CNCF offers Kubernetes Software Conformance Certification program
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which supports container management platforms like Kubernetes and Prometheus, premiered its Kubernetes Software Conformance Certification program today, which the foundation said ensures Certified Kubernetes products are consisted and portable. As part of the announcement, 36 certified Kubernetes distributions and platforms were made available.
Kubernetes has cultivated a reputation as the most widely used container and orchestration platform today. The technology allows developers to deploy container clusters with advanced cloud native capabilities, and IT professional to manage a company’s data centers with an interface. According to a recent RedMonk report, approximately 54% of Fortune 100 companies use some version of Kubernetes.
The new Kubernetes Software Conformance Certification benefits enterprise organizations by providing the assurance that workloads that run on any Certified Kubernetes Distribution or Platform will work correctly on any other version, said Dan Kohn, executive director at CNCF. “The interoperability that this program ensures is essential to Kubernetes meeting its promise of offering a single open source software stack supported by many vendors that can deploy on any public, private or hybrid cloud.”
Among some of the products to have passed the Certified Kubernetes Conformance program include Alibaba Cloud Kubernetes, Docker Enterprise Edition, Google Kubernetes Engine and Mirantis Cloud Platform, to name just a few. The Kubernetes API in these products have been certified to function as specified through the conformance program. Products certified by the program are allowed to use the Kubernetes logo alongside their brand name.
The Kubernetes Architecture Special Interest Group (SIG), which maintains and evolves the design principles of the platform, determined API conformance for the program. Given the rapid clip at which the platform is updated, the program comes with a strong guarantee that commercial providers of Kubernetes will continue to release the latest versions of the technology. Vendors can run the conformance test suite and submit conformance testing results for review and certification by the CNCF.
The certificate platform marks another step toward Kubernetes serving as the standard for container orchestration. The news follows long time rival Docker announcing it would integrate Kubernetes into its platform, bringing industry standardization to a different level in return.
“By achieving certification through the Kubernetes Software Conformance program, we offer organizations a Kubernetes-certified platform to deploy Linux or Windows-based applications across a secure and automated supply chain operating in hybrid cloud environments,” said Banjot Chanana, head of product management for Docker. “Docker Enterprise Edition (Docker EE) offers an unmodified version of Kubernetes with the added value of the Docker platform including security, management, a familiar developer workflow and tooling, broad ecosystem compatibility and an adherence to industry standards.”
