Table of Contents
- Summary
- Kubernetes Data Protection Primer
- Report Methodology
- Decision Criteria Analysis
- Evaluation Metrics
- Key Criteria: Impact Analysis
- Analyst’s Take
- Methodology
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Summary
Enterprise IT organizations are embracing new DevOps methodologies and promoting the development of applications organized as microservices. It has led to the adoption of containers and the use of Kubernetes to deploy and manage these applications.
These organizations moved from development to deployment, and then to day-2 operations, quickly discovering some critical limitations around data storage and data protection for container-based applications. In fact, in the beginning, container and Kubernetes enthusiasts underestimated the importance of persistent and reliable data storage. Though the problem was recognized a while ago, the development of solutions capable of properly addressing data storage and data protection for Kubernetes took some time. In some cases, solutions are still immature. Moreover, traditional data protection methods have been inefficient and ineffective. Luckily, a new generation of solutions is finally kicking in.
We covered data storage for Kubernetes in a recent report (“GigaOm Radar for Data Storage for Kubernetes”). But to get a full picture and build enterprise-grade, business-critical infrastructures and services, it is necessary to look at all aspects of data management, including backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and security. Kubernetes is still immature in some respects, even as users are becoming more aware, demanding a comprehensive data management strategy that can cope with large organizations’ business, operational, security, and compliance requirements, such as those shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Cloud-Native Data Storage and Protection for Kubernetes Converge in Data Management Solutions
With this in mind, cloud-native solutions focused on data storage or data protection integrate or evolve to become data management solutions. Most of these solutions already abstract the storage access and protection layers from physical resources. They offer advanced data services beyond the basic aspects of data storage or backup and recovery and provide a consistent user experience across multiple cloud platforms.
Traditional backup platforms are starting to offer solutions for Kubernetes as well. Their main advantage comes from the fact that they are already protecting the rest of the infrastructure. However, they lack the efficiency and data services usually required by complex Kubernetes environments and applications. Furthermore, most of these solutions were designed to work on-premises rather than in multi-cloud environments, which are becoming more common today.
How to Read this Report
This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding consider reviewing the following reports:
Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.
GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.
Vendor Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.