SUSE enhances delivery of modern containerised and cloud native applications

The enhanced solutions advance the already exceptional experiences offered to application developers, DevOps teams and Kubernetes platform operators. SUSE is first to provide enterprises with advanced networking for Kubernetes based on the Cilium open source project. Leveraging Cilium, SUSE enables Kubernetes users to strengthen application security at scale with high performance packet filtering and network communication security policies that are easy to implement and control. SUSE also introduces new application discovery and deployment capabilities that allow users to quickly and easily deploy applications and services that have been published as Helm charts, including hundreds of popular open source DevOps tools and ISV solutions as well as internally developed applications and services.

“SUSE’s modern application delivery solutions are easy for development and DevOps teams to use and for IT to operate,” said Thomas Di Giacomo, SUSE president of engineering, product and innovation. “Our support of Cilium-based networking puts our customers ahead of those using other commercially supported Kubernetes solutions and is an example of how we’re powering digital transformation with agile open source solutions that enable enterprises to continually innovate, compete and grow.”

Thomas Graf, CTO and co-founder of Isovalent and founder of Cilium, said, “SUSE was very early in recognising the value that BPF and Cilium bring to updating Kubernetes networking and security for the age of highly dynamic, API-driven microservices. SUSE has been a valuable contributor to the Cilium open source community since before the 1.0 release, and we are excited to have them as the first enterprise-grade Kubernetes distribution to use Cilium as the default networking and security technology.”

SUSE application delivery solutions include SUSE CaaS Platform, an enterprise-ready container management solution based on Kubernetes, and SUSE Cloud Application Platform, which runs on top of Kubernetes and helps enterprises achieve their cloud native application delivery goals more quickly and cost effectively. DevOps teams can take advantage of the former to manage a wide range of workloads, including traditional, transitional and cloud native workloads. The latter solution adds ready-made workflow automation that enables DevOps teams to deliver cloud native applications rapidly, at scale and in multi-cloud environments. SUSE’s solutions complement each other and can be used effectively together and separately.

SUSE CaaS Platform 4

The newest release of SUSE’s Kubernetes-based container management platform, SUSE CaaS Platform 4 elevates Kubernetes platform operations with enhancements that strengthen application security, make it easier to keep pace with technology advancements and expand platform scalability options. The solution integrates the latest releases of Kubernetes and SUSE Linux Enterprise. SUSE CaaS Platform 4 enables enterprises to:

• Strengthen application security at scale with Cilium-based high-performance packet filtering and network communication security policies that are easy to implement and control. Fast packet filtering protects their cluster more efficiently. Centralised management allows customers to secure communications at scale as they define and implement security policies in a consistent and efficient way.

• Keep pace with Kubernetes advancements with non-disruptive platform updates that facilitate easier and more frequent access to new features. They can leverage new features sooner with frequent platform updates that operate smoothly behind the scenes. In addition, SUSE CaaS Platform can now update itself, transitioning loads seamlessly to updated services, without expensive downtime.

• Expand platform scalability options, both up and down, to support a wider range of business use cases, workloads and environments. Customers can scale Kubernetes efficiently using a distributed installation framework that scales horizontally as the cluster grows. They can also reduce the cost of small-scale deployments with a new minimum cluster size of three nodes.

Florian Rommel, CTO and co-founder of cloud service provider Datalounges, said, “Datalounges has been using Kubernetes to deliver internally developed applications faster. We also provide hosted Kubernetes services to our customers. That all has translated into better business for us, but it wouldn’t have happened without SUSE CaaS Platform which makes it easy for us to install, manage and maintain our Kubernetes environments. The new advanced installation capabilities in SUSE CaaS Platform 4 will be especially valuable to us as we provision and de-provision many Kubernetes clusters every day. Cilium-based networking will make essential security management much simpler for us and for our customers.”

SUSE Cloud Application Platform 1.5

SUSE Cloud Application Platform 1.5, the latest version of SUSE’s modern application delivery platform for Kubernetes, reduces management complexity with new user interface enhancements. It also increases IT efficiency by providing a faster time to value with a simple and more predictable installation experience on hosted Kubernetes services. SUSE Cloud Application Platform 1.5 provides:

• Instant application discovery and deployment, introduced as a tech preview, that enables users to browse any Helm chart repository including embedded documentation, set required deployment values directly in the UI, and deploy applications to Kubernetes with a single click.

• Simplified application autoscaling and quota management directly from the Stratos UI. Developers and administrators can quickly verify and adjust autoscaling parameters to ensure consistent-application availability. Platform operators and end-users can also monitor and allocate resource usage more effectively directly in the UI.

• Increased IT efficiency and faster time to value with simple and more predictable installation on hosted Kubernetes services. IT operations staff can now deploy SUSE Cloud Application Platform to SUSE CaaS Platform, Amazon EKS, Microsoft AKS and Google GKE via Terraform scripts for a simple, predictable and repeatable experience.

Karsten Samaschke, CEO of cloud consulting firm Cloudical, said, “SUSE Cloud Application Platform is an excellent fit for our customers who are trying to modernise their application development and delivery approach and increase their developers’ productivity. We are very excited about the new user interface enhancements in 1.5, particularly the ease of deploying Helm charts. We anticipate they will be well received by our growing and sophisticated customer base.”