GKE Autopilot and its new partner solutions

May 13

GKE Autopilot and its new partner solutions

Google Kubernetes Engine continues to be the leading contributor to the Kubernetes project by simplifying and automating container orchestration. Initially, GKE took care of control panel upgrades, worker node creation, OS patching, node upgrades, and control panel provisioning and management. This meant that it was your responsibility to manage the network settings and configure node pools. This is extra work for you, especially since your priority is running your applications and services on GKE and not configuring and monitoring the platform they run on.

In February 2021, Google Cloud added an Autopilot operation mode to the Standard operation mode in GKE. GKE autopilot makes it possible to securely run applications on GKE while optimally utilizing its resources without having to proactively manage the clusters. It relieves you from the responsibility of node configuration and management. With GKE autopilot, everything is provisioned. All you need to do is name the cluster, pick a region, set the network, and deploy your workload with Kubernetes.

Google is committed to building partnerships with leading ISVs to enhance the capabilities of the GKE autopilot in CI/CD, observability, security, and configuration management. As a result, a partnership with the following solutions was announced in December 2021.

Aqua

Aqua protects cloud-native workloads on GKE autopilot. Container applications are still vulnerable to external attacks such as crypto mining and supply chain attacks. Aqua helps to secure applications on Kubernetes pods on GKE autopilot and also ensures compliance for the full life cycle of these workloads.

CircleCI

CircleCI simplifies application development and deployment on GKE autopilot. It packages configuration elements (executors, commands, etc.) into bundles that can be reused to support deployment in this platform.

Codefresh

To monitor any cluster and Git repositories for changes, Codefresh’s GitOps controller is installed. It also allows you to deploy any type of application on the GitOps cluster.

Chronosphere

GKE autopilot works together with Chronosphere’s collector function to limit the time engineers spend on monitoring instrumentation. This combination provides actionable alerts a lot faster which engineers can work on.

Datadog

Datadog allows you to have a high-level view of your containerized applications running on GKE autopilot. It provides comprehensive visibility by collecting logs, traces, and metrics, allowing you to bring problems to the surface a lot easier.

Dynatrace

Dynatrace delivers intelligent automatic observability, similar to Datadog, but puts a lot of focus on the availability, health, and utilization of your application.

Gitlab

Gitlab, now installable on GKE autopilot, can be configured to meet customer use cases and access other Google Cloud resources.

Hashicorp

For multi-regionality of your application, you can use Hashicorp Terraform to provision a GKE autopilot cluster across multiple zones. With this, applications have a unified workflow and full life cycle management. Hashicorp Vault on the other hand provides secure storage for GKE autopilot while running on it.

Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks has been working with Google cloud for a while now. It has facilitated the development of Cloud IDS, and now its Prisma Cloud Daemonset Defenders enforce your policies in your environment. Similar to DataDog and Dynatrace, Palo Alto’s Prisma Cloud Radar displays comprehensive visibility of your GKE autopilot nodes.