesosphere joined forces to simplify the creation of Apache Mesos clusters, by launching a web app on Google Cloud Platform.
Earlier this month, CoreOS unveiled its Tectonic commercial Kubernetes platform.
More on Kubernetes and Mesos
- Why Amazon's Docker service is linking into Apache Mesos for simpler clustering
- New Linux Foundation's guide to the open-source cloud
- Mesos co-creator: Where the cluster manager came from and where it's heading
- Mesosphere unveils Mesos-based datacenter OS plus $36m injection
- Google and Mesosphere bring Mesos clusters with Docker to Google Cloud Platform
- CoreOS is bringing Google's Kubernetes to the enterprise
- Microsoft to work with Google on Kubernetes container-management platform