Former Google Cloud executive and Craig McLuckie is teaming up Kubernetes pioneer Joe Beda to launch Heptio Inc. with a goal of making software containers mainstream in the enterprise.

McLuckie (above) will be chief executive of the new venture, which has raised $8.5 million from Accel Partners LP and Madrona Venture Group. Accel General Partner Ping Li and Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter led the round, McLuckie told SiliconANGLE.

The company is seeking to smooth the road for enterprise to move to containers using Kubernetes, an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications. Kubernetes, originally developed by Google before it turned it over to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, promises to remove much of the complexity of underlying infrastructure, making it easier for companies to deploy applications in a way that enables seamless movement between platforms.

Although the hype over containers that accompanied their arrival two years ago has subsided somewhat, adoption is gaining steam. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation was founded last year to help the process along, and this year saw the emergence of the KubeCon and CloudNativeCon events organized around Kubernetes. This year’s KubeCon drew 1,500 attendees and officials expect several thousand people to attend next year.

Speaking to SiliconANGLE Media’s video unit theCUBE at KubeCon (* disclosure below), conference founder Joseph Jacks described Kubernetes as the “Linux kernel” for distributed systems. Built on collaboration between some of the world’s largest cloud-native companies, it promises to dramatically simplify choices for enterprises that are looking to move to the container model.

“You can look at it as a Posix [Portable Operating System interface] for distributed systems,” he said. “As Linux started to stabilize and become more reliable, vendors came in to package systems. We’re going to see the same thing happen with Kubernetes.”

Heptio could be a significant new player, but its impact will depend on a number of factors, including how broadly it partners with cloud infrastructure providers as well as its relationship with Docker Inc., the container market standard-bearer.

The company is documenting its thinking about what a cloud-native world will look like in a series of posts on its blog.

TheCUBE interviewed Jacks, who is also senior director of product management for Kubernetes platform engineering at Apprenda Inc., and Rakesh Malhotra, Apprenda’s senior vice president of products and engineering, at KubeCon about the appeal of Kubernetes:

Photo by SiliconANGLE

* Disclosure: TheCUBE was a paid media partner at KubeCon. Neither show organizers nor sponsors have editorial influence on content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.