July 2022 Summaries

The Early Explorers Program for CAST AI has ended, and the platform is now open to all beta users. CAST AI aims to provide developers with the freedom to deploy Kubernetes applications across multiple cloud providers in a few minutes. To ensure the best product for Kubernetes application developers, feedback from those working with multi-cloud deployment is crucial. The Explorers program offers participants exclusive access to the engineering team and a free Premium subscription for the rest of the year. CAST AI's key features include multi-cloud support, optimal cost vs. performance balance, easy troubleshooting, and ensuring uptime and scaling through shifting compute within and between cloud providers.

We've developed CAST AI, a multi-cloud platform that connects AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud into one platform, allowing users to deploy, manage, and cost-optimize applications in multiple clouds simultaneously. CAST AI provides features such as autoscaling, opinionated configuration, auto-healing, built-in observability, and the ability for users to leave anytime without affecting their cluster's operation. The platform has been designed to make developers' jobs easier by providing a secure network mesh, eliminating vendor lock-in and cloud waste, while achieving over 60% cost savings for its users.

CAST AI has passed the independent SOC 2 Type II examination, attesting to its high-level privacy and security policies and processes. This achievement is significant as it represents one of the most thorough and difficult-to-achieve compliance under the SOC umbrella. The examination assesses security, confidentiality, and availability based on five key principles established by the AICPA, including protections against unauthorized access, completeness and accuracy of processing, and privacy of personal information. CAST AI developed strict security procedures following these principles and engaged an accredited independent auditor to assess their quality over a period of four months. The result confirmed that CAST AI consistently lives up to its security promises, meeting all service commitments and system requirements. Additionally, CAST AI is already ISO27001-certified and continuously improving its security practices to protect against various threats.

CNCF is a vendor-neutral organization that supports the growth and evolution of the cloud-native ecosystem, with over 500 members including major companies and startups. CAST AI has joined CNCF to foster the development of cloud-native technologies that align with its approach, aiming to decentralize and democratize the industry. The organization's mission is to make cloud-native computing ubiquitous, and it welcomes CAST AI as a member to help move forward innovation in the ecosystem.

CAST AI is a multi-cloud management platform designed to help developers deploy, manage, and cost-optimize Kubernetes applications across multiple cloud environments. It creates a production-ready cluster with all required networking, security, and observability components, making Kubernetes management easy. CAST AI optimizes for cost and performance by automatically finding the most cost-effective cloud services and locations for containers, enabling up to 50% compute bill reduction. The platform provides a vanilla Kubernetes experience, supports mono-cloud or multi-cloud scenarios, and offers features such as cost optimization, resilience, security, and full cloud interoperability. CAST AI is available in beta launch with free access until its official launch, inviting users to join the community on Slack to help build the best multi-cloud solution.

We are excited to announce the launch of our new product, EKS Optimizer, which helps teams optimize their Kubernetes environments on AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) to slash their costs. Our platform analyzes clusters for free and provides cost savings reports. The EKS Optimizer keeps optimizing your setup in line with your cost policies. We have already received interest from large companies in industries such as e-commerce, data analytics, and cybersecurity. By using EC2 spot instances, our platform achieves significant cost savings of 50-80%. Our unique blend of automation and optimization algorithms empowers teams to reap the full benefits of their cloud investments without extra work. The EKS Optimizer is now available directly within our CAST AI platform and will also become available on the AWS Marketplace in the near future.

CAST AI has released a plug-and-play solution for teams running Kubernetes on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure to monitor and report their cloud costs in one place. The solution provides real-time visibility into cloud expenses, including compute resources, and offers hands-on recommendations for optimizing resource use. It also includes automated optimization features to continuously reduce cluster cost without requiring significant engineer time. The solution is accessible instantly and free of charge, with no limits on the number or size of Kubernetes clusters.

The tech meltdown is affecting not only companies operating at the seam between high tech and other sectors, but also pure tech businesses. Cloud security firm Lacework has laid off 20% of its staff due to rising cloud bills. Many startups that expanded rapidly during the pandemic are now paying a steep price for their unchecked growth. Security is a concern for Kubernetes and container-based projects, with 93% of respondents experiencing at least one security incident in their Kubernetes and container environments in the past 12 months. Microsoft Azure experienced six "nightmare" cloud security flaws over the past year. AWS remains the most used cloud platform among all respondents and Professional Developers, while Azure has stolen the second-place spot from Google Cloud.

Microsoft Azure offers several cost optimization tips to help users save on their cloud computing bills, making it easier to manage expenses without sacrificing resources. By utilizing reserved instances with significant discounts, taking advantage of price matching with AWS costs, using built-in cost management tools such as advisor, calculator, budgets, and analysis, repackaging applications into containers, analyzing usage patterns and setting schedules for virtual machines, and deleting unused virtual disks, users can drastically reduce their cloud computing bill. These tips provide a comprehensive approach to optimizing Azure costs, allowing organizations to make the most of their IT budget while maintaining efficient resource utilization.

Companies often struggle with controlling their cloud costs due to factors such as the pay-per-use model, lack of visibility into expenses, and decentralized decision-making. Cloud cost management involves monitoring, reporting, allocation, budgeting, and forecasting cloud costs. However, it doesn't guarantee savings unless combined with automated optimization. Automated optimization can help manage instance rightsizing, autoscaling instances, managing spot instance interruptions, and more. Companies should consider using both cloud spend management and optimization strategies to keep costs under control effectively.

Gartner surveyed 58% of infrastructure and operations leaders who face challenges in cloud optimization due to insufficient skills and resources. During summer months when engineers take time off, scaling down cloud resources is critical to maintain low OPEX and high utilization. Managed service providers and solutions can help bridge the cloud skills gap by bringing know-how, process maturity, and established toolsets that improve cloud usage. Automation tools with abstraction layers free teams from complexity, allowing them to focus on more impactful activities. Cloud automation solutions automate tasks such as provisioning resources, rightsizing instances, scaling, and decommissioning, reducing management overhead and cost savings. Equipping engineers with automation solutions can prepare their cloud infrastructure for the summer season, ensuring a cost-effective operation.