Kubernetes Goes Native for Developers
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Among the leading “cloud-native” technologies is the Kubernetes container scheduler. Red Hat said this week it has gone a step further down the cloud-native path with the release of a “Kubernetes-native” development environment designed to make collaboration easier for cloud application developers.
Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) said its Kubernetes-native, browser-based development environment dubbed CodeReady Workspaces would allow enterprise development teams to share tools and dependencies needed to build, test and run container-based applications. The environment is optimized for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift, the company said Tuesday (Feb. 5).
The development platform seeks to address the use of application containers for production workloads that are scheduled using the de facto standard Kubernetes cluster orchestrator. “Traditional tools have not been built with Kubernetes and containers, which forces development teams to manually manage the environment, taking them away from writing code,” the company said.
The workspace runs a Kubernetes cluster where code and dependencies are managed inside OpenShift containers. Developers have generally used Kubernetes only for testing and deployment. Red Hat touts its platform as bringing developers into the OpenShift loop from the start. That capability, the company adds, allows developers to address issues confronted when moving applications from development platforms to production systems.
The upshot is that developers can push out container applications faster on OpenShift while management of Kubernetes software artifacts is handled in the background.
Another feature included with the development package is a “Factories” template containing source code location, runtime along with tooling configurations and commands for a project.
The Kubernetes-native development environment is based on Red Hat’s work with the Eclipse Che community forging an open source workspace server and cloud development environment. “The rise of cloud-native applications and Kubernetes as the platform for modern workloads requires a change in how developers approach building, testing and deploying their critical applications,” said Brad Micklea, Red Hat’s senior director for developer experience and programs.
The Red Hat distribution serves as “a scalable platform that can enable developers to more efficiently and effectively deliver new applications for Kubernetes and collaborate on container-native applications,” Micklea added.
The introduction of a Kubernetes-native development tool arrives as industry surveys note the rise of new cloud-native tools that have accelerated software release cycles. A key reason is Kubernetes. According to a survey released last August by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), 40 percent of enterprises it polled are using Kubernetes in production.
Nearly half of the respondents in the CNCF survey were software developers who are making greater use of automation tools for tasks such as continuous development/continuous delivery.
Red Hat said its CodeReady tool is available now for free with an OpenShift subscription. It can be downloaded by joining the Red Hat Developer Program.
