Nexenta catches micro-services bug, slings its Edge into containers

Nexenta is supporting containerised servers by having its NexentaEdge product nodes run as microservices along with application microservices on any scale-out Linux server cluster.

NexentaEdge is scale-out block and object storage. Containers are a more efficient form of server virtualisation, having thinner "wrappers" than virtual machines, as guest operating system features are shared instead of being present in every container. This enables more of a server's memory and CPU resources to be devoted to running application code than internal infrastructure code.

Containers can be stateless, needing little or no persistent storage, or stateful, in which case they use persistent storage such as that which NexentaEdge supplies.

Nexenta believes that the "simplicity and efficiency of microservices and container-based architecture have established them as the de facto standard for developers building cloud applications at scale." It is working with partners to help customers deploy cloud-native applications, whether they require persistent storage or not.

By running NexentaEdge microservices, containerised apps get access to its block and object storage services, inline deduplication and compression, unlimited snapshots, clones, etc. Also there is "low latency data access between application microservices and NexentaEdge storage microservices running concurrently on the same server infrastructure, eliminating the overhead associated with traditional iSCSI block access methods."

Container mobility across a cluster is helped by using "NexentaEdge's scale-out architecture for any time, any server access to any container image or any application back-end data."

Kubernetes can be used to manage NexentaEdge microservices, and these microservices will be compatible with Canonical's Juju, Charms, and LXD.

ClusterHQ Flocker volume plug-ins for NexentaEdge and NexentaStor will be built to support customers who prefer to keep compute and storage running on separate physical infrastructure.

Nexenta is joining the Open Container Initiative (OCI) and Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). It will be in good company, as other members include: Apcera, AT&T, AWS, Cisco, ClusterHQ, CoreOS, Datera, Docker, EMC, Fujitsu, Google, Goldman Sachs, HP, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Joyent, Kismatic, Kyup, the Linux Foundation, Mesosphere, Microsoft, Midokura, Nutanix, Oracle, Pivotal, Polyverse, Rancher, Red Hat, Resin.io, Suse, Sysdig, Twitter, Verizon, and VMware.

Storage suppliers have to provide data access to applications in servers, and if these apps are containerised then, intuitively, it's best if the storage access app in the server is containerised too. ®