Q: Give us a background on Cycle and what problem you are trying to solve? What is the problem with existing infrastructure like Kubernetes and\/or similar?<\/strong><\/p>\nA: We believe that cloud orchestration, and more specifically, container orchestration, is broken. Instead of focusing on the most common use cases, too many companies within this space end up chasing a never-ending list of edge cases and features. This lack of focus yields overly complex, messy, and fragile deployments that cause more stress than peace-of-mind.<\/p>\n
Cycle takes a bold approach on container orchestration: focus on the 80%. Most companies don\u2019t require, or need, a majority of the features and capabilities that come with platforms like Kubernetes. By staying hyper-focused on where we spend our time, and prioritizing quality over quantity of features, the Cycle platform has become an incredibly stable and powerful foundation for companies of all sizes.<\/p>\n
The goal for Cycle is simple: Be the most developer-friendly container platform for businesses.<\/p>\n
We believe that developers should be able to easily utilize containers on their own infrastructure without having to deal with the mundane tasks commonly involved with managing infrastructure and orchestration platforms. Cycle makes that a reality.<\/p>\n
Q: What are the major challenges developers face today with container orchestration?<\/strong><\/p>\nComplexity. Most deployments today require piecing together a wide variety of different tools and technologies for even the most basic deployments. Instead of adopting solutions that empower development teams without increasing bloat, too many organizations are chasing hype and increasing their ever-growing pile of technical debt.<\/p>\n
Additionally, most of today\u2019s platforms require constant hand-holding. While there are many tools that help reduce the amount of time to get a first deployment online, we see a major drop-off when it comes to \u201cday two operations.\u201d What happens when there\u2019s a new update, or security patch? How often are these updates released? How many developers\/DevOps personnel are needed to apply these updates? How much downtime should be expected?<\/p>\n
With Cycle, we reduce complexity by providing a single turnkey solution for developers\u2014no extra tools required. Additionally, our platform is built around the idea that everything should be capable of automatically updating. On average, we deploy platform updates to our customer infrastructure once every 10-14 days.<\/p>\n
Q: Before announcing our integration, had you implemented Backblaze internally? Could you expand on that?<\/strong><\/p>\nAbsolutely! In the early days of Cycle, we made the decision to standardize and flatten all container images into raw OCI images. This was our way of hedging against different technologies going through hype waves. At the time, Docker was the \u201ctop dog\u201d in the container space but there was also CoreOS and a number of others.<\/p>\n
In an effort to control as much of the vertical stack as possible, we decided that, beyond flattening images, we should also store the resulting images ourselves. This way, if Docker Hub or another container registry unexpectedly changed their APIs or pricing, our platform and users would be insulated from those changes. As you can see, we put a lot of thought into limiting external variables.<\/p>\n
Given the above, we knew that having an infinitely scalable storage solution was critical for the platform. After testing a number of providers, Backblaze B2 was the perfect fit for our needs.<\/p>\n
Fast-forward to today, where all base images are stored on Backblaze.<\/p>\n
Q: As alluded to above, you\u2019re currently building a customer-facing integration. What\u2019s the new feature? Have customers been asking for this?<\/strong><\/p>\nWe\u2019re excited to announce that Cycle now supports automatic backups for stateful containers. A number of customers have been requesting this feature for a while and we\u2019re thrilled to finally release it.<\/p>\n
At Cycle, data ownership is very important to us\u2014our platform was built specifically to empower developers while ensuring they, and their employers, still retain full ownership and control of their data. This automated backups feature is no different. By associating a Backblaze B2 API Key with Cycle, organizations can maintain ownership of their backups.<\/p>\n
Q: What sparked the decision to partner and integrate with Backblaze specifically?<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile there are a number of reasons this partnership makes a ton of sense, narrowing it down to a top three would be:<\/p>\n
Performance: As we were testing different Object Storage providers, Backblaze B2 routinely was one of the most reliable while also offering solid upload and download speeds. We also liked that Backblaze B2 wasn\u2019t overly bloated with features\u2014it had exactly what we needed.<\/p>\n
Cost: As Cycle continues to grow, and our storage needs increase, it\u2019s incredibly important to keep costs in check. Beyond predictable and transparent pricing, the base cost per terabyte of data is impressive.<\/p>\n
Team: Working with the Backblaze team has been incredible. From our early conversations with Nilay, Backblaze\u2019s VP of Sales, to the expanded conversations with much of the Backblaze team today, everyone has been super eager to help.<\/p>\n
Q: Backblaze and Cycle share a similar vision in making life easier for developers. It goes beyond just dollars saved, though that is a bonus, but what is it about \u201csimple\u201d that is so important? Infrastructure of the future?<\/strong><\/p>\nGood question! There are a number of different ways to answer this, but for the sake of not turning this into an essay, let\u2019s focus purely on what we, the Cycle team, refer to as \u201cthink long term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone can make a process complex, but it takes a truly focused effort to keep things simple. Rules and guidelines are needed. You need to be able to say \u201cNo\u201d to certain feature requests and customer demands. To be able to provide a polished and clean experience, you have to be purposeful in what you\u2019re building. Far too often, companies will chase short term wins while sacrificing long-term gains, but true innovation takes time. In a world where most tech companies are built off venture capital, long-term gambles and innovations are deprioritized.<\/p>\n
From the way both Cycle and Backblaze have been funded, to a number of other aspects, we\u2019ve both positioned our companies to take those long term risks and focus on simplifying otherwise complex processes. It\u2019s part of our culture, it\u2019s who we are as teams and organizations.<\/p>\n
As we talk about developers, we see a common pattern. Developers always love testing new technologies, they enjoy getting into the weeds and tweaking all of the variables. But, as time goes on, developers shift away from \u201cI want to control every variable\u201d into more of a \u201cI just want something that works and gets out of the way.\u201d This is where Cycle and Backblaze both excel.<\/p>\n
Q: What can we look forward to as this partnership matures? Anything exciting on the horizon for Cycle that you\u2019d like to share?<\/strong><\/p>\nWe\u2019re really looking forward to expanding our partnership with Backblaze as the Cycle platform continues to grow. Combining powerful container orchestration with a seamless object storage solution can empower developers to more easily build the next generation of products and services.<\/p>\n
While we now host our base container images and customer backups on Backblaze, this is still just the start. We have a number of really exciting features launching in 2022 that\u2019ll further strengthen the partnership between our companies and the value we can provide to developers around the world.<\/p>\n
Interested in learning more about the developer solutions available with Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage? Join us, free, for Developer Day on October 21 for announcements, tech talks, lessons, SWAG, and more to help you understand how B2 Cloud Storage can work for you.
Register today.<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Learn more about our latest integration with Cycle, which empowers developers to easily deploy containers, unify their application management, and choose the microservices and technologies they need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":103219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,484],"tags":[468],"class_list":["post-103160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud-storage","category-partner-news","tag-b2cloud","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Bringing Connected Container Management for Laptops via Cycle.io<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Connected Container Management provides easier container orchestration. Find out how you can use Cycle and Backblaze for easier container management.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/bringing-connected-container-management-to-backblaze-cycle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bringing Connected Container Management for Laptops via Cycle.io\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Connected Container Management provides easier container orchestration. 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<\/p>\n