Anthos on Bare Metal: How to Manage a Private Cluster From the Cloud

The millions of devices that currently make up the Internet of Things (IoT) reside not in the cloud but on-premises: from retail stores to factory floors. Many of these devices are tiny edge leaf devices like cameras (IP cameras, USB cameras etc.), sensors (smart heat sensors on equipment etc.). It has become increasingly difficult and impractical for developers to write bespoke solutions to detect and use each of the devices and the core DevOps/deployment teams to manage the applications and clusters which host these applications that are positioned in far edge sites (close to end-users).

Most of these devices, however, are too small to run Kubernetes themselves. How can they be leveraged by a Kubernetes workload and how can a private cluster be managed from the cloud?

Anthos clusters on VMware also called GKE on-prem was an offering that enabled users to run GKE in customer datacenters but this model needs vCenter Server and VSphere, but Anthos on bare metal uses a “bring your own operating system” model. It runs atop physical or virtual instances, and supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1/8.2, CentOS 8.1/8.2, or Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 LTS.

#kubernetes

What is GEEK

Buddha Community

Multi-cloud Spending: 8 Tips To Lower Cost

A multi-cloud approach is nothing but leveraging two or more cloud platforms for meeting the various business requirements of an enterprise. The multi-cloud IT environment incorporates different clouds from multiple vendors and negates the dependence on a single public cloud service provider. Thus enterprises can choose specific services from multiple public clouds and reap the benefits of each.

Given its affordability and agility, most enterprises opt for a multi-cloud approach in cloud computing now. A 2018 survey on the public cloud services market points out that 81% of the respondents use services from two or more providers. Subsequently, the cloud computing services market has reported incredible growth in recent times. The worldwide public cloud services market is all set to reach $500 billion in the next four years, according to IDC.

By choosing multi-cloud solutions strategically, enterprises can optimize the benefits of cloud computing and aim for some key competitive advantages. They can avoid the lengthy and cumbersome processes involved in buying, installing and testing high-priced systems. The IaaS and PaaS solutions have become a windfall for the enterprise’s budget as it does not incur huge up-front capital expenditure.

However, cost optimization is still a challenge while facilitating a multi-cloud environment and a large number of enterprises end up overpaying with or without realizing it. The below-mentioned tips would help you ensure the money is spent wisely on cloud computing services.

• Deactivate underused or unattached resources

Most organizations tend to get wrong with simple things which turn out to be the root cause for needless spending and resource wastage. The first step to cost optimization in your cloud strategy is to identify underutilized resources that you have been paying for.

Enterprises often continue to pay for resources that have been purchased earlier but are no longer useful. Identifying such unused and unattached resources and deactivating it on a regular basis brings you one step closer to cost optimization. If needed, you can deploy automated cloud management tools that are largely helpful in providing the analytics needed to optimize the cloud spending and cut costs on an ongoing basis.

• Figure out idle instances

Another key cost optimization strategy is to identify the idle computing instances and consolidate them into fewer instances. An idle computing instance may require a CPU utilization level of 1-5%, but you may be billed by the service provider for 100% for the same instance.

Every enterprise will have such non-production instances that constitute unnecessary storage space and lead to overpaying. Re-evaluating your resource allocations regularly and removing unnecessary storage may help you save money significantly. Resource allocation is not only a matter of CPU and memory but also it is linked to the storage, network, and various other factors.

• Deploy monitoring mechanisms

The key to efficient cost reduction in cloud computing technology lies in proactive monitoring. A comprehensive view of the cloud usage helps enterprises to monitor and minimize unnecessary spending. You can make use of various mechanisms for monitoring computing demand.

For instance, you can use a heatmap to understand the highs and lows in computing visually. This heat map indicates the start and stop times which in turn lead to reduced costs. You can also deploy automated tools that help organizations to schedule instances to start and stop. By following a heatmap, you can understand whether it is safe to shut down servers on holidays or weekends.

#cloud computing services #all #hybrid cloud #cloud #multi-cloud strategy #cloud spend #multi-cloud spending #multi cloud adoption #why multi cloud #multi cloud trends #multi cloud companies #multi cloud research #multi cloud market

What are the benefits of cloud migration? Reasons you should migrate

The moving of applications, databases and other business elements from the local server to the cloud server called cloud migration. This article will deal with migration techniques, requirement and the benefits of cloud migration.

In simple terms, moving from local to the public cloud server is called cloud migration. Gartner says 17.5% revenue growth as promised in cloud migration and also has a forecast for 2022 as shown in the following image.

#cloud computing services #cloud migration #all #cloud #cloud migration strategy #enterprise cloud migration strategy #business benefits of cloud migration #key benefits of cloud migration #benefits of cloud migration #types of cloud migration

Curious about Google Cloud Bare Metal Solution? Start here

So you’ve decided to migrate your business to the cloud—good call!

There are many workloads that are easy to lift and shift to the cloud, but there are also specialized workloads (such as Oracle) that are difficult to migrate to a cloud environment due to complicated licensing, hardware, and support requirements. Bare Metal Solution provides a path to modernize these applications.

You first lift and shift these workloads to Bare Metal Solution so you can exit your data center and stop managing hardware; then you will be in a great position to modernize your application with Google Cloud. Bare Metal Solution enables an easier and a faster migration path while maintaining your existing investments and architecture.

(Click to enlarge the Bare Metal Solution migration cheat sheet)

#google cloud platform #cloud migration #cloud #google cloud bare metal

MLB and hybrid cloud: How they’re running Anthos on bare metal and at the edge

Whether it’s calculating batting averages or hot dog sales, data is at the heart of baseball. For Major League Baseball (MLB), the governing body of the sport known as America’s National Pastime, processing, analyzing, and ultimately making decisions based on that data is key to running a successful organization, and they’ve increasingly turned to Google Cloud to help them do it.

MLB supports 30 teams spread across the US and Canada, running workloads in the cloud as well as at the edge with on-premises data centers at each of their ballparks. By using Anthos, they can containerize those workloads and run them in the location that makes the most sense for the application. We sat down with Kris Amy, VP of Technology Infrastructure at Major League Baseball, to learn more.

Eyal Manor: Can you tell us a little bit about MLB and why you chose Google Cloud?

Kris Amy: Major League Baseball is America’s pastime. We have millions of fans around the world, and we process and analyze extreme amounts of data. We know Google Cloud has tremendous expertise in containerization, AI and big data. Anthos enables us to take advantage of that expertise whether we’re running in Google Cloud, or running on-prem in our stadiums.

#google cloud platform #customers #hybrid cloud #anthos #cloud

Infrastructure as Code with Terraform on Bare Metal Cloud

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) simplifies the process of managing virtualized cloud resources. With the introduction of cloud-native dedicated servers, it is now possible to deploy physical machines with the same level of flexibility.

phoenixNAP’s cloud-native dedicated server platform Bare Metal Cloud (BMC), was designed with IaC compatibility in mind. BMC is fully integrated with HashiCorp Terraform, one of the most widely used IaC tools in DevOps. This integration allows users to leverage a custom-built Terraform provider to deploy BMC servers in minutes with just a couple lines of code.

Why Infrastructure as Code?

Infrastructure as Code is a method of automating the process of deploying and managing cloud resources through human-readable configuration files. It plays a pivotal role in DevOps, where speed and agility are of the essence.

Before IaC, sys admins deployed everything by hand. Every server, database, load balancer, or network had to be configured manually. Teams now utilize various IaC engines to spin up or tear down hundreds of servers across multiple providers in minutes.

While there are many powerful IaC tools on the market, Terraform stands out as one of the most prominent players in the IaC field.

#cloud computing #cloud #terraform #bare metal cloud