Akamas enhances its cloud optimization capabilities with HPA tuning, new OpenShift and Kubernetes support, OAuth2 authentication, and more

Today we’re proud to announce Akamas latest version, 3.4.0! This is our biggest release to date, and incorporates a wealth of improvements that were highly requested from our customers. Akamas 3.4.0 ships today and includes the ability to optimize horizontal pod autoscaling for K8s workloads, the option to run Akamas on OpenShift and Kubernetes, the support for authentication with external identity providers leveraging the industry-standard OAuth2 protocol, plus several smaller improvements across the board.

Optimizing horizontal pod autoscaling

Horizontal pod autoscaler (HPA) is a widely adopted Kubernetes capability to improve service reliability and save costs. However, properly configuring HPA is challenging as developers need to tune scaling metrics and thresholds (in addition to resource requests & limits) for each workload, balancing cost efficiency with reliability concerns.

With Akamas 3.4.0, developers now can leverage Akamas to identify optimal HPA configurations for all K8s workloads easily. Akamas analyzes your application workload and recommends optimal CPU or throughput scaling thresholds to minimize monthly costs, always taking into account your application performance and reliability SLOs.

Coupled with the existing capability to optimize pod resources, Akamas can now offer complete workload optimization including both vertical (container requests and limits) and horizontal (HPA thresholds) scaling.

Akamas-on-OpenShift Support

Akamas 3.4.0 marks a major milestone with the introduction of support for running Akamas on the OpenShift 4.x platform. This update is a game-changer for users leveraging RedHat OpenShift for their cloud platforms, as it ensures that users can optimize applications cost efficiency and performance running on an robust and secure Kubernetes platform. This enhancement underlines Akamas’ focus on adaptability and security in enterprise cloud infrastructure ecosystems.

Akamas-on-Kubernetes Support

A significant milestone is the introduction of Kubernetes support for the Akamas platform. With this new capability, users can now run Akamas on a Kubernetes cluster without the need for a separate cloud instance.

Akamas is now packaged with Helm, which simplifies the platform configuration, installation and management. The new setup includes a toolbox pod which simplifies the integration with target systems and CI/CD pipelines.

Authentication with OAuth2

This significant update offers users a more secure and efficient way to manage access to the Akamas platform. With OAuth2, Akamas now seamlessly integrates with popular authentication services like Microsoft Azure Active Directory and Google, providing a streamlined login process. This enhancement not only simplifies user access management but also significantly elevates the security of the platform.

Furthermore, this integration supports external identity providers working alongside local authentication methods, offering flexibility in user management required in enterprise settings.

Optimization Pack enhancements for Go, Node.js, and Java

These enhancements focus on delivering superior performance and cost efficiency for applications built with Go, Node.js, and Java. This release includes an updated Java optimization pack to support OpenJDK 17, featuring new tuning flags including the new Z garbage collector. The Go optimization pack has been extended to cover the GOMEMLIMIT parameter included in Go 1.19. The Node.js optimization pack has been significantly improved with a broader selection of parameters for V8 heap and garbage collection tuning.

These refinements mark our focus to allow users to extract top performance and efficiency from their software stacks, while offering a more streamlined and effective optimization experience.

UI Improvements

Over the last year, we worked hard to improve the overall product user experience. Akamas 3.4.0 features significant UI enhancements, making the platform more intuitive and user-friendly. The workflow management and results analysis interfaces have undergone improvements for more streamlined navigation.

Additionally, aesthetic and usability enhancements have been implemented to elevate the overall user interface experience, creating a smoother and more visually engaging environment. To further assist first-time users, the user interface now includes direct links to documentation.

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In summary, Akamas continues to push the boundaries in cloud optimization. With its latest update, Akamas not only broadens its compatibility with major cloud platforms like Kubernetes and OpenShift but allows complete vertical and horizontal workload optimization while enhancing user experience and security. For more information, please visit our docs.

Stay tuned for further updates and breakthroughs from Akamas!