Kontron added the latest OpenStack and Kubernetes iterations to its SymKloud open source edge platforms, but for the near term, the company plans to keep the two software platforms separate.

The updates include support for the latest Queens OpenStack release and the Kubernetes 1.10 release. The OpenStack support is targeted at virtual machines (VMs) and bare metal deployments, while the Kubernetes update is for Docker and container deployments. Both updates are through Kontron’s distribution agreement with Canonical.

Kontron’s SymKloud platform is designed to support the deployment of virtualized services using software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV).

The OpenStack Queen software release was announced in February. It included updates for software-defined storage functionality, GPU compatibility, and tracking of container workloads. Queens also includes tools that allow developers to support various container-specific platforms and projects.

Kontron launched its Kubernetes platform earlier this year. The platform can run in a bare metal configuration on the SymKloud 10-gigabit Ethernet and 100-GbE products, and support up to 254 container pods per controller instead of up to 100 pods in a standard configuration.

The Kubernetes project, which is housed within the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), released the 1.10 iteration in late March. The release focuses on storage, security, and networking.

Peter Matz, communication business unit marketing manager for Kontron, said the company was keeping “things very separate for full-fledged OpenStack or full-fledged Kubernetes.”

“All the work we’ve done over the past year to integrate OpenStack and Kubernetes has opened up new possibilities that we never thought of doing before,” Matz said. “All we can do at this point is offer the core foundation of one or the other, but once you have one you can probably integrate the other the way you want. For us it’s one step at a time to provide something that is fully integrated.”

Operators have started to tighten their use of OpenStack and Kubernetes as part of their broader network control and management. The most active has been AT&T, which last week announced a new open infrastructure project for clouds called Airship.

The initial focus of the Airship project is the implementation of a declarative platform to introduce OpenStack on Kubernetes (OOK) and the lifecycle management of the resulting cloud. The carrier is working with SK Telecom, Intel, and the OpenStack Foundation on the project.

“Airship is going to allow AT&T and other operators to deliver cloud infrastructure predictably that is 100 percent declarative, where day zero is managed the same as future updates via a single unified workflow, and where absolutely everything is a container from the bare metal up,” explained Ryan van Wyk, assistant vice president of Cloud Platform Development, last week as part of the Airship announcement.

AT&T said last November that it was planning to put more reliance on Kubernetes in its AT&T Integrated Cloud (AIC) platform, which is based on OpenStack. Van Wyk said at the time that the use of the Kubernetes would add more agility and remove costs from running the AIC platform.

Montreal-based Kontron also opened a new test lab that supports the latest OPNFV Project release. That platform, dubbed Fraser, was unveiled earlier this month and is the sixth OPNFV release.

The Pharos community lab is one of 18 vendor-built facilities. It’s a remote test environment located in a co-location data center. Kontron's Matz said it is open to all developers to validate, integrate, onboard, and test network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVI), virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM), virtual network functions (VNFs), and network services for NFV and SDN use cases on Kontron production-ready hardware.

The Fraser release includes increased support for OPNFV testing capabilities including functional, performance, stress, and benchmark testing. Some of OPNFV’s testing frameworks are already being used by ONAP and by France-based service provider Orange.

Matz also noted that Fraser will allow the company to extend testing to include containers; Kubernetes and Docker test use cases; and SDN using the OpenDaylight controller.