Kanister.io: A CNCF Sandbox Project for App-Consistent Backup

When Kasten launched its commercial Kubernetes data protection product at KubeCon 2017, Kasten K10, it jointly launched Kanister, an open source project. Kanister is a cloud-native data protection workflow tool that manages data operations for application-consistent backup and recovery. The Kanister journey to join the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as a sandbox project in September 2023 mirrors the maturity of cloud-native in the enterprise by blending open source and commercial solutions.

In 2020, Kasten joined Veeam, a global leader in data protection and management, and the joint organization boosted open source projects and joined the CNCF as a Platinum member. In 2022, the Data on Kubernetes Community Report found 70% of respondents ran stateful applications in production and the Datadog Container Report found databases make up the majority of stateful workloads.

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Which of the following best describes how you currently monitor and manage systems across your hybrid cloud environment?(Required)

Multiple separate tools for different environments

Multiple separate tools for different monitoring and management functions

Single consolidated dashboard

Custom built monitoring and management solution

No full monitoring and management solution

Don’t know

How valuable would it be for your monitoring and management solution to incorporate predictive analytics to help you identify and address system issues that are critical and not waste time or effort working through all the data and “noise” that is not critical?(Required)

Extremely valuable

Moderately valuable

Somewhat valuable

Slightly valuable

Not valuable

How do you most typically address potential system issues BEFORE they impact your operations?(Required)

Automated workflows and playbooks to remediate potential issues as soon as they are detected

An orchestrated response process that leverages automation, AI, and human expertise to rapidly respond to potential issues

Advanced monitoring tools such as predictive analytics and anomaly detection to proactively identify and address potential issues

Respond to issues as they arise, using manual processes and troubleshooting techniques

A combination of automated remediation, orchestrated response, and/or proactive monitoring to address potential system issues

Don’t know

Other

What methods does your organization use to control and monitor cloud/IT spending?(Required)

Centralized procurement processes

Pre-approved budget thresholds

Automated cost monitoring tools

Department-level spending controls

Regular cost audits and reviews

Cloud cost optimization platform

Approval workflows for resource provisioning

Native financial operations tools provided by the cloud provider

No formal controls in place

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

Which methods do you rely on most to detect security vulnerabilities in your systems?(Required)

Automated scanning tools

Manual assessments

Vendor notifications

Threat modeling (for early detection)

None of these

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

What are the TWO most common ways you prioritize vulnerabilities to address within your environment?(Required)

Based on potential impact

Based on exploitability

Regulatory compliance requirements

Based on CVSS scores

Risk-based analysis of multiple factors

First-in-first-out approach

No formal prioritization process

Don’t know

How do you typically handle system updates and security patches?(Required)

Automated updates and patches

Manually review and apply updates and patches on a regular schedule

A combination of automation and manual review

Apply updates and patches on an as-needed basis.

Outsourced update and patch management

No defined process

Don’t know

Other

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As organizations expand their Kubernetes adoption with persistent workloads and databases, application backup challenges increase due to the operational complexity of applications and infrastructure together. Application-consistent backup is needed for cloud-native disaster recovery. Traditional infrastructure backups and Container Storage Interface (CSI) VolumeSnapshots are insufficient for distributed application data at rest. Kanister’s Day 2 data protection operations coordinate application services, Kubernetes storage and off-cluster backups.

Because Kanister is an extensible orchestration framework, it can manage the application, cluster facilities and external facilities with logical and system tools. The Kanister controller runs on a Kubernetes cluster and consumes blueprint, profile and ActionSet custom resources. Blueprints leverage Kanister functions and external facilities, grouping complex operations into parallel and phased execution, typically for backup, restore and artifact management. Profiles specify storage endpoints and credentials. Blueprints combine with profiles when invoked by auditable ActionSets. Kanister provides cloud-native operations as it orchestrates data protection operations, produces Prometheus metrics and paves the way for data protection in GitOps pipelines.

Kanister encourages a reusable, modular and future-proof approach to data protection operations. The Kanister community has contributed and improved blueprints for a variety of databases, including AWS (Amazon Web Services) RDS (Relational Database Service), Postgres, MariaDB, Elasticsearch, etc. to supply data consistency for the growing wave of stateful workloads on Kubernetes. Kanister blueprints can be tuned to improve backup and recovery with resource efficiency for storage, CPU and memory concerns. To change or add a new workload version, operation or storage provider is easy, increasing persistent application data protection reliability and flexibility. Blueprint and profile reuse across multiple workloads and workload instances ensures consistency and removes duplicate effort.

Kanister solves application-consistent backup and recovery gaps across the industry by improving point solutions (such as Kubernetes database operators), potentially coordinating external facilities and replacing bespoke efforts. As a CNCF.io Sandbox project, it ensures Kanister is a neutral solution to improve adoption while demonstrating Veeam and Kasten’s continued engineering innovation and community contributions. Kasten and Veeam are proud to help the community move forward with innovative tools and solutions like Kanister.

By fostering freedom of workload choice and customization for application-consistent data protection, Kanister helps the growth of Kubernetes stateful applications. To learn more about the Kanister project, join the community and explore blueprints, please visit https://Kanister.io. Please visit the Kasten by Veeam booth at KubeCon Chicago to see Kanister in action!

More Kanister learning resources:

• CNCF Webinar: Kubernetes Data Protection Requires Orchestration – Kanister.io Delivers (no registration)
• White Paper: Conquer Data Consistency with Kanister.io Blueprints (requires registration)
• Hands-on Lab: Application Consistency with Kanister (requires registration)

To hear more about cloud-native topics, join the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and the cloud-native community at KubeCon+CloudNativeCon North America 2023 – November 6-9, 2023.