Run your containers and VMs using VMware vSphere, vVols, Tanzu, and HPE Alletra dHCI

[StorageExperts]

Some applications run in a hybrid environment where VMs and containers coexist. HPE Alletra dHCI and Tanzu enable you to straddle the world of containers and VMs. Learn how.

– By Parissa Mohamadi, Product Manager for Storage Data Protection Solutions, HPE

Containers adoption is rising so fast that according to Gartner, 90% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production by 2026. That’s up from 40% in 2021.¹ And 20% of all enterprise applications will run in containers by 2026. That’s up from fewer than 10% in 2020. Most expect their number of Kubernetes clusters to increase more than 50% in the coming year.²

The reason for this massive adoption is obvious: So you can build distributed resilient apps quickly and use resources more efficiently so that you end up with super optimized automation workflows and processes to rapidly build, test, and run apps with minimal manual intervention. The magic of containers is that you can balance needs of software developers to clone apps quickly with instant access to infrastructure while also modernizing apps at scale without additional IT staffing. In fact, in three years, a wholesale shift to containers will occur, where 80% of workloads will shift to or be created with containers and microservices, lowering per-app infrastructure needs by 60% while improving digital service resiliency by 70%.³

But here’s the catch: Most organizations can’t migrate to a 100% container environment quickly. This means that some apps run in a hybrid environment where VMs and containers live together. For example, you may continue virtualizing a database either because it can’t run in a container, or it just costs too much to migrate. But, it can be accessed by a containerized app. In general, organizations want Kubernetes solutions to be simpler (51%), provide the capabilities they need (45%), and work in hybrid cloud environments (41%).⁴ This is where disaggregated HCI (dHCI) comes into play, helping you manage a hybrid environment and simplify infrastructure – and also provide six-nines availability, faster performance, and a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

How do HPE and VMware straddle the hybrid world of containers and virtual machines?

Let’s take a closer look at the two IT shifts occurring. One is a shift to IT generalists who want VM-centric data services from policy-driven and self-service storage so they can enable a hybrid cloud. A second shift to self-service is resulting in DevOps-centric provisioning which then requires advanced data services from the underlying storage.

How can these two shifts be accommodated?

Very easily – by pairing HPE Alletra dHCI with Tanzu, you can deploy containers while reaping the benefits of extensive HPE and vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA) integrations with HPE Alletra. To start with, HPE Alletra dHCI, a purpose-built, optimized stack for VMware® virtualized solutions that uses the HPE Alletra 5000 and 6000 series delivers policy-driven storage to traditional workloads through VMware vSphere® vVols (and optionally through VMFS). VMware vVols is the optimal vSphere storage option for this solution since it is VM granular, policy managed. Then VMware Tanzu paves the way to run both containerized workloads and traditional workloads on the same platform with Tanzu as the single consolidated management plane.

Why is this important?

Because it means you can now build Kubernetes-based apps based on your existing network and shared storage infrastructure. If you’re a VMware vSphere admin, you can leverage existing infrastructure and VMware tools to deliver Kubernetes namespaces for your development teams in just a few hours. If you’re a developer, you can use an upstream-compliant Kubernetes infrastructure. What’s more, both teams can use existing tools to collaborate and align to support modern apps. And that’s very good news!

Ready to learn more?

Watch the video: HPE Alletra dHCI and VMware Tanzu

• Read the implementation guide providing examples, tips, best practices, and other configuration details for this solution.
• Gain insights from The State of Kubernetes 2022 report on the operational challenges that many organizations are looking to solve.
• Listen to this webcast on how to protect Kubernetes environments with HPE + Kasten by Veeam

And check out the following websites: 

• HPE Alletra dHCI
• HPE Storage Container Orchestrator documentation
• Storage for Server Virtualization HPE and VMware Alliance

¹ Source: CTOs’ Guide to Containers and Kubernetes / Answering the Top 10 FAQs, May 2022, Gartner

^{2 3 4} Source: The State of Kubernetes 2022 report, VMware

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Meet Storage Experts blogger Parissa Mohamadi, Product Manager for Storage Data Protection Solutions, HPE

Parissa leads sales enablement and go-to-market efforts for HPE storage data protection solutions for key workloads such as SAP, Oracle, SQL Server, and VMware as well as for backup/recovery software such as Veeam and Commvault. She also leads solutions for containers and big data analytics. Connect with Parissa on LinkedIn.

Storage Experts
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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