In recent years, we have witnessed a so-called container revolution. The rapid adoption of Kubernetes technology by organizations increases the demand for tools for efficient management of multiple Kubernetes clusters. There are many issues concerning the multi-cluster architecture such as: security, authentication by means of external identity repositories, permission management and many others.

For organizations that need tools for a cohesive cluster management process, especially multiple Kubernetes clusters, SUSE Rancher was created. The product is a very powerful solution for all companies undergoing digital transformation and utilizing or wanting to utilize the potential of Kubernetes technology. Like all SUSE products, it is a fully functional open-source product with an option to purchase additional manufacturer's service support.

SUSE Rancher offers:

• Management tool for cloud and on-premises Kubernetes clusters in the organization.
• Monitoring of Kubernetes clusters' resources, nodes, Kubernetes components on the cluster using Prometheus and Grafana with the ability to integrate the monitoring with business applications deployed on the cluster.
• Centralized management of user authentication and authorization mechanism with selective permission granting policies.
• Integration with external user identity data sources and authorization platforms (Active Directory, Azure, Google, Keycloak, etc.).
• Consistent mechanism for logs aggregation from multiple Kubernetes clusters.
• Dynamic provisioning of new clusters in cloud environments (Amazon, Google, Azure) and on-premises (VMware).
• Management of Kubernetes security policies on each of the clusters.
• Automation of the cluster configuration backup process.
• Automation of helm application deployments on cluster from the repository using the console.
• Deployment of microservices and Kubernetes objects from web console according to the user's permissions on the cluster.
• Dynamic deployment of Longhorn storage on the Kubernetes cluster.
• Kubernetes-native GitOps using Fleet.

When should you use SUSE Rancher:

• In organizations that are implementing their first Kubernetes clusters Rancher will speed up the deployment process and simplify management and maintenance processes. It will also make it easier for users to deploy and manage Kubernetes resources using the web console.
• In organizations with extensive container environments, where significant administrative effort is put into maintaining each separate cluster configuration.
• When there is an increasing need to apply the best security practices to Kubernetes clusters.
• In enterprises with multi-cloud/hybrid Kubernetes environments.
• In smaller organizations - especially when an alternative to an on-premises cluster is being deployed in the cloud or vice versa, the organization has a cloud cluster, but it would like to build an effective on-premises cluster.
• When you want to have a management tool that will work with all Kubernetes distributions to avoid the so-called vendor lock situation.

The benefits of implementation are based on the following pillars:

• Acceleration and standardization of the Kubernetes technology adoption process.
• Consistency in cluster configurations with centralized management.
• Centralized clusters security management- increased security of all Kubernetes clusters.
• Centralized resource monitoring on all Kubernetes clusters.
• Increased efficiency of DevOps processes on the Kubernetes cluster.
• Optimization of cluster management costs.
• Optimal TCO - no license costs with the option of optionally purchasing manufacturer support (SUSE).

Sorigo - as the Emerald Partner of SUSE in the Kubernetes area, is a reliable implementation partner for clients interested in implementing SUSE products in their organization. We support our clients both in the installation and configuration of these products as well as further evolutionary development of Kubernetes platforms.  On the K8S clusters we implement the DevOps and GitOps processes, deploy components of the microservice architecture and implement & deploy microservices.