Lens 5 Empowers DevOps Teams To Securely Share Kubernetes Clusters with Anyone, Anywhere

Lens version 5 GA removes the pain of accessing Kubernetes clusters 

CAMPBELL, Calif., June 29, 2021–Mirantis, the open cloud company, today announced the general availability of Lens 5–unlocking teamwork and collaboration, eliminating the pain of accessing Kubernetes clusters while providing a unique way for accessing clusters, services, tools, pipelines, automations, and any other related resources in one click, regardless of where or how they are running.

Lens 5 introduces Lens Spaces, a centralized cloud-based service — integrated with Lens IDE — that lets teams create collaborative spaces for their cloud-native development needs. Lens brings entire cloud-native technology stacks together, making developers more productive. For example, in addition to team management functionality which allows easy onboarding for new users, Lens Spaces features a centralized catalog providing easy discovery and access to all clusters, services, tools, pipelines, automations, and related resources used by developer teams, regardless of how or where they are running. With Lens Spaces, users can access and work with Kubernetes clusters easily from anywhere, without sacrificing security or breaking the Kubernetes cluster role-based access control (RBAC) model.

“Sharing access to the Kubernetes cluster is not always easy — you might have to work with IAMs, have a bunch of dedicated tooling installed, get access to kubectl files, get those files to work with your kubectl and finally ensure you are in the same network with the target cluster API,” said Miska Kaipiainen, principal of Lens IDE and senior director of engineering at Mirantis. “It’s so painful, users might even bypass some of the security best practices. We wanted to take this pain away and make it super easy for Lens users to access and share access to clusters without compromising security. We are all about getting things done, fast, but securely.”

Lens 5’s new Cluster Connect uses end-to-end encryption to secure connections between users and clusters, eliminating the need for a VPN. One of the most significant advantages is that users do not need to manage kubeconfig files to gain access to their clusters. Lens Spaces admins can easily manage permissions and share access securely among Lens Spaces members and teams.

Lens 5 features include:

• Lens Spaces — an integrated team environment that allows users to create collaborative spaces for cloud native development. Lens Spaces admins can easily organize, access, and share clusters from anywhere whether they are on premises or in the cloud.  

• Catalog —a system that provides easy discovery and access to all services, tools, pipelines, automation, clusters, and related resources used in cloud-native projects — a personal or a shared cloud-native directory used to enable a much more efficient workspace.

• Hotbar —a new function and the main navigation that allows users to build their own workflows and automation within the desktop application. Items in the Hotbar can be customized by assigning different labels, colors, and icons for easy recall. Items can also be arranged, for example, to prioritize or perform actions in a specific sequence.

“We all know Kubernetes adoption has exploded,” said Adrian Ionel, CEO and co-founder of Mirantis. “Providing developers with a secure, easy-to-use, collaborative IDE, allows them to fully unleash the power of Kubernetes and simply makes them more productive.”

To get started and learn more go to https://k8slens.dev, read the launch blog or join today’s Meetup.

About Lens

Lens provides full situational awareness for everything that runs in Kubernetes, lowering the barrier to entry for developers just getting started — and radically improving productivity for developers with more experience.  

The Lens open source project is backed by a number of Kubernetes and cloud-native ecosystem pioneers. It is 100% open source and free of charge for any purpose. With more than 5 million downloads, more than 200,000 users, and 14,300 stars on GitHub, it’s the most popular IDE for Kubernetes.