MacStadium Announces Orchestration with Kubernetes on Apple

‘Orka’ offers the first and only solution for orchestrating macOS in a cloud environment using Kubernetes on genuine Apple hardware

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–MacStadium, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class cloud solutions for Apple Mac infrastructure, today announced ‘Orka’ (Orchestration with Kubernetes on Apple), a new virtualization layer for Mac build infrastructure based on Docker and Kubernetes technology. Orka enables users to apply native Kubernetes commands for macOS virtual machines (VMs) on genuine Apple hardware. While Kubernetes and Docker are not new to full stack developers, a solution like this has not existed in the Apple ecosystem before.

“The reality is that most enterprises need to develop applications for Apple platforms, but these enterprises prefer to use nimble, software-defined build environments,” said Greg McGraw, chief executive officer at MacStadium. “With Orka, MacStadium’s flagship orchestration platform, developers and DevOps teams now have access to a software-defined Mac cloud experience that treats infrastructure-as-code, similar to what they are accustomed to using everywhere else.”

Developers creating apps for Mac or iOS must build on genuine Apple hardware, but until now, popular orchestration and container technologies like Kubernetes and Docker have been unable to leverage Mac operating systems. With Orka, Apple OS development teams can use container technology features in a Mac cloud the same way they build on other cloud platforms like AWS, Azure or GCP.

As part of its initial release, Orka will ship with a plugin for Jenkins, an open source automation server that enables developers around the world to reliably build, test and deploy their software using continuous integration and continuous delivery techniques.

“Mac has always been an important platform for developers, but it has consistently lagged in terms of automation,” said Kohsuke Kawaguchi, chief scientist at CloudBees and founder of the Jenkins project. “We’re excited that technologies like Orka bridge this crucial gap and make our users’ lives easier.”

MacStadium will be sponsoring DevOps World | Jenkins World in San Francisco from August 12-15 and presenting a session on how Orka integrates with Jenkins build pipelines and how it leverages the capability and power of Docker/Kubernetes in a Mac development environment. To learn more, visit MacStadium at booth #1329 during DevOps World | Jenkins World or visit the company’s website.

About MacStadium

MacStadium is the leading provider of Apple Mac cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), offering bare metal Macs and private cloud solutions for organizations of all sizes. MacStadium, a Summit Partners portfolio company, is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with growing operations in Las Vegas, Silicon Valley, Dublin, Ireland, and Frankfurt, Germany. Learn more at MacStadium.com or on Twitter @macstadium.

Apple and Mac are registered trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Other product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners.

Contacts

Heather Robertson

hrobertson@macstadium.com

Ben Waring

macstadium@matternow.com