Alibaba Cloud Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK)
A Kubernetes-based service that ensures high efficiency for enterprises by running containerized applications on the cloud
A leading container service provider in the Asian-Pacific region
Alibaba Cloud Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) integrates virtualization, storage, networking, and security capabilities. ACK allows you to deploy applications in high-performance and scalable containers and provides full lifecycle management of enterprise-class containerized applications.
Alibaba Cloud was one of the first vendors to pass the Kubernetes conformance certification tests globally. Alibaba Cloud offers professional support and services.
Security and Management
Ensures end-to-end security for applications and supports permission management within an enterprise by using Alibaba Cloud accounts and RAM users
Ease of Use
Helps create containers and clusters easily. Provides all-in-one lifecycle management of containerized applications
High Efficiency and Reliability
Verified by Alibaba Cloud in super-large-scale scenarios. Allows you to start a large number of containers in seconds
Features
Networking
Enables communication between containers on different hosts. Supports VPC for high-performance networks
Storage
Supports volume management, cloud disks, and NAS file systems as volumes
Logging
Supports automatic log collection and integration with Log Service
Monitoring
Supports container monitoring and VM monitoring
Scheduling
Allows you to deploy workloads across zones to ensure high availability. Allows you to reschedule workloads off failed nodes
Routing
Allows you to forward layer 4 and layer 7 requests and bind the requests to backend containers
Permission
Supports authorizing RAM users to manage clusters
Authorization
Support RBAC authorization management system
Cluster Management
Allows you to create or delete clusters in different regions based on your business requirements
Resource Management
Allows you to authorize ACK to create new ECS instances in specific clusters. Allows you to add existing ECS instances to specific clusters
Integration
Supports integration with VPCs to provide secure and high-performance deployment solutions that apply to hybrid cloud scenarios. Supports integration with SLBs to enable access to containers
High Availability
Supports affinity policies and horizontal scaling of services. Provides high availability and disaster recovery across zones
Benefits
Improves your efficiency in deploying Kubernetes resources. You do not have to explore and develop Kubernetes by yourself.
Item |
ACK |
Self-Managed Kubernetes |
|
You can create clusters in the console easily easily, and use GPU-accelerated instances and ECS Bare Metal instances in a cluster. You can also deploy your cluster across zones to ensure high availability. |
You need to manually deploy and develop clusters by yourself. |
|---|---|---|
Application Management |
Supports canary releases and blue-green releases. |
You need to explore and develop Kubernetes by yourself. |
Network Management |
Provides a high-performance network plug-in that is optimized for Alibaba Cloud to assign ENIs to pods. The network performance of a VPC with this plug-in is 20% higher than a regular network solution. |
You need to use network plug-ins from the community for adoption. |
Storage Management |
Supports Alibaba Cloud cloud disks, local disks, NAS file systems, CPFS file systems, and OSS buckets. Provides CSI and FlexVolume as volume drivers. |
You need to explore and develop Kubernetes by yourself. |
O&M Management |
Allows you to upgrade Kubernetes versions and automatically add nodes to a Kubernetes cluster. |
You need to explore and develop Kubernetes by yourself. |
Service Assurance |
The Alibaba Cloud Technical Team provides support to ensure the stability and security of your ACK clusters. |
You need to build a dedicated team for your service. |
Different Types of ACK Clusters
Dedicated Kubernetes
Allows you to perform more fine-grained control on the infrastructures of your clusters.
Features
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You need to manually create master and worker nodes.
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You are only charged for master nodes, worker nodes, and
other infrastructure resources.
You need to manually create master and worker nodes.
Scenarios
Migrate workloads, services, and on-premises data to the cloud & Enterprise Digital Transformation
Managed Kubernetes
You only need to create and manage worker nodes while master nodes will be managed by ACK.
Features
-
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Ease of use, low-cost, and high availability.
-
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Standard-Managed Kubernetes Clusters: You are charged
for the worker nodes and other infrastructure resources. -
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Professional-Managed Kubernetes Clusters: You are charged
on a subscription basis or based on the number of clusters.
Scenarios
Website development and application hosting on the Internet
Serverless Kubernetes
You can directly launch applications without creating or managing any node.
Features
-
![]()
You do not need to create master or worker nodes.
-
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You are charged for the container resource usage used by
and by duration (how long the containers have been running in
seconds).
Scenarios
Batch tasks, sudden scale-out activities, and CI/CD tests.
Scenarios
An optimized continuous delivery pipeline
ACK works with Jenkins to automate the DevOps pipeline from code submission to application deployment. ACK ensures that only code that passes automatic tests is submitted for deployment, and provides a better alternative to traditional delivery models that involve complex deployments and slow iterations.
ACK enables the following features:
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Automated DevOps
Automates the DevOps pipeline from code updates to code builds, image builds, and application deployments.
-
Consistent Environment
Allows you to deliver code along with runtime environments based on an immutable architecture.
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Continuous Feedback
Provides immediate feedback after each integration and delivery.
Enables rapid application development with a focus on machine learning
Allows data engineers to deploy machine learning applications in HPC clusters easily. This way, data engineers can track tests and training, publish models in real-time, and store data in distributed storage systems. This avoids the inconvenience of application deployment and O&M and enables rapid application development with a focus on machine learning.
ACK enables the following features:
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Quick Start and Auto Scaling
Allows you to deploy machine learning applications easily. Starts containers in seconds and supports container auto scaling.
-
Ease of Use
Allows you to utilize GPU capabilities and monitor GPU resources easily.
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Deep Integration
Seamless integration with the storage, log monitoring, and security infrastructure capabilities provided by Alibaba Cloud.
Agile development and deployment speeds up the evolution of business models
In enterprise production environments, you can split your services into microservices and store the images of the microservice applications in the Container Registry repositories. Alibaba Cloud can schedule, orchestrate, deploy, and implement canary releases for microservice applications. You only need to focus on the feature updates.
ACK enables the following features:
-
Load Balancing and Service Discovery
Forwards layer 4 and layer 7 requests and binds the requests to backend containers.
-
Multiple Scheduling and Disaster Recovery Policies
Supports service scheduling based on affinity settings and cross-zone deployments for high availability and disaster recovery.
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Microservice Monitoring and Auto Scaling
Supports microservice and container monitoring and microservice auto scaling
A unified O&M of cloud resources
You can centrally-manage the cloud and on-premises resources in the ACK console. Containers can be deployed regardless of infrastructures. You can use the same images and orchestration templates to deploy applications on the cloud and on-premises.
ACK enables the following features:
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Application Scaling on the Cloud
During peak hours, ACK can scale-out applications on the cloud and forward traffic to the scaled-out resources.
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Disaster Recovery on the Cloud
Business systems can be deployed on-premises for service provisioning and on the cloud for disaster recovery.
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On-Premises Development and Testing
Applications that are developed and tested on-premises can be seamlessly released to the cloud.
Scale-in or scale-out automatically based on traffic
ACK can scale the workloads automatically based on traffic. This prevents traffic spikes from bringing your system down and eliminates idle resources during off-peak hours.
ACK enables the following features:
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Quick Response
A scale-out event can be triggered within seconds when traffic reaches the scale-out threshold.
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Full Automation
The scaling process is fully-automated without human interference.
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Low-Cost
Containers are automatically scaled-in when traffic decreases to avoid resource waste.
Customers Success Stories
Peanut Diary
"We tried containerization for the first time in 2018 to improve the utilization of IT resources, also expecting to use container technologies to improve the overall reliability, stability, elasticity, and fault tolerance of the system. Hope to achieve more with the container technologies in the near future."
STO Express
"As one of the most rapidly developing logistics enterprises, During Double 11, the whole system was stably run on Alibaba Cloud. It stood the test of hundreds of millions of parcels and provided responses within milliseconds for tens of millions of orders."
RedMart
"Alibaba Cloud has helped RedMart manage our software applications in a flexible, reliable, and cost-effective manner. Alibaba Cloud has played a pivotal role in helping us convince customers of our customer focus and commitment to be more reliable and responsive."
Perfect Diary
"We used Alibaba Cloud Container Service for Kubernetes to set up a test environment quickly and ensure system stability and availability for all of our big sales and promotions. Thanks to the auto scaling feature of ACK, we reduced server costs by more than 50%."
3Vjia
"After migrating the data to the cloud, 3Vjia plans to migrate the production environment of the entire household industrial chain to the cloud. We aim to build the largest industrial Internet platform for the household industry in China. The cloud makes it all possible."
Onion Academy
"After Onion Academy adopted ACK, the resource usage of the system increased by 60%. ACK allows Onion Academy to isolate resources as soon as possible when an error occurs. When the business surges, Onion Academy can scale-out its system quickly to support the business."
Best Practices
Comparing Performances of Different Networks for Alibaba Cloud Kubernetes Clusters
Uses comparative items, such as latency, throughput, and packet forwarding rate
Deploying a Highly Scalable Kubernetes Cluster on Alibaba Cloud
Automatically adjusts the computing capabilities of a cluster when the workload of the cluster changes
Deploying a Spring Cloud Application in an ACK Cluster
Uses Kompose and Helm to deploy Spring Cloud applications easily
Deploying the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on Alibaba Cloud
Reduces the operational cost of container orchestration
Manually Scaling a Kubernetes Cluster on Alibaba Cloud
Allows you to manually scale out a Kubernetes cluster by deploying containerized applications
Migrating an On-Premises Kubernetes Cluster to Alibaba Cloud
Migrates an on-premises Kubernetes cluster to ACK in Alibaba Cloud
Optimizing GPU Usage for a Kubernetes Cluster
Uses nodes equipped with NVIDIA GPUs and improves the GPU usage
Resources
Certification course: Using Kubernetes to Manage Containers and Cluster Resources
Through the introduction of basic knowledge of Kubernetes and ACK, this course enables learners to quickly get started with ACK.
0.01 USD
List Price: USD 10.00
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1 on 1 Presale Consultation, 24/7 Technical Support, Faster Response, and More Free Tickets.
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Cloud Native Applications Management
Accelerates and secures the development, deployment, and management of containerized applications in a cost-effective manner.
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