Karbon Platform Services Overview

Karbon Platform Services is a Kubernetes-based multicloud platform as a service that enables rapid development and deployment of microservice-based applications. These applications can range from simple stateful containerized applications to complex web-scale applications across any cloud.

In its simplest form, Karbon Platform Services consists of a Service Domain encapsulating a project, application, and services infrastructure, and other supporting resources. It also incorporates project and administrator user access and cloud and data pipelines to help converge edge and cloud data.

With Karbon Platform Services, you can:

• Quickly build and deploy intelligent applications across a public or private cloud infrastructure.

• Connect various mobile, highly distributed data sensors (like video cameras, temperature or pressure sensors, streaming devices, and so on) to help collect data.

• Create intelligent applications using data connectors and machine learning modules (for example, implementing object recognition) to transform the data. An application can be as simple as text processing code or it could be advanced code implementing AI by using popular machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow.

• Push this data to your Service Domain or the public cloud to be stored or otherwise made available.

This data can be stored at the Service Domain or published to the cloud. You can then create intelligent applications using data connectors and machine learning modules to consume the collected data. These applications can run on the Service Domain or the cloud where you have pushed collected data.

Nutanix provides the Service Domain initially as a VM appliance hosted in an AOS AHV or ESXi cluster. You manage infrastructure, resources, and Karbon Platform Services capabilities in a console accessible through a web browser.

Cloud Management Console and User Experience

As part of initial and ongoing configuration, you can define two user types: an infrastructure administrator and a project user. The cloud management console and user experience help create a more intuitive experience for infrastructure administrators and project users.

• Admin Console drop-down menu for infra admins and Home Console drop-down menu for project users. Both menus provide a list of all current projects and 1-click access to an individual project. In the navigation sidebar, Projects also provides a navigation path to the overall list of projects.
  For infra admins, Admin Console provides access to the Kubernetes Clusters dashboard. You can import existing Kubernetes clusters and manage them through the dashboard.

• Vertical tabs for most pages and dashboards. For example, clicking Administration > Logging shows the Logging dashboard with related task and Alert tabs. The left navigation menu remains persistent to help eliminate excessive browser refreshes and help overall navigation.

• Simplified Service Domain Management. In addition to the standard Service Domain list showing all Service Domains, a consolidated dashboard for each Service Domain is available from Infrastructure > Service Domain. Karbon Platform Services also simplifies upgrade operations available from Administration > Upgrades. For convenience, infra admins can choose when to download available versions to all or selected Service Domains, when to upgrade them, and check status for all or individual Service Domains.

• Updated Workflows for Infrastructure Admins and Project Users. Apart from administration operations such as Service Domain, user management, and resource management, the infra admin and project user work flow is project-centric. A project encapsulates everything required to successfully implement and monitor the platform.

• Updated GPU/vGPU Configuration Support. If your Service Domain includes access to a GPU/vGPU, you can choose its use case. When you create or update a Service Domain, you can specify exclusive access by any Kubernetes app or data pipeline or by the AI Inferencing API (for example, if you are using ML Models).

Karbon Platform Services Cloud Management Console

The web browser-based Karbon Platform Services cloud management console enables you to manage infrastructure and related projects, with specific management capability dependent on your role (infrastructure administrator or project user).

You can log on with your My Nutanix or local user credentials.

For more information, please refer to the KPS User Guide.