KubeDigest - 12/2024

Welcome to the December edition of Glasskube Kubedigest! We are a bit late for this months edition, x-mas might have had something to do with it, but better late than never. Our short, monthly newsletter brings you key Glasskube product updates, content highlights, industry news, and noteworthy third-party tools we think you should have on your radar. Let’s get stuck right in.

Monthly Glasskube Update

Glasskube cloud

Glasskube Cloud is now publicly available, a platform purpose-built to help ISVs serve their on-prem customers. It bridges the gap between on-prem deployments and their ongoing management in environments where software vendors lack direct access. We already new that building a platform to improve how on-premises deployments are installed and maintained would be no easy task. Deployment targets vary widely, and end-user restrictions can differ just as much.

That’s why we’re actively inviting early users to share their feedback on the initial versions of Glasskube Cloud. Sign up for a free account and explore the platform! Upload your applications, manage deployments across multiple targets, handle application versions, and gain uptime monitoring metrics to get real-time insights into the live state of your deployments.

We’re excited to hear what you think!

If you’re interested in learning more or have feature requests that could make the tool directly applicable to your current use case, get in touch with us! We’d love to hear your thoughts and ensure the platform is ready to support as many ISVs serving on-prem customers as possible.

Monthly blog post highlight

In December, we started exploring the different types of software deployment models. We’ve noticed that both Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and software consumers often find the terminology around these models confusing and unclear. In our blog post, “Choosing the Right Software Deployment Model: On-Premises, Cloud (SaaS), or BYOC”, we break down these models and, more importantly, explain how each one impacts the division of responsibilities and ownership between vendors and customers.

Here’s a quick summary:

• Fully Managed (SaaS): The vendor handles both the software and its infrastructure, providing a seamless experience for customers via a subscription model. This option is ideal for businesses prioritizing simplicity and flexibility without stringent compliance or data sovereignty concerns.
• Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC): The vendor operates the software within the customer’s cloud environment, ensuring data sovereignty while sharing responsibility for infrastructure. This model is well-suited for highly regulated industries or companies maximizing their existing cloud investments.
• On-Premises: Customers take full ownership of infrastructure and software, managing all operations themselves. This model is perfect for organizations that value autonomy, compliance, or cost-efficiency, whether in private cloud setups or traditional data centers.

For the full breakdown, check out the blog here → glasskube.dev/blog/on-premises-vs-cloud-vs-byoc

We release the Building Blocks for Modern On-Prem Software Distribution White Paper

Software distribution is often one of the biggest sources of headaches for ISVs. Imagine this: you’re a software vendor putting your best efforts into creating exceptional software, only to discover that it’s packaged and delivered in a way that your end customer simply cannot use.

For enterprise-level software consumers, especially those in highly regulated industries, restrictions on how and where they can consume software are common. In many cases, the simplest and most flexible option, adopting a SaaS offering, is simply off the table due to the ever-changing landscape of data security and compliance requirements.

So, where does that leave Independent Software Vendors? There are proven strategies and methods ISVs can adopt to ensure their software is architected and delivered in a way that even the most complex and restricted end customers can consume. We’ve compiled these methods into a publicly available white paper we’ve recently published: The Building Blocks for Modern On-Prem Software Distribution.

As many ISVs know, there’s no one-size-fits-all software distribution platform that can magically transform your SaaS offering into an “on-prem-ready” product. There are many considerations to address, and unfortunately, some of them can’t be outsourced, they’ll require internal effort.

Through this whitepaper, we aim to make the journey to becoming “on-prem-ready” as straightforward and efficient as possible.

Get your copy now!

Glasskube package highlight

ParadeDB

ParadeDB is a modern Elasticsearch alternative built on PostgreSQL, designed for real-time, update-heavy workloads. Available through the Glasskube Package Manager, ParadeDB is licensed under the GNU Public License and has been adopted by companies like Alibaba to handle petabytes of data with its powerful full-text search capabilities.

ParadeDB is an excellent choice for developers who:

• Have update-heavy workloads that frequently trigger index rebuilds in Elasticsearch
• Need real-time search without relying on complex and costly ETL or CDC pipelines
• Require an ACID-compliant, MVCC-safe search and analytics engine
• Want to search over JOINs without resorting to data denormalization
• Trust PostgreSQL and prefer to avoid operating a separate database or query engine

We’re super happy to spotlight ParadeDB, a standout addition to the Glasskube public repository over the past few months. It’s definitely worth trying out!

See you next month!