DEVOPSdigest

Section announced its new patent-pending Kubernetes Edge Interface (KEI), allowing organizations to deploy application workloads across a distributed edge as though it were a single cluster.

KEI lets development teams already building Kubernetes applications continue using familiar tools and workflows, such as kubectl or Helm, yet deploy their application to a superior multi-cloud, multi-region and multi-provider network. Teams interact with deployed applications as though running on a single cluster, while Section’s patented Adaptive Edge Engine (AEE) employs policy-driven controls to automatically tune, shape and optimize application workloads in the background across Section’s Composable Edge Cloud.

"Edge deployment is simply better than centralized data centers or single clouds in most every important metric – performance, scale, efficiency, resilience, usability, etc.," said Stewart McGrath, Section’s CEO. "Yet organizations historically put off edge adoption because it’s been complicated. With Section’s KEI, teams don’t have to change tools or workflows; the distributed edge effectively becomes a cluster of Kubernetes clusters and our AEE automation and Composable Edge Cloud handles the rest."

The Kubernetes API is the most popular method for developers to orchestrate and control containers. Section’s KEI extends the Kubernetes API to connect and implement important Kubernetes resources within the Section Edge Platform, letting developers move existing applications to the edge with ease. KEI leverages familiar tooling and workflows for both deployment and management, making it the simplest way to distribute containers to multiple locations (multi-cluster/multi-provider/multi-region). Moreover, edge presence requirements specified via KEI are translated into policy-driven controls for the Composable Edge Cloud via Section’s Adaptive Edge Engine. AEE will take a simple application workload policy such as run containers where there are at least 20 HTTP requests per second and continuously find and execute the optimal edge orchestration accordingly.

While KEI dramatically simplifies edge deployment and management, it provides powerful control so developers can:

- Configure service discovery, routing users to the best container instance

- Define complex applications, such as composite applications that consist of multiple containers

- Define system resource allocations

- Define scaling factors, such as the number of containers per location, and what signals should be used to scale in and out

- Enforce compliance requirements such as geographic boundaries or other network properties

- Maintain application code, configuration and deployment manifests in an organization’s own code management systems and image registries

- Control how the Adaptive Edge Engine schedules containers, performs health management, and routes traffic

The Section Edge Platform, the company’s Edge as a Service offering, allows organizations to easily deploy, scale and protect containers at the edge, so they can focus more on perfecting their applications and less on managing networks. In addition to KEI and AEE, Section offers a Composable Edge Cloud consisting of a federation of multiple compute providers (including AWS, Azure, GCP, Digital Ocean, Lumen, Equinix, RackCorp and even custom cloud infrastructure) to deliver reliability, scalability and edge reach.