Mirantis launches its new OpenStack and Kubernetes cloud platform

Mirantis, one of the earliest players in the OpenStack ecosystem, today announced that it will end-of-life Mirantis OpenStack support in September 2019. The Mirantis Cloud Platform, which combines OpenStack with the Kubernetes container platform (or which could even be used to run Kubernetes separately), is going to take its place.

While Mirantis is obviously not getting out of the OpenStack game, this move clearly shows that there is a growing interest in the Kubernetes container platform and that Mirantis’ customers are now starting to look at this as a way to modernize their software deployment strategies without going to OpenStack. The new platform allows users to deploy multiple Kubernetes clusters side-by-side with OpenStack — or separately.

The company is also changing how it delivers its new platform. The company will operate its customers Mirantis Cloud Platform deployments for them for at least six months and then hand it over to the customers’ ops team. “The delivery model ensures that not just the software, but also the customer’s team and process are aligned with DevOps best practices,” the company argues in its announcement today. Updates, too, will come at a regular pace and faster and more painlessly than customers were previously accustomed to with its OpenStack solution.

When I asked Mirantis co-founder and CMO Boris Renski, who isn’t known for holding back on his opinions, about the OpenStack vs. Kubernetes discussion, he noted that “it’s important to distinguish between popularity and value. Popular kids in high school aren’t always the ones that end up driving a Ferrari when adults. It’s true that OpenStack is no longer the popular kid; Kubernetes is — and customers often like to go with what’s popular.”

He added that Mirantis is seeing more customers who are looking to sidestep OpenStack with Kubernetes (which is similar to what Canonical’s Dustin Kirkland told me earlier this month, too). “Also, when OpenStack was ‘the thing,’ we saw customers trying to sidestep everything in the data center with OpenStack — and failing,” Renski added. “The key is to use the right tool for the job: Kubernetes today is good for containers; OpenStack – for VMs. Maybe tomorrow AWS will open source Lambda and will see that sidestepping Kubernetes and containers.”