Diamanti Unifies Storage and Networking Across Kubernetes Clusters

Diamanti today launched a data plane management platform for hybrid cloud computing environments that marries storage management to a container networking overlay.

Jenny Fong, vice president of marketing for Diamanti, says Diamanti Ultima unifies multi-tenant L2 and overlay container networking services with data services such as snapshots, backup, synchronous mirroring and asynchronous replication. The goal is to simplify the delivery of these services across a hybrid cloud computing environment regardless of storage system or network underlay, she says.

In addition to working with Diamanti’s Spektra control plane, Ultima interoperates with any distribution of Kubernetes, including Red Hat OpenShift and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Services (EKS).

While Kubernetes provides a common set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that should advance the adoption of hybrid cloud computing, the unification of all the networking and storage services that exist in public cloud and on-premises IT environments represents a major hurdle. Diamanti Ultima is an effort to bridge those services via a common data plane that can be layered on top of existing services. In effect, it provides IT organizations with a common operating model for hybrid cloud computing environments, says Fong.

In the wake of the economic downturn brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, more IT organizations are looking to centralize the management of IT to reduce costs. At the same time, the number of cloud-native applications being deployed on Kubernetes clusters is increasing substantially. Diamanti sees an opportunity to provide a platform that makes it easier to centralize the management of networking and storage services for Kubernetes clusters deployed in public clouds, local data centers and edge computing environments.

While Diamanti is best known for its storage appliances for Kubernetes clusters, Fong says the launch of Diamanti Ultima accelerates a shift to being more focused on software that began in earnest last year.

It’s not clear precisely who within an IT organization will lead the charge when it comes to implementing a common data plane for Kubernetes clusters. While DevOps teams are exercising more control over infrastructure now managed as code, storage and networking services have historically been managed by IT specialists. However, the shift toward managing infrastructure as code is being accelerated by the adoption of Kubernetes clusters that often are managed by a single DevOps team.

Regardless of who manages Kubernetes clusters, that rate at which the management of compute, storage and networking is converging is increasing. Kubernetes assumes that those services are already converged within the cluster, so extending that convergence across multiple clusters is the next logical evolution. As that transition occurs, it’s just a matter of time before many IT organizations are reorganized.

Of course, that level of cultural change tends to come slowly. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has already accelerated the adoption of a wide range of emerging technologies. It’s unlikely the convergence of compute, storage and networking will prove to be an exception.

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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