Cloud-native data management startup Kasten this week released version 2.0 of its K10 data protection software that is purpose-built for Kubernetes clusters, and the timing couldn't be better. With an increasing number of cloud-native applications being deployed in Kubernetes environments, the demand for "day two" services such as backup and mobility is only going to increase.

Kasten's K10 product is positioned to provide critical data management services for these modern cloud-native applications. Gaurav Rishi, head of product at Kasten, told SDxCentral that simplicity and security are at the heart of the latest update.

The K10 software installs in a Kubernetes cluster in less than five minutes using a single Helm command and without daemon set privileges or deploying  agents. The install can also be performed via a single click through a public cloud marketplace.

"We were well aware of the complexities of performing backup at scale as well as recovery while under duress. So the simplicity shines through the entire K10 experience," Rishi said.

In the same way that renters purchase renters insurance in the event of an accident to recover and replace personal property and liabilities,  enterprises rely on backup and recovery services as the last line of defense to recover from data loss and ransomware. From this perspective, enterprises also require assurance that any new tooling introduced into their environment does not increase the attack surface area, an assurance that Rishi believes K10 handles with an elegant architecture.

The updated platform also includes support for Kubernetes authentication; OpenID Connect (OIDC); token authentication; Amazon Web Services (AWS) identity and access management (IAM) roles; role-based access control (RBAC); customer-managed encryption keys; and integrated encryption of artifacts at rest and in-flight.

Kasten entered the data management ecosystem with its K10 product in 2017, backed by Silicon Valley angel investors and executives from Google, Amazon, and Facebook. The product enables enterprises to run stateful applications on Kubernetes. 

The Los Altos, California-based company recently raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. This brings its total raised to $17 million.

Container security remains a serious consideration for enterprises. Gartner forecasts that more than 75% of global companies will use containers in production by 2022, compared to less than 30% today.

A survey from StackRox released earlier this year found that while two-thirds of organizations are running more than 10% of their applications in a containerized environment, 40% of those organizations think their current security stance is not adequate to protect those environments.

Most of those concerns are over misconfigurations and accidental exposure of access to their containerized environments. However, a robust 43% stated concerns over runtime security, 35% specified concerns about deployment security, and 22% said they were worried about build security.

The mass migration to containerize and orchestrate applications with Kubernetes has propelled rapid application deployment and portability for DevOps teams. Forrester VP and principal analyst Dave Bartoletti predicts that the coming year will see traditional IT administrators jump on board the Kubernetes train to run backup and recovery of their data management strategies in virtual environments with greater vision.

Historically, however, operations practices have lagged behind development and the could-native architecture has brought about another shift in software development, from monolithic applications microservices that requires accommodating for a network or IT technician use case as opposed to developers.

Kasten's Rishi explained that K10 includes a configurable policy tool for IT teams to automate its data management workflows via policies combine actions (e.g., snapshot), a frequency or schedule for those actions, and rich selection criteria for the resources that they need to manage.