Cloud Unfiltered Podcast: My career journey, Kubernetest and AWS Partnership

This video discusses the Cisco Hybrid Solution for Kubernetes on AWS, a collaboration between Cisco and Amazon to create a seamless hybrid cloud environment for developers and operators. Matt Ferguson, Director of Product Management for Multi-cloud Integrations and Solutions at Cisco, explains the solution’s purpose, features, and benefits.

Key aspects of the solution include:

Motivation for Collaboration Cisco’s Multi-cloud Integrations and Solutions group aims to integrate Cisco products into cloud environments through collaboration with cloud providers. The focus was on leveraging Kubernetes in a hybrid environment, combining Cisco’s on-premise hardware (HyperFlex) with Amazon’s Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

Problem Solved for Customers: The solution addresses the challenge of migrating workloads between on-premise and cloud environments, providing a seamless experience for both operations and development teams. It allows for consistent policy enforcement and application experience whether the application is in the cloud or on-premise (9:05-10:29). Key Features and Components

Deployment and Infrastructure: Uses Cisco Container Platform (CCP) to deploy Kubernetes clusters on HyperFlex infrastructure on-premise and to the EKS environment on AWS.

Connectivity: Offers various secure connectivity options like VPN using Cisco’s CSR 1KV (Cloud Services Router).

Security: Integrates with StealthWatch Cloud.

Application Monitoring: Utilizes AppDynamics for application monitoring capabilities.

Application Deployment: Leverages CloudCenter for application deployment.

Identity Management: A key benefit is the integration with Amazon’s Identity and Access Management (IAM), ensuring consistent policies between on-premise and cloud environments. CCP handles the complexities of IM roles, simplifying security for IT operators.

Support Model: Cisco serves as the primary point of contact for support for the entire solution, ensuring a streamlined troubleshooting process and preventing finger-pointing between vendors. The documentation for the solution is available on DevNet (developer.cisco.com) as a GitHub repo, encouraging community contributions and feedback.

Software-Only Option: The core requirement for the solution is CCP, which can drive Kubernetes cluster deployment onto EKS. While Cisco hardware is recommended for on-premise infrastructure, CCP itself is a software-only product.

Hybrid vs. Multi-Cloud: The solution is defined as “hybrid” because it focuses on a single cloud provider (AWS) and its use across on-premise and cloud environments, as a slice of Cisco’s broader multi-cloud strategy. Cisco plans to expand similar hybrid solutions with other cloud providers in the future.

Future Frontiers: Matt Ferguson discusses the evolution of application factoring from monolithic to serverless, and expresses interest in micro VMs like Amazon’s Firecracker. He also speculates on Kubernetes’ potential to orchestrate not only containers but also other refactored applications like micro VMs, allowing for cost-optimized, geographically specific, and performance-driven deployments.

You can try out the solution at definite sandbox at Cisco.com.