DEVOPSdigest

MacStadium announced the launch of Orka Engine, the latest addition to its Orka product line.

Orka Engine allows mobile app developers, DevOps professionals, QA testing teams, and IT Admins to build custom macOS virtual environments with control, flexibility, and efficiency powered by Mac resources in their own data center or a cloud environment.

Organizations with strict security and compliance are often required to keep their mobile app development or IT testing infrastructure within their own data centers. With Orka Engine, these teams now have access to cutting-edge macOS virtualization to power their CI pipelines and automate the regular spin-up and teardown of various testing environments.

"We understand the critical importance of data security, especially for organizations with stringent compliance requirements,” said Ken Tacelli, MacStadium’s CEO. “Orka Engine allows these organizations to build a modern DevOps pipeline on-premises using our industry-leading macOS virtualization.”

Orka Engine also addresses critical demands within the growing mobile app development market, where organizations increasingly require customizable macOS virtualization to power iOS (and other Apple OS) app development workflows.

Key Features of Orka Engine:

- Flexible Deployment: Orka Engine offers a commercially supported, on-premises option for organizations that require complete control over their macOS infrastructure. Orka Engine can also be deployed on MacStadium bare metal and will be available in AWS in the coming weeks.

- Granular Automation: Orka Engine allows teams to script and integrate their Mac infrastructure, providing complete control over VM deployment and management throughout their pipelines or toolchains. With Orka Engine, organizations can automate virtual machine configuration, deployment and image-sharing, all from a single, powerful CLI.

- Fast and Consistent Startup Time: Orka Engine creates reliably fast VMs that you can automate across a group of Apple silicon nodes, decreasing overall execution times and eliminating resource bottlenecks.

- Shareable VMs: Orka Engine uses compressed, OCI-compliant images to launch VMs when and where you need them. These images are easy to share through a public or private registry, improving team collaboration.

“With Orka Engine, teams can optimize their Mac resource utilization and maximize efficiency using a simple CLI,” said Chris Chapman, MacStadium’s CTO. “By virtualizing Apple silicon macs, teams can dynamically allocate resources where they’re needed most. This eliminates the risk of resource queuing and caching during release cycles and ensures that more builds are completed on time, every time.”

The solution complements MacStadium’s broader Orka product lineup.

- Orka Desktop – free, local macOS virtualization

- Orka Engine – automatable macOS virtualization across a group of Apple silicon nodes

- Orka Cluster – plug and play macOS virtualization and orchestration solution for enterprise CI/CD workflows

Orka Engine is now available for purchase through MacStadium’s sales team, and availability on AWS Marketplace is coming soon.