MacStadium announces ‘Orka’ (Orchestration with Kubernetes on Apple)

Today, MacStadium, an enterprise-class cloud solution for Apple Mac infrastructure, announced ‘Orka’ (Orchestration with Kubernetes on Apple). Orka is a new virtualization layer for Mac build infrastructure based on Docker and Kubernetes technology. It offers a solution for orchestrating macOS in a cloud environment using Kubernetes on genuine Apple Mac hardware.

With Orka, users can apply native Kubernetes commands for macOS virtual machines (VMs) on genuine Apple hardware. “While Kubernetes and Docker are not new to full-stack developers, a solution like this has not existed in the Apple ecosystem before,” MacStadium wrote in an email statement to us.

“The reality is that most enterprises need to develop applications for Apple platforms, but these enterprises prefer to use nimble, software-defined build environments,” said Greg McGraw, Chief Executive Officer, MacStadium. “With Orka, MacStadium’s flagship orchestration platform, developers and DevOps teams now have access to a software-defined Mac cloud experience that treats infrastructure-as-code, similar to what they are accustomed to using everywhere else.”

Developers creating apps for Mac or iOS must build on genuine Apple hardware. However, until now, popular orchestration and container technologies like Kubernetes and Docker have been unable to leverage Mac operating systems. With Orka, Apple OS development teams can use container technology features in a Mac cloud, the same way they build on other cloud platforms like AWS, Azure or GCP.

As part of its initial release, Orka will ship with a plugin for Jenkins, an open-source automation tool that enables developers to build, test and deploy their software using continuous integration techniques.

Macstadium will also present a session at DevOps World | Jenkins World in San Francisco (August 12-15) demonstrating users how Orka integrates with Jenkins build pipelines and how it leverages the capability and power of Docker/Kubernetes in a Mac development environment.

To know more about Orka in detail, visit MacStadium’s official website.