Kubernetes is the main control plane and central API for practically everything built further up the stack. There are a few reasons for this decision:
Figure 11. Layers of a Kubernetes grid
To make it even easier to adapt Kubernetes - VMware released a Kubernetes support in the vSphere 7.0 release. Along with the deep vSphere integration for configuration and management, VMware provides required Kubernetes integration services like container networking or persistent storage support for containers. Kubernetes adoption is also streamlined by providing a Docker® image registry (based on open-source Harbor project). Support for user authentication using vSphere or any
SSO provider makes it ready for integration into existing enterprise systems.
To speed deployment and time to solution of an on-premises data science platform, the reference architecture from VMware is a perfect starting point to build your own solution.
Figure 12. Software and versions table