Several forms of container-based PaaS Hybrid Cloud

overview

Here’s a Gartner diagram that provides a global overview of container-based PaaS public clouds and hybrid cloud services:

Here’s an alternative perspective:
In the Chinese market, container-based PaaS hybrid cloud (public cloud + private cloud) related vendors and products.

❗️ Note:

The article is still in the first edition, just a simple list of manufacturers and products, which will be further refined later.
In addition, due to the author’s limited knowledge, it is not possible to list all relevant manufacturers and products. I beg your pardon.

Software - Container platform

Refers to the container platform provided in the form of selling software (possible sales methods include: buyout + maintenance; subscription), the provider does not provide hash power.
The “container platform” here refers to: Kubernetes-based container platform, some container platforms will provide richer functions, such as: image repository, monitoring, logging, Tracing, DevOps, microservice governance, ServiceMesh, Servless, etc

1. RedHat - OpenShift Container Platform
2. Rancher - RKE
3. Qingyun - Kubesphere
4. TenxCloud Container Service (TCS)
5. Lingque Cloud - ACP (Alauda Container Platform)
6. Boyun - BeyondContainer
7. DaoCLoud - DaoCloud Enterprise
8. Tencent - TKE Enterprise (based on Lingque Cloud)
9. VMware - VSphere 7+

Software - Multi-cloud container management platform

Refers to a multi-cloud container management platform provided by selling software (possible sales methods include: buyout + maintenance; subscription), the provider does not provide hash power.
The “multi-cloud container management platform” here refers to the Kubernetes-based container platform, or based on Kubernetes federation (such as Huawei MCP), or based on self-developed multi-cluster capabilities (such as Rancher) to realize the management, installation, operation and maintenance, unified monitoring and other capabilities of heterogeneous, public and private cloud Kubernetes clusters.

❗️ Note:

Although this “multi-cloud container management platform” can manage heterogeneous Kubernetes clusters, some advanced features can only be used using vendor-recommended Kubernetes products.
Such as: Rancher’s installation, monitoring, logging and other advanced functions; RedHat installation, security policies, GitOps, and more

Pros and cons

Advantage:

• flexible
• Suitable for: Full intranet environment (for high security requirements, such as the financial industry, it will be very concerned)

Inferior position:

• The purchaser needs to provide the hardware
• It needs to be installed and built, and it cannot be used out of the box

Suppliers and Products

1. Rancher - Rancher
2. Huawei - MCP (Multi-Cloud Container Platform)
3. DaoCloud - DaoCloud Service Platform
4. RedHat - ACM（Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes）
5. Tsing Yun - Kubesphere(Kubesphere 3.0 supports multi-cluster management later）
6. VMware - Tanzu

Managed - The public cloud hosts the K8S cluster

It refers to the K8S cluster provided by the public cloud, which provides public cloud computing power and also provides managed Kubernetes services. The billing method is pay-as-you-go billing or subscription per month.

✍️ Remark:

Public cloud instance services and servless services are not included.

1. Amazon - EKS（Elastic Kubernetes Service）
2. Alibaba - ACK (Alibaba Cloud Container Service for Kubernetes)
3. Tencent - TKE (Tencent Kubernetes Engine)
4. Microsoft - AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service)
5. Huawei - CCE (Cloud Container Engine)
6. QKE (KubeSphere on QingCloud)

Software - Public Cloud K8S Cluster Product Privatization Output

It refers to the “public cloud K8S cluster product privatization output” provided in the form of selling software and similar to the public cloud architecture (possible sales methods include: buyout + maintenance; subscription), the provider does not provide hash power.

1. Huawei - CCE (Cloud Container Engine)
2. Alibaba - Alibaba Feitian Proprietary Cloud Agile Edition
3. Tencent - TCS (Tencent Cloud-Native Suite)

Managed - Public cloud multi-cloud container management platform

It refers to the multi-cloud container management platform provided by the public cloud, which provides public cloud computing power and also provides management Kubernetes services. The billing method is pay-as-you-go billing or subscription per month.
However, there is a premise: if it is a private cloud Kubernetes cluster or other public cloud provider’s Kubernetes cluster, it must be connected to the provider’s network through private lines or the Internet.

Pros and cons

Advantage:

• Standardized products, lack of flexibility
• Suitable for: Internet environment
• Pay as you go
• Works right out of the box

Inferior position:

• Kubernetes clusters that do not have the Internet or connected to public cloud connections cannot be managed
• Security concerns
• There are many requirements for managed clusters(e.g. EKS Anywhere currently only supports onboarding of two specific Kubernetes clusters.)

Suppliers and Products

1. Huawei - MCP (Multi-Cloud Container Platform)
2. Tencent - TKE Everywhere❗️ (Note: This is not the same as the other 2 Anywhere, cloud on and off the cloud.)OneCluster, the node under the cloud is managed by the master on the cloud. Essentially an edge container management scenario. It’s still in closed beta. ）
3. Amazon - EKS Anywhere
4. Alibaba Cloud - AKS Anywhere

🧠 Think: What exactly are the 2 xxx Anywhere?

The Anywhere practices of the two companies are very consistent. In essence, it is “public cloud privatization, online and offline I want everything”. The advantage is: (Listening to it is clear, after the actual combat test to know how effective it is… ）

• Consistent experience
  • Unified cluster management
  • Uniform resource scheduling
  • Unified data disaster recovery
  • Unified application delivery
• Elastic computing power
• Ability to sink
  • Cloud-native observability
  • Security capabilities
  • Middleware
  • database
  • data analysis
  • .AI
• Simplify disaster recovery

Take Alibaba Cloud as an example:
Alibaba Cloud has launched a multi-form deployment architecture of one cloud, providing multiple deployment forms such as central cloud, local cloud, edge cloud, and cloud box, and ACKAnywhere’s comprehensive upgrade means that public cloud capabilities are further extended to localization, and customers can experience low-cost, low-latency, localized public cloud products in self-built data centers.
With the popularization of cloud computing and the development of cloud native technology, container services have become an essential infrastructure for major companies to use the cloud on the cloud. … The upgraded ACK Anywhere has four core capabilities: consistent experience, elastic computing power, capability sinking, and simplified disaster recovery, enabling enterprises to achieve unified cluster management, unified resource scheduling, unified data disaster recovery, and unified application delivery when using Container Service in any business scenario.
Thanks to Alibaba Cloud’s rich product capabilities, ACK Anywhere can deploy mature cloud-native observability and security protection capabilities to user environments, and can also sink advanced middleware, data analysis, and AI capabilities to local to meet customer requirements for product richness and data control, and accelerate business innovation.

Business continuity is the focus of modern enterprise IT architecture, and ACK Anywhere’s built-in backup center integrates backup, disaster recovery, and migration. Supports backup and recovery of Kubernetes cluster configuration and data volumes. Combined with Alibaba Cloud’s rich experience in multi-active disaster recovery, it helps enterprises comprehensively improve system stability and business continuity.

❗️ Note:

Due to the above reasons: “there are more requirements for managed clusters”, so such products often recommend users to install their own Kubernetes products, such as: Huawei’s CCE, Tencent’s TKE open source version, or Amazon EKS Anywhere EKS Distro product, or Alibaba Cloud’s ACK Distro.

Other players

1. JD Cloud
2. UCloud
3. Baidu Cloud
4. Kingsoft Cloud

summary

• [] TODO: Add a table