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Press Release

Linode Launches Managed Kubernetes Engine

A cartoon graphic of a person at a computer with the Kubernetes logo behind him

PHILADELPHIA, November 19, 2019 — Linode, the world’s largest independent open cloud provider, today launched Linode Kubernetes Engine, now the easiest to use fully-managed container orchestration platform for deploying and managing modern applications in the cloud.

Industry excitement around Kubernetes — a key driver of an application and container market 451 Research says will exceed $4.3 billion by 2022 — saw an early influx of offerings from a rush of vendors looking to capitalize on the technology’s popularity. While Kubernetes has become the de facto standard for orchestrating containerized workloads, running it remains unnecessarily difficult. Poor administration and developer experience, according to a recent poll by The New Stack, is the top challenge facing Kubernetes in today’s market.

As a pioneer in cloud computing, Linode applied its 16 years of experience simplifying infrastructure for developers and businesses to architect a managed service that overcomes the challenges of today’s offerings through enhanced automation and a reimagined user experience. The result of that methodical and intentional approach makes Linode Kubernetes Engine the easiest way to manage and deploy containerized applications in the cloud.

“With the launch of Linode Kubernetes Engine, we’ve democratized Kubernetes for developers, regardless of their resources or expertise,” said Linode CEO and Founder Christopher Aker. “By automating the configuration, node provisioning and management of Kubernetes clusters, we’ve made it faster and easier to ship modern applications. And with realtime autoscaling, free master services, and our intuitive cloud manager interface and open API, developers can bypass the complexities of traditional container management and focus on innovating.”

Linode Kubernetes Engine is seamlessly integrated throughout the entire Linode Cloud Platform. Developers can easily create clusters from any combination of shared virtual machines, Dedicated CPU, High Memory and AI-ready GPU compute instance types. Block Storage, Object Storage and automatic load balancing to provision and configure Linode NodeBalancers, as well as integrations with Terraform, Helm, and Rancher, are all available for accelerated application deployment. Linode Kubernetes Engine is built with a developer-first mentality, with all of the necessary features and integrations developers need to deploy and manage production-level workloads at scale, including:

  • Reimagined user experience – An intuitively designed and guided graphical interface for deploying and managing Kubernetes clusters.
  • Open APIs – Developers can easily manage their clusters programmatically to modify their cluster’s compute, storage and NodeBalancer configurations to meet changing workload needs. 
  • Cloud Storage – Block Storage, Object Storage and Backups are fully integrated, making it simple for developers to support nearly any storage use case. 
  • Autoscaling – Support for autoscaling to meet changing demands, so developers can effortlessly match their resources with their workloads.
  • Automatic workload management – Load balancing to automatically provision and configure Linode NodeBalancers to route traffic from the public internet to a cluster’s distributed workloads. 
  • Deploy Popular Apps Using Helm charts, Operators, and Controllers – Developers can harness the strong open source ecosystem of Kubernetes tooling. Linode Kubernetes Engine supports integration with popular Kubernetes related tools, such as Rancher, Helm, Operators, and more.
  • Kubernetes Master Services On Us – Linode Kubernetes Engine provides the Kubernetes control plane for free, making it easy to get a cluster up and running with no additional fees. These include all of the Kubernetes control plane processes – including API, scheduler, resource controllers, and more.
  • Autoscale to Meet Demand – Kubernetes Horizontal Pod Autoscaling scales instances in real time, effortlessly matching resources with workloads.
  • One-Click App Support – Linode Kubernetes Engine will support the deployment of One-Click Apps, further simplifying the management and deployment of Kubernetes in the cloud. 
  • Latest Version Support – Now supporting Kubernetes version 1.16.

Linode Kubernetes Engine is currently in open beta with general availability expected to roll out to all customers early next year. To register for the beta program, go to welcome.linode.com/lkebeta.

About Linode

Linode accelerates innovation by making cloud computing simple, accessible and affordable to all. Founded in 2003, Linode helped pioneer the cloud computing industry and is today the largest independent open cloud provider in the world. Headquartered in Philadelphia’s Old City, the company empowers over 800,000 developers, startups and businesses across its global network of 10 data centers. For more information, visit https://www.linode.com or follow @linode on Twitter.