Portworx pools existing servers, SANs, NAS, DAS, and cloud instances to create an integrated storage cluster and provide data services directly to containers. Recently, it released a wonderfully acronym-free reference configuration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). And now it again hits the headlines with the launch of an avian-based tag for a new open source stateful storage project.
STORK is the STorage Orchestrator Runtime for Kubernetes, which uses the extensibility of Kubernetes to support stateful applications. This allows DevOps teams to run stateful applications – think databases, queues, and key-value stores – on Kubernetes.
STORK as an Open Source Stateful Storage Project, uses a schedule extender to offer storage health monitoring for stateful application on Kubernetes. It uses a plugin interface to communicate with storage drivers that allows it to work with any Kubernetes storage driver. A Kubernetes scheduler extender can impact container pod scheduling based on the location of the content that a pod needs to function.
Sharing the reason for developing STORK, Portworx CTO Gou Rao said, “We saw customers trying different ways, with a lot of effort, to address challenges like hyperconvergence, relocation of containers when a drive fails, and disaster recovery of volumes on a per-container basis.”
Containers were initially viewed as a perfect match for stateless applications that did not require stored data to operate or support a running application. As container use cases evolved, stateful models also matured. These allow containers to maintain stored data even if a container is restarted and can support more developed applications. This model has become critical for enterprises that are running more advanced applications within containers.
Portworx is targeting storage technology partners in the container and cloud-native ecosystem with the platform. Rao shared that it is aiming to have three to four storage technology partners and around 10 customers to table the project better.
