VMblog spoke to Sheng Liang, CEO and co-founder of Rancher, on the company’s release of Rancher 2.4. He provided us insight into what you can expect to see in this solution that offers edge scale, supports 2,000 clusters, and helps you take care of all of your Kubernetes distributions.
VMblog: You just announced the release of Rancher 2.4. Tell us more about what customers can expect?
Sheng Liang: Today, customers see Rancher as the only genuinely heterogeneous, multi-cluster, multi-cloud Kubernetes management platform. With Rancher 2.4, we are aiming to take that a step further and have packed it with enhanced features that support edge scalability and offer zero-downtime maintenance. We have also significantly enhanced security throughout. This solution is the next step in our “Run Kubernetes Everywhere” strategy, and more importantly, it positions us even further ahead of our competitors in terms of getting on top of the challenges that they still face such as scalability, complexity and openness.
VMblog: In your announcement release, you mentioned you are taking Kubernetes from Cloud Scale to Edge Scale. What does this mean?
Liang: The connected edge is driving up the sheer volume of Kubernetes deployments we are seeing. The applications are vast and the advent of 5G is adding fuel to the fire, where we will need to deliver Kubernetes at scale to support all these applications. I have always said that Kubernetes is the engine enabling common computing from the data center and cloud to the edge. But for Kubernetes at the edge to succeed — and more importantly, deliver — it needs to better scale, and we must be able to better manage and secure it. This is exactly what we are doing with Rancher 2.4 — offering customers a platform that will support Kubernetes at edge scale.
VMblog: So, what are some of the key enhancements you have made that will support this?
Liang: Rancher 2.4 supports 2,000 clusters, which is far more than any of our competitors. We are also providing improved cluster management of upgrades and patches with limited connectivity maintenance with K3s – it adds to the notion of lightweight Kubernetes and helps with its management. Kubernetes is also maturing into the business-critical app space, so in Rancher 2.4 we are offering zero downtime maintenance, which means an organization can upgrade clusters and nodes without disrupting an application. Also, we are enhancing security with CIS Scan, allowing customers to run ad-hoc security scans of their RKE clusters against 100+ CIS benchmarks that have been vetted by the Center for Internet Security.
VMblog: You also mention “Hosted Rancher.” Can you elaborate?
Liang: Not everyone has the means, skills, or desire to manage the Rancher server on-premises. With Rancher 2.4, we are offering a Hosted Rancher Deployment. In short, this is a dedicated AWS instance of a Rancher Server management control plan. It’s a fully featured and functioning Rancher server that comes with a 99.9% SLA, and the customer doesn’t need to worry about security, upgrades, and backups of the Rancher server.
VMblog: What if a customer is running different Kubernetes distributions? How does Rancher 2.4 support that?
Liang: You can’t dictate to a modern customer what they can and can’t do because your software has limitations. They want flexibility and freedom, and they want it at a price point they can afford. That’s the beauty of being a company that provides a heterogeneous, multi-cluster, multi-cloud Kubernetes management platform. Our competitors state they offer this, but what customers end up with is the same proprietary stack running across all of their clouds. We have always believed in giving our clients an easy to deploy solution that delivers a consistent Kubernetes experience irrespective of the distribution they are running. This includes RKE, K3s, AKS, EKS and GKE, and if you have this on-premises, in the cloud, or the edge, we have you covered.
VMblog: From the beginning, you have backed Kubernetes. How has this proved a success for your business?
Liang: Our approach and continual investment in the development of the Rancher platform is resonating with customers, and we can see it in the numbers. In 2019 our revenue grew 169 percent YoY. This is not just good for our customers and us as we are able to invest in development continually, but it is also resonating with investors. We recently received a $40M series ‘D’ round of funding – which we will to further accelerate our innovation, invest in scaling our sales and support organizations, and expand our business into new geographies.
Check out more on Rancher Labs 2.4 here
##
