Rafay Systems‘ product enhancements make platform teams more productive and secure, enabling enterprises to achieve operational efficiency, scalability and reliability in their fleet operations. To find out more, VMblog spoke with Mohan Atreya, SVP Product and Solutions at Rafay Systems.
VMblog: What is Automated Fleet Operations? Can you explain what problem it solves as well as its benefits for companies?
Mohan Atreya: Automated Fleet Operations is the newest feature integrated into the Rafay Kubernetes Operations Platform (KOP). Kubernetes cluster operations are highly complex to operate, especially when managing a fleet of Kubernetes clusters spanning various environments, cloud providers, data centers and accounts. Automated Fleet Operations was created to eliminate the error-prone, manual processes of traditional Kubernetes cluster fleet operations by standardizing and automating workflows for multi-cluster management. With this capability, platform and operations teams can effectively manage large cluster environments with ease using repeatable, automated workflows that can be applied to multiple clusters. It increases productivity and improves the reliability of lifecycle management operations performed on Kubernetes clusters fleet-wide.
VMblog: How does Automated Fleet Operations work? What are the new capabilities?
Atreya: Automated Fleet Operations provides a flexible and efficient solution for an organization’s fleet operations. Administrators can specify a fleet plan to help them define target clusters, desired operation, pre-hooks and post-hooks. It allows batch automation of comprehensive lists of actions, including cluster upgrades and configuration patching, which can be carried out on a fleet of clusters. Platform and operations teams can trigger actions multiple times that will run until completion in a secure manner, meeting all compliance requirements.
Fleet plans can also be securely executed based on a predefined schedule or a manual trigger. This is because access is managed using role-based access control, which ensures that only authorized operations or SREs are able to define, view and execute the fleet plans.
VMblog: Why is it essential for organizations to look for an automated fleet operations solution now?
Atreya: Today, platform and operations teams struggle with limited availability of automation to manage multi-cluster Kubernetes environments, forcing them to build custom tooling or follow a large number of tedious, manual steps. This slows productivity and introduces a plethora of security issues that hinder reliability.
Organizations need to be able to effectively manage large cluster environments with ease, or else they risk decreasing productivity and reliability of applications running on top of Kubernetes. A properly implemented automated fleet operations solution reduces complexities by standardizing and automating workflows for multi-cluster management. By leveraging Automated Fleet Operations, organizations can achieve operational efficiency, scalability and reliability for their fleet operations.
VMblog: What sets Rafay apart from other offerings in the Kubernetes management industry?
Atreya: Rafay’s next-gen Kubernetes automation platform is the only product purpose-built for platform teams that addresses the complexity of Kubernetes. The platform delivers the self-service workflows that developers and operations want with the right level of standardization, control and governance the company needs.
We designed Rafay KOP to integrate seamlessly with any Kubernetes distribution including managed Kubernetes services from Amazon (EKS), Microsoft (AKS) and Google (GKE). By adding self-service, automation and governance capabilities to these Kubernetes offerings, Rafay makes these platforms operationally ready for consumption by enterprises at scale.
Unlike first-gen DIY approaches to Kubernetes that force customers to face steep learning curves, lengthy build time, hiring challenges and support costs that stymie innovation, we provide customers with a cloud-based extension of their infrastructure and a ready-built product, available 24/7 to help platform teams run Kubernetes.
VMblog: What’s next for Rafay?
Atreya: Rafay is continually observing the Kubernetes landscape to identify pain points that platform and operations teams face when managing and operating Kubernetes. This problem set extends beyond Kubernetes to other areas of infrastructure and operations such as cloud environments. Simultaneously, we work to align with business demands as technology continues to evolve—especially now in the era of AI. Make sure to stay tuned for updates in the near future!
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