Robin.io Allies with Google on Data Management for Kubernetes
At the Google Cloud Next 2019 conference, Robin.io announced it is working with Google to embed a standard set of application programming interface (APIs) for data management within Kubernetes-based services from Google.
Robin.io also revealed its data management platform will be made available on an instance of the Google stack of software running on Kubernetes that can be deployed in an on-premises environment.
Radhesh Menon, chief marketing officer for Robin.io, says data management issues are becoming more complex in Kubernetes environments as the number of stateful applications being deployed on the platform steadily increase. The primary drivers of that shift have been an increase in the number of database applications being deployed on Kubernetes along with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) applications that require access to massive amounts of data to train machine learning algorithms, he says.
Another major driver of large amounts of data that need to be managed on Kubernetes are DevOps tools such as the open source Prometheus containing monitoring software, which is being developed alongside Kubernetes under the auspices of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), he adds.
Menon says that as the number of stateful applications deployed on Kubernetes clusters continues to increase, it’s now only a matter of time before DataOps and DevOps are increasingly unified as the management of applications and data continues to converge snapshotting, backup and recovery and data migration at the application level. While most of the initial containerized applications were stateless, the increased number of stateful applications requires developers to work more closely with database and storage administrators as the number of databases running on Kubernetes clusters increases, he notes. Robin.io is working on making the data management tools required in Kubernetes environment accessible via Helm charts and Operators software specifically designed for that platform.
Before too long, most of the stateful applications running on Kubernetes also will be accessing multiple clouds, adds Menon. Robin.io is opting to work with Google on both GKE and the on-premises edition of company’s platform to address those issues across multiple availability zones. Robin.io also makes it possible to access data stored in Kubernetes or existing storage systems, notes Menon.
It’s still early days in terms of data management becoming a major IT headache. But it’s only a matter of time before organizations that adopt Kubernetes at scale find themselves contending with data management issues that will be more complex to manage given the inherently dynamic nature of containerized applications. The challenge IT organizations will need to overcome is finding a way to manage all that data in a way that doesn’t slow down the pace of application development. After all, if it still takes days and weeks to make data available to applications, then the point of employing best DevOps practices to accelerate application development and deployment winds up being largely defeated.
