Oracle Taps Kubernetes, Service Broker API to Automate Cloud Services

Oracle is driving deeper Kubernetes and service broker integration into its cloud environment in a move to ease the use of its cloud infrastructure services.

The deeper integration is the launch of its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Service Broker for Kubernetes. It’s an implementation of the Open Service Broker API for use in a Kubernetes cluster and with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services. Kubernetes acts to automate the provisioning, configuration, and management of all the application infrastructure.

Developers can access the new platform through either a Helm chart package manager, a Docker container, or as an open source platform. The implementation ties together a number of the vendor’s cloud platforms using service broker adapters for autonomous transaction processing, autonomous data warehouse, object storage, and streaming.

A service broker can also be used to create service binding to cloud services. For each binding it creates a Kubernetes secret that houses the information needed to connect to the service.

The service broker can be added to a Kubernetes cluster where it will then use the Open Service Broker API from within kubectl to interact with the cloud services. Kubectl is a command line interface (CLI) for running commands against Kubernetes clusters.

Oracle made a big production of its Generation 2 cloud infrastructure at its OpenWorld event last October. That is the vendor’s bare metal infrastructure that it began building in 2016.



Open Service Broker API
The Open Service Broker API was formed by the Cloud Foundry Project in late 2016. It was developed as a way to provide a consistent model for exposing cloud services to applications and application deployment tooling. Founding members included Fujitsu, Google, IBM, Pivotal, Red Hat, and SAP.

Microsoft adopted the Open Service Broker API into its cloud platform in late 2017. Google adopted it last year.

Oracle’s deeper Kubernetes integration could also provide the vendor with a counter to Google’s recent Anthos platform launch. Anthos is a Kubernetes-based, Google-managed hybrid-cloud platform that runs on premises and supports multiple clouds including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Synergy Research Group’s most recent Cloud Provider Competitive Positioning report had Oracle entrenched in its “strong niche player” space alongside IBM, Salesforce, and Rackspace. That position is below the “high growth and gaining market share” position held by larger rivals Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, and Tencent. AWS remains “in a league of its own” in the SRG report.

SAP Touts Qualtrics, Apple ML Integration

SAP kicked off its annual Sapphire conference by tightening integration of its $8 billion Qualtrics acquisition and expanding support for the Apple ecosystem.

SAP CEO Bill McDermott made both announcements as part of a flashy opening keynote that was big on getting SAP customers excited. That flash also included a supporting cast of Qualtrics co-founder and CEO Ryan Smith and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

With Qualtrics, SAP said it has now rolled out 10 new products that combine its operational data (O-data) with experience data (X-data) gleaned from its acquired property. The latest include the integration of the Experience Management platform into SAP’s C/4HANA that is targeted at an organization’s sales, marketing, commerce, and service experience management.

It has also launched three Experience Management services targeted at an organization’s employee management. These can be integrated into an existing human resources platform to support employee lifecycle.

McDermott explained this as managing the “hire-to-retire” aspect of HR. This involved a company’s HR department taking a “regular pulse” on an employee’s satisfaction with their work environment.

In a later question-and-answer session, McDermott noted that Qualtrics tackles the biggest cultural challenges at enterprises because “it provides the why.” During that same session, Smith said that Qualtrics did not want to focus on just gathering insight but to instead have insight “to allow for action.”

SAP acquired Qualtrics last November on the cusp of the latter moving toward a public offering. Smith said the company decided to go the buyout route because of the integration possibilities with SAP.

“We didn’t have too. We had all the options in the world and were one of the hottest IPOs coming into the year,” Smith said. But he explained that the company lacked the operational data to make its experience data more functional for enterprise customers. “We knew we would have to figure out how to partner, but SAP was the only one to go across the four experiences.”

Apple iOS SDK

SAP is also integrating Apple’s CORE Machine Learning (ML) platform into its SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS. This will allow users to create custom iOS applications using SAP’s Leonardo IoT platform. That platform was launched in 2016, and is a collection of software and services that tap into big data, analytics, blockchain, and ML.

The initial launch includes nine applications. In practice, the ML model can automatically download to an iOS device that will allow those applications run in an offline environment. SAP is also expanding application support to Apple’s Mac personal computer ecosystem. Those applications can also be updated when connected to the SAP Cloud Platform.

Apple CEO Tim Cook framed the move by stating that the enterprise “experience has not reached the same level” of the consumer experience. To that end, Cook showed slides of employees using Apple devices running augmented reality applications that use ML to manage industrial machines.

Cook also touched on the importance of security for Apple when it approaches the enterprise market. He cited a similar mindset from SAP that Cook said was key to its work together. McDermott likened his approach to security to that of Cook and Apple, which he said are “kindred spirits” and “like minded in protection and security.”

The security topic was also brought up during the Q&A session with reference to a recent Reuters story that claimed 50,000 companies were open to a vulnerability in legacy SAP systems. McDermott explained that the vulnerability was confronted by security patches issued in 2009 and 2013. He added that following the Reuters story, SAP instituted a more aggressive push to make sure its customers had downloaded those patches.

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