Platform9 Unifies Virtual Machine and Docker Container Management

Five Ways Cloud Changes Will Impact You

With containers such as Docker on Linux platforms starting to gain some momentum as an alternative to virtual machines, managing containers and virtual machines under a common framework is likely to become more important to the enterprise IT organization.

With that issue in mind, Platform9 has launched a service in the cloud platform through which IT organizations can manage VMware vSphere and Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) environments alongside Docker containers.

The new platform doesn’t require IT organizations to set up dedicated management consoles for every type of virtual machine and container. Instead, Platform9 CEO Sirish Raghuram says the cloud service takes advantage of a management framework based on OpenStack and locally installed agent software to give IT organizations a single management framework in the cloud with which to manage them all.

As a company founded by veterans of VMware, Platform9 is backed by $4.5 million of initial funding. Raghuram says that while VMware is currently the dominant virtual machine platform in the enterprise, it’s clear that other types of virtual machines are starting to gain traction alongside alternative approaches such as containers. OpenStack provides a framework for managing all that diversity. But as Raghuram notes, OpenStack is a challenge for the average IT organization to configure and manage. Put those two trends together and Raghuram says it becomes clear that the time has come to push IT management into the cloud.

Raghuram says IT administrators can import their existing servers and workloads to the new management platform within minutes because Platform9 is highly automated. Upgrades to those workloads, adds Raghuram, are as simple as clicking a button.

As the number of virtual machines and containers in an IT environment continues to scale, it is obvious that some new approaches to managing IT at scale in the age of the cloud will be required. As veterans of VMware, the folks at Platform9 clearly see that virtual machine management is evolving, and so is the location where the management platform actually needs to reside.