Introducing Rancher on NetApp HCI: Hybrid Cloud Multicluster Kubernetes Management with Push-Button Ease

If you’re like me and have been watching the odd purchasing trends due to the pandemic, you probably remember when all the hair clippers were sold out — and then flour and yeast. Most recently, you might have seen this headline: Tupperware profits and shares soar as more people are eating at home during the pandemic. Tupperware is finally having its day. But a Tupperware stacking strategy is probably not why you’re here. Don’t worry, this isn’t your grandma’s container strategy — no Tupperware stacking required. You’re probably here because, like most organizations today, you need to be able to quickly release and update applications when and where you want to.

Today we’re excited to announce a partnership between NetApp and Rancher to bring multicluster Kubernetes management on premises with NetApp® HCI. Now you can deploy Rancher with push-button ease from NetApp HCI’s management plane, the NetApp Hybrid Cloud Control manageability suite.

Why NetApp + Rancher?

It’s no secret that Kubernetes in the enterprise is becoming more mainstream. If your organization hasn’t already moved toward containers, it will soon. But this shift isn’t without growing pains.

IT faces challenges with multiple team-specific Kubernetes deployments, decentralized governance, and lack of consistency among inherited Kubernetes clusters.Now, with Kubernetes adoption on the upswing, IT is expected to do the deployments, which can be time consuming for teams that are unfamiliar with Kubernetes. IT teams are managing their stakeholders’ different technology stack preferences and requirements while focusing on scalability and stability in production.

On the other hand, DevOps teams want the latest modern development tooling. They need to maintain control and flexibility over their clusters on infrastructure that is on demand and hassle free. These teams are all over continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) and DevOps automation. Their primary concerns are around agility and time to value.

The partnership between NetApp and Rancher addresses the challenges of both IT and the DevOps teams that they support. NetApp HCI delivers solid performance at scale for production environments. Rancher delivers modern cloud-native tooling for DevOps. Together, they create the easiest way for IT to get going with Kubernetes, enabling centralized management of multiple clusters, both new and existing. The combination of the two technologies delivers a true hybrid cloud Kubernetes orchestration layer on a modern DevOps cloud-native platform.

How We Integrated Rancher into NetApp HCI

We integrated Rancher directly into the NetApp HCI UI for a seamless experience. On top of NetApp HCI’s highly scalable, private cloud technology , the management plane where you can go to add a node or upgrade your firmware. We’ve added a button to deploy Rancher directly from Hybrid Cloud Control.

With push-button ease, you’ll have the Rancher management cluster running on VMware (NetAp HCI is a VMware-based appliance). Your hybrid cloud and multicloud Kubernetes management plane is ready to go.

Rancher, as open source, is free to deploy and use, but Rancher enterprise support is available if you need it. Try out Rancher on NetApp HCI at no additional cost; think of it as an indefinite trial period. If you want support later, you can purchase it from NetApp. NetApp provides joint support with Rancher, so you can file support tickets for Rancher directly with NetApp.

A Win-Win for IT Operations and DevOps

With Rancher on NetApp HCI, both IT operations and DevOps teams benefit. Your IT operations teams can centrally provision Kubernetes services while maintaining control and visibility of all clusters, resources, and security. The provisioned services can then be used by your DevOps teams to efficiently build, deploy, and manage full-featured containerized applications. In the end, IT gets what it needs, DevOps gets what it needs, and your organization attains the key benefits of a successful Kubernetes strategy.

Learn More

For more information about NetApp HCI and Rancher, visit Simplify multicluster Kubernetes management with Rancher on NetApp HCI.