Heptio Inc. exited stealth mode late last year with $8.5 million in funding to commercialize Kubernetes, the popular open-source framework for managing software containers. Ten months later, the startup is making two major contributions that could go a long way towards widening the project’s enterprise appeal.

The first is Sonobuoy, a monitoring tool for checking that a Kubernetes cluster is configured correctly. It can run a series of tests to determine if every major component is set up properly and assess how well the deployment as a whole operates. The software also comes with plugin support, which enables companies to easily customize what evaluations are carried out based on the specific characteristics of their infrastructure for containers, which encapsulate applications so they can be run on multiple computers and operating systems.

Using Sonobuoy can be a convenient alternative to manually running tests, especially in large environments. Its readouts are also useful for sharing cluster information across a team when potential technical issues arise.

If a problem is detected too late, developers can turn to the other new tool that Heptio rolled out today. The project is called Ark and provides the ability to create replicas of a Kubernetes environment for use in the event of a major outage. Heptio claims that restoring a snapshot is considerably easier than with manual backup methods, which makes it possible to recover more reliably.

Another use that the startup sees for Ark is making container clusters portable. A company could use a snapshot of its live Kubernetes environment to create an identical testing grounds where developers can try out changes, or migrate the deployment to new infrastructure if necessary. The tool currently supports Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, with Heptio planning to add more platforms to the lineup later.

Ark and Sonobuoy are available on GitHub under an open-source license. Heptio founder Craig McLuckie, who had helped develop Kubernetes at Google Inc. before establishing Heptio, wrote in a blog post that developers “can expect to see a lot more from us in the coming months.”

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