Cloud Foundry has revealed a new component designed to help organisations deploy containers, a way to tuck applications into isolated blocks by virtualising operating systems.
Called Cloud Foundry Container Runtime (CFCR), the technology will now be positioned as the open-source foundation's approach to deploying containers using Kubernetes and BOSH.
The toolkit was donated to the foundation in June by Pivotal and Google, and was originally called the Kubo Project. Cloud Foundry fans can now use Container Runtime to deploy Kubernetes or Application Runtime (previously Elastic Runtime) for a cloud application platform. In either case, BOSH underpins infrastructure provisioning for both Cloud Foundry runtimes.
CFCR now has support for Istio, with ongoing compatibility testing planned as both projects continue to evolve. In addition, default support for persistence of Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Vsphere are now available for the Container Runtime project.
Application Runtime is an app-centric platform that simplifies the entire development lifecycle. Container Runtime enhances Cloud Foundry's capabilities by using some of its best and most unique components such as BOSH, which enables a uniform way to instantiate, deploy and manage highly available Kubernetes clusters on any cloud.
The future of cloud
Cloud Foundry said that Container Runtime would enhance its capabilities by components, such as BOSH, which enables a uniform way to instantiate, deploy and manage highly available Kubernetes clusters on any cloud.
"The technology has progressed quickly after only four months of incubation, the first commercial offering has already been launched. Container Runtime expands the capabilities of Cloud Foundry beyond Application Runtime, giving enterprises more options to take advantage of cloud-native best practices," said Abby Kearns, Executive Director, Cloud Foundry Foundation.
"With nearly 70% of enterprises using containers in some capacity, choice is critical," Kearns said. "This expansion enables businesses to take advantage of the power of Kubernetes combined with BOSH, an open source, enterprise-grade management tool."
Fintan Ryan, a RedMonk analyst, said that the initial setup and operations of Kubernetes can be challenging. "Cloud Foundry Container Runtime gives developers and operators a simple method to create a highly available Kubernetes environment with BOSH and avoid many of the pitfalls users initially encounter," he added.
