IBM Adds Databases to Managed Kubernetes Edge Service

IBM announced this week it is extending the scope of its managed IBM Cloud Satellite based on Kubernetes to include support for databases deployed on edge computing platforms.

The IBM Cloud Databases enabled by IBM Cloud Satellite will initially support PostgreSQL and Redis databases in addition to the etcd key-value store and RabbitMQ messaging software, with support for other databases and data stores to come.

Briana Frank, director of product management for IBM Cloud, says that as more data is being processed and analyzed at the edge, the need to deploy databases both at the edge and in the cloud is more apparent. As more microservices-based, latency-sensitive applications are deployed at the edge, the need to be able to reliably access locally stored data becomes even more acute, adds Frank.

IBM

IBM Cloud Satellite is based on a Red Hat OpenShift platform that provides an instance of Kubernetes for building and deploying applications that is itself based on Kubernetes.

Organizations can opt to have IBM manage the entire environment on their behalf, or co-manage applications while IBM maintains management responsibility for all the underlying IT infrastructure. IBM, for example, revealed today that the University Medical Center Mainz, which provides inpatient and outpatient care to more than 350,000 people in approximately 60 clinics each year, is now employing IBM Cloud Satellite in part to digitize clinical processes.

Underneath the Red Hat OpenShift platform is an instance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). IBM Cloud Satellite enables teams to define a location populated by a group of RHEL hosts. There is also Satellite Mesh, a federated instance of the open source Istio service mesh that can span multiple Kubernetes clusters, and Satellite Link, a tool for automating the administration of application-level firewalls.

Most recently, IBM extended the reach of IBM Cloud Satellite to a variety of edge computing platforms. In effect, IBM is now adding a database-as-a-service option for edge computing platforms running stateful applications that is managed via a control plane that resides in the cloud. That database services can be made available to developers in a matter of minutes without requiring an organization to dispatch their own IT team to physically deploy software on an edge computing platform that could be running almost anywhere.

As edge computing continues to evolve, the relationship between on-premises IT environments and cloud services is rapidly evolving. More data will be clearly processed and analyzed at the edge with the aggregated results then being shared with backend services running in either the cloud or a local data center. The management of these platforms will need to become more federated via a central console that will enable distributed applications to be more easily deployed and managed across a hybrid cloud computing environment.

It’s not clear to what degree organizations will want their own IT teams to manage those environments versus relying on a managed service that automates most management tasks on their behalf. As more organizations embrace digital business transformation, however, it’s clear edge computing platforms will enable applications to process data in near real-time versus continuing to rely primarily on legacy batch-oriented processes to update applications overnight. The challenge, of course, is finding a way to manage all those edge computing platforms without having to dispatch an IT team to provision each and every one.

Mike Vizard

Mike Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist with over 25 years of experience. He also contributed to IT Business Edge, Channel Insider, Baseline and a variety of other IT titles. Previously, Vizard was the editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise as well as Editor-in-Chief for CRN and InfoWorld.

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