Everything moves fast in the cloud native world and the evolution of our partnership and support for hybrid cloud Kubernetes via Microsoft’s Azure Arc is no exception! Barely four months ago at the Microsoft Ignite conference, Nutanix announced a hybrid cloud technology partnership with Microsoft through which Nutanix Karbon is technically certified for running Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters.
Through Microsoft® Azure Arc, customers can easily extend Azure’s management capabilities to their on-prem Kubernetes clusters running on Nutanix® Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI). This joint solution offers organizations a simple and direct means of establishing a production-grade hybrid cloud Kubernetes® environment, driven by Microsoft Azure’s intuitive, feature-rich management platform and Nutanix HCI which is ideal for running Kubernetes and cloud native workloads at scale.
Today, our joint solution is further enhanced by the addition of Microsoft® Azure Arc-enabled data services to the hybrid cloud Kubernetes stack.
When implemented with the right approach and tooling, hybrid cloud Kubernetes offers tremendous flexibility in deploying and scaling cloud native applications. Operators can establish a single-pane-of-glass view of the entire set of clusters and leverage the same management tools across different infrastructures, optimizing for consistency and efficiency throughout the entire application lifecycle.
Azure Arc-enabled Data Services
While unified management capabilities add huge value to hybrid cloud Kubernetes, there are still big challenges to address related to cloud native applications and their data. For a significant number of enterprise organizations, network latency and regulatory compliance require certain types of application data to reside in on-prem datacenters. In addition, many organizations can’t spare the resources to perform lengthy database maintenance routines and would opt instead for evergreen technologies that can be consumed in utility-like fashion.
This is why the addition of Azure Arc-enabled data services to the hybrid cloud Kubernetes stack is so beneficial. According to a recent Microsoft blog, “Azure Arc helps to fully automate the patching and update process for databases running on-premises.” Updates from the Microsoft Container Registry are automatically delivered to customers, and deployment cadences are set by customers in accordance with their policies. This way, on-premises databases can stay up-to-date while ensuring customers maintain control. Also, a fully-managed database service, such as Azure SQL Database, removes the burden of patching and upgrades for customers who have migrated their databases to Azure.
FIGURE 1: The Azure Arc Enabled Data Services Architecture
Nutanix HCI: The Ideal Infrastructure for Kubernetes
Nutanix is an industry leader for HCI and is extremely well-suited for running Kubernetes, given its resiliency and its ability to scale linearly and simply (almost without limit). Nutanix HCI includes Nutanix’s Karbon™ certified Kubernetes management solution, which substantially simplifies Kubernetes management processes throughout its entire lifecycle. Karbon’s intuitive workflows help users tackle storage and network configuration, high availability, Kubernetes version upgrades, nodes’ OS upgrades, and more. Karbon makes it possible to deploy a production-ready Kubernetes cluster in less than 20 minutes even by administrators with little to no Kubernetes experience, as opposed to the weeks or months it would typically take with a manual approach.
Nutanix HCI and Karbon, along with our Files™, Volumes™, and Objects™ trio of storage solutions, form the foundation of an on-premises enterprise Kubernetes stack ready for integration into a multicloud configuration.
Learn More
Nutanix was a showcase sponsor of the Microsoft Ignite conference. Check out our 20-minute On-Demand Session from Microsoft Ignite 2021 featuring Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters on Nutanix HCI.
Take Nutanix HCI with Karbon for a Test Drive
If you’re considering Nutanix HCI for the foundation of your on-prem cloud-native environment, take it for a test drive! The Nutanix Test Drive™ program puts you in the driver’s seat, offering you a hands-on experience with the tools you need to build your cloud—infra, ops, data, apps, DR, and more.
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