New Features in IBM Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment v2.2.0

IBM Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment v2.2.0 features and capabilities

We’re pleased to announce the latest version of Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment. Below is a summary of new features and capabilities in version 2.2.0.

Bringing Kubernetes and Cloud Foundry together

Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment (CFEE) v2.2.0 continues the technology merging of Cloud Foundryand Kubernetes with the Cloud Foundry Foundation’s Project Eirini. Developed by a number of key cloud vendors, it enables pluggable scheduling for the Cloud Foundry Application Runtime. Specifically, Project Eirini allows operators to choose whether the Cloud Foundry Application Runtime should use Diego (the default scheduler in CFAR) or the Kubernetes Scheduler to orchestrate application container instances. The project’s goal is to provide the option of reusing an existing Kubernetes cluster infrastructure to host applications deployed by CFAR.

See the links below for more info on this exciting technological direction:

• Chip Childers, CTO for the Cloud Foundry Foundation, talks about the many forward-looking CF projects, like Eirini

• See how the IBM Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment now offers a Tech Preview of Project Eirini

• Learn more from Dr. Julian Friedman, Open Source Development Leader at IBM and Project Lead for Eirini: “The Fresh Prince of Cloud-Native: Bringing Cloud Foundry & Kubernetes Together“

IBM Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment integrates this Project Eirini technology by adding a new deployment option called “Technology Preview” that uses the Kubernetes scheduler for Cloud Foundry scheduling operations.

Multi-zone high availability

There is a new deployment target option to create a CFEE instance in a multi-zone Kubernetes cluster. CFEE instances created on a multi-zone cluster distribute application instances across worker nodes within a data center as well as across data centers, making your applications more resilient against infrastructure outages. Furthermore, multi-zone CFEEs can be scaled by either adding additional zones with the same number of cells or by adding additional cells within the current zone. You can also remove existing zones or remove cells within a given zone.

Network Isolation

CFEE v2.2.0 instances can now operate within an isolated network that protects and secures the environment from external threats. You create an isolated network through private VLANs and a set of control mechanisms to route, filter, and protect traffic into and out of the resources inside the network perimeter. Isolated networks are set up using technologies like Virtual Router Appliances (VRAs). There is also now the capability to bind applications (deployed into a CFEE space) to service instances through the internal IBM network. The capability allows services supporting the IBM Cloud Service Endpoint to be consumed without accessing the public internet. For more information about network isolation in CFEE, check out this blog post and this video.

CFFE open source application auto-scaler

Another recent technological advancement and IBM-led Cloud Foundry project is a next-gen application auto-scaler for use in the Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment. Auto-scaling monitors your applications and automatically adjusts the number of application instances based on policies you control. This is built on the open-source App-Autoscaler project in the Cloud Foundry community, which IBM led to delivery.

Getting started with this release

To get started, you can deploy a new Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment. If you already have one, you can upgrade your environment to this version by going to the Updates and Scaling page in the CFEE’s user interface and clicking Update.

Consult the documentation for details on how to use all these new features.

For some background on Cloud Foundry and the IBM Cloud Foundry space, please see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 from Dr. Max, CTO of Cloud Advocacy at IBM, on the history of IBM’s contributions to Cloud Foundry.