CoreOS, which is now a part of Red Hat, has announced the Operator Framework, a new open-source toolkit for managing Kubernetes native applications “in a more effective, automated, and scalable way.”
According to the company, an Operator is a method for packaging, deploying, and managing Kubernetes applications. Operators take human operational knowledge and translate it into code. In other words, it acts as an extension of a software vendor’s engineering team which keeps watch over Kubernetes environments and uses its current state to make decisions. CoreOS explained.
The company believes that there is a high barrier to entry when it comes to building Kubernetes applications because there are a lot of dependencies and assumptions that require expertise and technical knowledge. The Operator Framework tries to address those issue by bringing that expertise and knowledge into a single project.
The Operator Framework includes an Operator SDK, Operator Lifecycle Management, and Operator Metering.
The Operator SDK allows developers to build Operators without needing to know about Kubernetes API complexities. Over time, the SDK will enable engineers to make their applications smarter while having the user experience of cloud services, the company explained.
Operator Lifecycle Management oversees the installation, updates, and management of the Operator lifecycle running across Kubernetes clusters.
Operator Metering allows for usage reporting for Operators that provide specialized services. It is designed to tie into a cluster’s CPU and memory reporting. It will be able to calculate IaaS cost and customize metrics like licensing.
“We are working together with Red Hat and the broader Kubernetes community to help enable this ecosystem with an easier way to create and operate their applications on Kubernetes,” said Phillip Wittrock, software engineer at Google, Kubernetes community member, and member of the Kubernetes steering committee. “By working together on platform development tools, we strive to make Kubernetes the foundation of choice for container-native apps – no matter where they reside.”
