CoreOS launches Tectonic 1.7.1 with support for Microsoft Azure cloud

• By Rob Szumski

Today, CoreOS is proud to announce Tectonic 1.7.1, the latest version of our enterprise-ready Kubernetes platform, now with support for the Microsoft Azure cloud. We've been hard at work ensuring Tectonic customers gain the most reliable, secure, and easy way to deploy and manage Kubernetes, both on-premises and in whatever cloud configurations they desire. And today we are announcing that we’ve enhanced automated operations to enable customers running Tectonic 1.6.7 to upgrade to the new version with just a single click.

Kubernetes 1.7 shipped in June, delivering powerful new features. With Tectonic, we deliver the latest version of pure, upstream open source Kubernetes, and our active role in the Kubernetes development community has enabled us to once again ship our latest version soon after the community release.

In addition to the Kubernetes 1.7 core, Tectonic 1.7.1 offers a host of new capabilities to support the hybrid and multi-cloud scenarios that enterprises demand. We've been working alongside our partners and the open source community to deliver broader platform support than ever before, complete with the automated operations capabilities that customers have come to expect from cloud vendors but without the hazards of vendor lock-in.

Key, Tectonic-specific features we're delivering with this release include:

Stable support for the Microsoft Azure cloud

One-click updates from Tectonic 1.6.7 to Tectonic 1.7.1, built on pure, upstream Kubernetes 1.7

Pre-configured monitoring alerts from Prometheus

Alpha support for network policies powered by Calico

Empowering efficiency in a multi-cloud world

Today, virtually every enterprise has some type of cloud strategy, yet few are willing to bet the farm on a single cloud provider. They want the flexibility of being able to move workloads between cloud vendors, as well as into and out of their own data centers. By doing so, they can both ensure availability and reliability and help control cloud costs.

In fact, according to a recent survey from cloud management vendor RightScale, fully 85 percent of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy today, with 58 percent of respondents saying they planned to use a hybrid mix of public and private clouds.

That's why we're thrilled to announce that Tectonic 1.7.1 now ships with stable support for running Tectonic on the Microsoft Azure cloud, in addition to our existing support for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and bare metal servers. We've been working closely with Microsoft to deliver Tectonic on Azure, which allows customers to securely and efficiently deploy Kubernetes workloads on what has rapidly emerged as one of the leading public clouds. Tectonic provides a reliable and secure platform that is consistent across cloud providers and on-premise environments—bringing a single, governed interface and set of APIs to every team across any environment.

“We want to make Microsoft Azure the most open and flexible cloud for enterprises and ISVs to build and manage the applications their customers need,” said Gabriel Monroy, lead product manager, containers, Azure, Microsoft Corp. “Tectonic on Azure is an exciting advancement, enabling customers to use CoreOS’ enterprise-ready container management platform to easily manage and scale workloads to build and manage these applications on Azure.”

Automated operations and more

One of the most powerful features of Tectonic is that while it frees you from being bound to a single platform vendor, it also offers the automated operations customers have come to expect from cloud providers. By automating key maintenance functions, Tectonic creates data center efficiencies that free IT staff to concentrate on delivering value to the business.

For this release, we're announcing that customers can deploy fully automatic, one-click upgrades of existing Tectonic 1.6.7 clusters to Tectonic 1.7.1 with no downtime. It's now easier than ever to stay up-to-date with the latest upstream Kubernetes code, as well as the newest unique Tectonic features, even when upgrading across minor versions. As usual, however, we only support upgrades for Tectonic clusters deployed using an official installer release downloaded from our website.

The CoreOS Tectonic console shows the cluster is ready to update to 1.7.1

Monitoring is consistently one of the most-requested features among Kubernetes users. We're listening, and in Tectonic 1.7.1 we've added pre-configured monitoring alerts via Prometheus. This is a feature that's available to all Tectonic users: all you need to do is specify how you want to be notified via services like PagerDuty, email, or more.

We've also included alpha support for Kubernetes network policies powered by Calico, which provides better security and control of inbound traffic to pods on Tectonic clusters. Expect more news on this in future Tectonic releases, as well as other upcoming features designed to make Tectonic the only Kubernetes platform to provide truly automated operations, without the risk of cloud lock-in.

Try Tectonic 1.7.1 for free today

There's never been a better time to try out Tectonic. You can get started with a cluster of up to 10 nodes for free, making it easy to investigate how containerized infrastructure powered by enterprise-ready Kubernetes can benefit your organization. Check out our library of hands-on tutorials for help getting set up.

And, as mentioned earlier, users running Tectonic 1.6.7-tectonic.2 with Operators enabled can benefit from one-click automated upgrades to Tectonic 1.7.1 beginning today. See the release notes for specific instructions on how to upgrade from various versions of Tectonic.

If you'd like to see the new features of Tectonic 1.7.1 for yourself, CoreOS offers an on-demand webinar to give you a guided tour. Sign up here and see Tectonic in action today.