News

Firm Ranks Multicloud Container Development Platforms

• By David Ramel
• 09/16/2020

Forrester Research published a new report on multicloud container development platforms (MCDPs), a growing enterprise approach in new-age cloud computing.

"As cloud-native technologies like containers and Kubernetes mature rapidly, they are becoming the preferred way to build new software experiences and modernize existing apps at scale and across clouds," says the firm in its new Forrester Wave report, "Multicloud Container Development Platforms, Q3 2020."

Forrester says the offerings:

• Provide comprehensive container infrastructure lifecycle operations from the datacenter to the cloud to the edge
• Help developers modernize apps with integrated service catalogs and microservices, service mesh and serverless features

Thus organizations exploring their vendor options to get onboard with MCDPs should look for offerings that:

• Simplify cloud-native app development with rich development services
• Enable distributed infrastructure operations from data center to cloud to edge
• Expand enterprise value with rich app and service partner ecosystems

Taking such criteria into account, the report -- which separates vendors into leaders/strong performers/contenders/challengers -- finds: Red Hat-IBM, Google and Rancher are leaders; VMware, D2iQ and Platform9 Systems are strong performers; and Mirantis and Canonical are contenders. Nobody is in the bottom "wave" of challengers.

Red Hat-IBM took the leading position in the wave for the Red Hat OpenShift 4.3 platform. As we reported last month, that offering has been updated to v4.5, for the first time integrating virtual machines (VMs) with containers and serverless computing functions.

"OpenShift is the most widely deployed multicloud container platform and boasts powerful development and unified operations experiences across many public and on-premises platforms," Forrester said. "Red Hat pioneered the 'operator' model for infrastructure and application management and provides a rich partner ecosystem and popular marketplace."

One-line summaries of the other products are:

• Google provides a cutting-edge cloud-native development experience
• Rancher simplifies multicloud Kubernetes management at scale
• VMware delivers a comprehensive Kubernetes platform
• D2iQ focuses on simplifying open source cloud-native operations
• Platform9 Systems delivers cloud-native technologies with SaaS simplicity
• Mirantis offers a solid container platform for cloud-native development
• Canonical aims to simplify model-driven Kubernetes app management

"Dev experience, distributed operations, and ecosystem integrations are key differentiators," the report said. "As developers and technology teams race to meet the demand for cloud-native applications, developer experience and development services, distributed infrastructure operations, and rich ecosystem partnerships and integrations will dictate which platform providers will lead the pack."

Forrester noted that its report provides an assessment of the top vendors in the market and does not represent the entire vendor landscape, intended to be used only as a starting point for organizations exploring their MCDP options.

The report is available in licensed-for-distribution versions from multiple featured vendors, upon providing registration information. A quick web search will find them.