As organizations rethink traditional virtualization platforms, many are asking whether Kubernetes can become the unified platform for both containers and virtual machines.
Running virtual machines on Kubernetes is becoming increasingly common. Operating them at scale while maintaining the reliability and operational capabilities teams expect from traditional virtualization platforms is where the real challenge begins.
Platform engineers and infrastructure architects must answer practical questions such as:
- How do we maintain VM uptime during node failures or cluster upgrades?
- How do we deliver predictable storage performance for stateful workloads?
- How do we monitor and troubleshoot storage issues in production clusters?
- How do we operate large-scale infrastructure with the same reliability expected from traditional virtualization platforms?
At KubeCon this year, we are sharing how Portworx by Everpure is helping redefine modern virtualization. The platform brings the reliability, operational capabilities, and enterprise-grade data platform needed to run both containers and virtual machines on Kubernetes.
The latest release of Portworx Enterprise 3.6.0 introduces enhancements across availability, observability, security, performance, and platform operations. These improvements help organizations operate stateful workloads at scale.
Operating Stateful Infrastructure at Scale
Running stateful workloads in Kubernetes introduces a different set of operational requirements compared to stateless microservices.
As clusters grow, platform teams must manage:
- High availability for stateful workloads
- Predictable storage performance across nodes
- Secure infrastructure operations
- Operational visibility into storage and application behavior
Traditional infrastructure tools were designed for centralized virtualization platforms. Kubernetes environments require a cloud-native data platform that operates directly within the cluster.
Portworx Enterprise provides that layer. It delivers a software-defined data platform that runs inside Kubernetes and manages storage, data services, and operations for both containers and virtual machines.
Portworx Enterprise 3.6.0 builds on this foundation with several new capabilities designed to simplify operations and improve reliability for production clusters.
High Availability for Stateful Workloads
Ensuring uptime for stateful workloads is critical in production Kubernetes environments.
Portworx Enterprise 3.6.0 introduces improvements to the Kube Datastore architecture. These improvements enable more resilient storage pool operations and faster volume failover across cluster nodes.
Key enhancements include:
- Dynamic storage pools for flexible capacity management
- Volume replicas that can fail over to any node within the cluster
- Support for the PX-StoreV2 storage engine
- Zero-downtime upgrades without restarting Portworx services
Why this matters
For teams running databases or virtual machines on Kubernetes, infrastructure changes should not disrupt application availability.
These improvements help ensure storage services remain available during node failures, upgrades, or maintenance events. This helps platform teams maintain predictable uptime for production workloads.
Strengthening Security for Enterprise Kubernetes Environments
Security requirements for Kubernetes environments continue to grow as more critical workloads move to cloud-native platforms.
Portworx Enterprise 3.6.0 introduces Secure Boot support, enabling Portworx to run on systems where Linux nodes enforce kernel module verification.
With this capability:
- Portworx kernel modules are cryptographically signed
- Deployments are supported on UEFI Secure Boot enabled systems
- Portworx can operate in security-hardened environments
The release also introduces improvements to secrets management, including support for multiple secrets providers and integration with external vault systems.
Why this matters
Many enterprise Kubernetes environments must comply with strict security policies.
These enhancements allow organizations to deploy Portworx in environments with Secure Boot enforcement and hardened credential management policies. This improves security posture without sacrificing operational flexibility.
Improved Observability for Production Clusters
Operating large Kubernetes clusters requires deep visibility into system health and storage performance.
Portworx Enterprise 3.6.0 introduces several observability improvements designed to help operators detect and troubleshoot issues faster.
Secure Telemetry and Diagnostics
Diagnostics and telemetry workflows now automatically redact sensitive information before diagnostic bundles are shared with support teams.
Sensitive data such as credentials, API keys, and certificates are removed during diagnostics collection.
Why this matters
Operators often need to share diagnostics during incident response or troubleshooting. Automatic redaction protects sensitive information while enabling faster support workflows.
Enhanced Grafana Dashboards
Portworx monitoring dashboards have been redesigned to improve troubleshooting efficiency.
Enhancements include:
- Namespace and PVC filtering for multi-tenant clusters
- Improved correlation between volumes and applications
- Updated monitoring metrics for better accuracy
- Separate panels for read and write I/O analysis
Why this matters
When performance issues occur, operators need to quickly identify which workloads are affected.
Improved dashboards help teams correlate infrastructure metrics with specific applications. This reduces mean time to resolution.
Expanded Cluster Diagnostics
Portworx Enterprise 3.6.0 enhances the cluster diagnostics framework by collecting a broader set of Kubernetes resources. These include workloads, networking configuration, and storage objects. All are collected into a unified diagnostic bundle.
Why this matters
Troubleshooting distributed systems often requires visibility across multiple infrastructure layers. Expanded diagnostics enable faster troubleshooting and more efficient incident response.
Performance Improvements with Readahead Caching
Portworx Enterprise 3.6.0 introduces readahead caching to improve performance for sequential read workloads.
Readahead works by prefetching data blocks before they are requested. This reduces disk and network latency for sequential access patterns.
Sequential workloads can see performance improvements ranging from 1× to 5× when readahead is enabled.
Why this matters
Many workloads, including analytics pipelines and large dataset processing, rely heavily on sequential I/O.
Readahead caching reduces latency and increases throughput for these workloads without requiring infrastructure changes.
Simplifying Kubernetes Platform Operations
Installing and upgrading storage infrastructure across large Kubernetes environments can be complex.
Portworx Enterprise 3.6.0 introduces improvements to build packaging and installation workflows that simplify deployment and lifecycle management.
Enhancements include:
- Reduced installation artifact sizes
- Faster image downloads
- Improved upgrade reliability
- Better support for air-gapped environments
The release also introduces support for Garden Linux and Gardener Kubernetes environments, expanding compatibility with enterprise Kubernetes platforms.
Why this matters
Platform teams often operate clusters across multiple environments, including restricted networks and multi-cloud deployments.
These improvements reduce operational complexity and enable faster, more reliable cluster deployments.
Redefining Modern Virtualization
As organizations consolidate infrastructure onto Kubernetes, the underlying data platform must provide the reliability and operational capabilities traditionally associated with enterprise virtualization.
Portworx Enterprise 3.6.0 delivers improvements across availability, observability, security, and performance that help platform teams operate stateful workloads with confidence.
These capabilities make it possible to run virtual machines and containers together on Kubernetes while maintaining the reliability and operational control enterprises expect.
