Pulumi Adds Kubernetes Support to DevOps Framework
Pulumi has made available an open source collection of tools and frameworks for automating the deployment of applications on Kubernetes clusters. That capability marks the first time the Pulumi framework is available in on-premises IT environments in addition to public clouds such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.
The Pulumi Crosswalk tools and frameworks enable developers to deploy applications without relying on an IT operations team or having to master a programming tool or manually employ YAML files on their own. Instead, they can use Pulumi Crosswalk to automate the deployment of applications using programming languages such as JavaScript, TypeScript, Python and Go. Pulumi earlier this week also added support for Microsoft.Net. In addition to the open source versions of Pulumi, the company provides access to premium editions for enterprises that need advanced policies and controls.
Eric Rudder, executive chairman for Pulumi, says Pulumi Crosswalk for Kubernetes will extend the reach of the framework beyond the most widely employed public cloud platforms at a time when both multi-cloud and hybrid cloud computing is on the rise. Pulumi Crosswalk for Kubernetes is 100% compatible with Kubernetes application programming interfaces (APIs) across all versions and distributions, says Rudder.
By providing developers with tools and frameworks that enable developers to treat infrastructure as code, Rudder says Pulumi is prescriptively defining a set of best DevOps practices for deploying applications. Pulumi Crosswalk for Kubernetes is also integrated with DevOps platforms such as GitLab, Jenkins, CodeFresh, Octopus, Azure DevOps Pipelines and GitHub Actions, and provides access to a Kq tool through which queries against live Kubernetes resources can be launched in real-time.
As the rate at which new applications are being deployed on Kubernetes accelerates, it’s only a matter of time before the application deployment backlog increases significantly. IT leaders are going to be under a lot of pressure to solve that issue in a way that results in more cloud-native applications being deployed not only on a timely basis but also reliably. In many cases, the best way to accomplish that goal is to bypass the IT operations team by allowing developers to deploy applications within the context of a well-defined set of guardrails.
Rudder says “educated” organizations that have been struggling with deploying applications tend to make the best customers for Pulumi. Many organizations initially want to define their own toolchains and frameworks only to realize that effort doesn’t add value to their primary goal, which is to deploy applications and associated updates faster. That issue is especially challenging in Kubernetes environments running microservices-based applications, which tend to be a lot more complex than a legacy monolithic application environment.
It remains to be seen how much the rise of Kubernetes will force DevOps issues within organizations. Many organizations have adopted DevOps unevenly, but as the number of applications being deployed on Kubernetes clusters continues to increase, the time to standardize on a well-defined set of best DevOps practices that are simple enough for developers to follow on their own may finally be at hand.
