Few instruments divide opinion like Kubernetes—equally beloved and loathed. There was a latest surge in firms transferring away from it to strive their very own monolithic structure and constructing in-house options. Then, there are various transferring again to Kubernetes, and Portworx by Pure Storage helps firms try this.
Venkat Ramakrishnan, VP and GM at Portworx by Pure Storage, has had a front-row seat to what he calls a “Kubernetes dial-tone second”—the place Kubernetes is not simply taking off, however changing into the default throughout enterprise infrastructure.
Recent from a bustling KubeCon Europe occasion in London, Ramakrishnan mirrored on how enterprises are quickly transferring away from legacy platforms like VMware and selecting Kubernetes as their unifying management aircraft—and the way Portworx helps them each step of the best way.
“We had of us from HSBC, Weasley, Roche—actual world 2000 clients—becoming a member of in, plus some massive banks and telcos which are nonetheless prospects. It was a unbelievable trade of concepts and greatest practices,” Ramakrishnan shared with AIM.
“We’re seeing an enormous motion from VMware to Kubernetes,” he mentioned.
“And truthfully, for those who had requested me six to eight months in the past, I might have been a skeptic. However after working with a number of massive clients, I’ve develop into a believer—Kubernetes will be the unifying management aircraft for each containers and VMs.”
What’s Distinctive about Portworx?
Lately, Pure Storage introduced Portworx Enterprise 3.3, the newest model of its Kubernetes-native information platform, now enhanced to help digital machine (VM) workloads by KubeVirt.
This improve permits enterprises to run and handle each VMs and containers side-by-side on Kubernetes—a well timed transfer, as 81% of firms plan emigrate VMs to Kubernetes, in accordance with a 2024 survey by Pure Storage.
By consolidating VM and container workloads on a single platform, Portworx gives a path towards trendy, cost-efficient infrastructure, with potential financial savings of as much as 50%, in accordance with Pure Storage.
The introduction of RWX Block for KubeVirt-based VMs operating on FlashArray or third-party storage allows scalable learn/write entry and improved efficiency.
Furthermore, the discharge additionally consists of enhanced help for KubeVirt platforms from Purple Hat, SUSE, Spectro Cloud, and Kubermatic, with validated reference architectures and joint engineering efforts.
“We’re partnering very intently with Purple Hat on this journey,” mentioned Ramakrishnan. “They’ve achieved a unbelievable job of integrating VMs into the Kubernetes expertise utilizing KubeVirt.”
Now, for many who may not be acquainted, KubeVirt is actually Purple Hat’s means of bringing VMs into the containerised world. So, as an alternative of managing two separate infrastructures—one to your containers and one other to your VMs—you get a unified management aircraft on Kubernetes.
“Purple Hat’s OpenShift and KubeVirt are serving to us take clients from VMware and land them immediately into a contemporary platform, with no need a full rewrite of each workload,” Ramakrishnan defined. “We’re seeing success with this mannequin throughout industries—whether or not in auto, finance, and even retail.”
Why the Shift?
A mix of things contributes to this shift. Ramakrishnan pointed to Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and subsequent pricing adjustments as main triggers. “Many purchasers are in search of options. Kubernetes isn’t only for cloud-native apps anymore—it’s changing into the infrastructure normal.”
Ramakrishnan outlined a number of “secular developments” fueling this surge in Kubernetes adoption, together with CFOs pushing the associated fee strain. “CFOs are asking CIOs and CTOs to simplify the stack, to run extra with much less,” he mentioned. That’s pushing containerisation and replatforming efforts.
Enterprises are reconsidering their VMware investments. “We jokingly seek advice from them as VMware refugees,” Ramakrishnan quipped. These clients are more and more seeking to Kubernetes as a extra future-proof different.
Generative AI is additional reinforcing Kubernetes adoption. From operating LLMs to managing vector databases and enabling GPU sharing, generative AI infrastructure is constructed on containers and orchestrated by Kubernetes.
Moreover, with the rise of low-code/no-code platforms and code technology instruments, trendy apps are being containerised by default. “They only land in Kubernetes,” he famous.
“In telcos and with 5G and 6G, Kubernetes is the usual,” he mentioned. And it’s not simply the cloud or the info centres—factories and retail areas are seeing full deployments too.
In a single standout case, a serious US grocery retailer chain is operating three OpenShift nodes per retailer—throughout tons of of shops—with Portworx managing VMs on the edge. “We even have a satellite tv for pc radio firm doing the identical factor, and one of many world’s largest automakers is within the course of of remodeling all their factories with Kubernetes. That’s an enormous multi-year rollout.”
Enterprises are more and more turning to cloud-native purposes, particularly Kubernetes, to handle their AI workload. Based on one other latest Pure Storage survey of firms with 500 staff and extra, 54% mentioned they have been already operating AI/ML workloads on Kubernetes.
Through the coaching of AI fashions, there’s usually a considerable amount of information, whereas throughout inferencing, the info quantity will be a lot smaller.
Murli Thirumale, GM (cloud-native enterprise unit), Portworx at Pure Storage, earlier advised AIM that Kubernetes addresses these points by providing elasticity, permitting it to dynamically regulate assets primarily based on demand. “This flexibility is inherent to Kubernetes, which manages a scalable and self-service infrastructure, making it well-suited for the fluctuating wants of AI and ML purposes,” Thirumale mentioned.
Is Kubernetes Actually for Everybody?
After all, not each use case matches neatly into Kubernetes. Ramakrishnan acknowledged the latest transfer by Gitpod and some different firms like Juspay to go away Kubernetes, however sees it as a wholesome signal.
“No know-how serves 100% of use instances. Some performance-sensitive purposes are higher off as monoliths pinned to VMs. Because the market matures, Kubernetes will crystallise round essentially the most profitable and repeatable use instances, and the remainder will department out. That’s a great factor,” Ramakrishnan mentioned.
As enterprises undertake Kubernetes once more, the demand for engineers who excel within the know-how can be going to extend, and this might be an enormous problem for enterprises.
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