Mirantis Unveils Next-Generation Kubernetes Platform With MKE 4 Release

At KubeCon+CloudNativeCon North America last week, Mirantis, a leading open source infrastructure provider, announced the upcoming release of Mirantis Kubernetes Engine (MKE) 4 on Nov. 20, 2024. This is not just another Kubernetes distro release. Under the hood, MKE is shifting from its basis from Docker Swarm to the k0s cloud-friendly Kubernetes distribution.

Why? In an interview, Shaun O’Meara, Mirantis CTO, explained, “We’ve moved away from the original Docker enterprise architecture, which was heavily based around Swarm and more of a monolithic design, to a much more composable architecture based around k0s at the core.”

He thinks many users will switch because “k0s has been around for a while. It’s stable and proven. It also provides for the ability to deploy with zero dependencies, except for the kernel. With it, we can support multiple environments and operating systems.” It also “makes it easy for customers to define and compose their platform with all those Kubernetes services you add on, such as controllers, identity federation, and things like MinIO for backup management.”

Despite this fundamental change, O’Meara added, “It’s an in-place update and will continue to have the same look and feel.” For existing MKE users, upgrading to version 4 is streamlined, requiring just one command or a single click. That said, MKE 3.7 users can easily transition while keeping all workloads running. Mirantis will continue to support Swarm users in MKE 3.

For those who are thinking about migrating, O’Meara wants to assure you that while there are “some changes to the CLI [Command Line Interface}. The original CLI will also still work.” In addition, “The APIs [Application Programming Interfaces] have not changed.”

In addition, he continued, “MKS 4 is not prescriptive. The architecture strongly emphasizes the composability of open source programs to ensure that customers can choose the best of breed. Unlike many other Kubernetes distros, it takes a zero lock-in approach. This way, you can fit our product to your business rather than the other way around.”

Some of MKE 4’s standout features include:

1. Optimizable and composable architecture allows customers to swap in alternative components to enhance security, stability, and performance.
2. Integration of KubeVirt for running both container and virtual machine (VM) workloads on a unified platform.
3. Automated drift correction and updates through the MKE Operator, ensuring consistent cluster configurations.
4. FIPS 140-2 encryption for enhanced security compliance.

MKE 4 will become available on Nov. 20, 2024, with packaged options for 24/7 enterprise support. The platform is designed to run on bare metal, private clouds, or public clouds, offering flexibility in deployment options.