ApeiroRA Platform Mesh

The high-level goal of the Apeiro Reference Architecture is to enable development and operation of applications and services across public clouds, private clouds, and the edge - the cloud-edge continuum

The cloud-edge continuum describes the seamless integration of edge and cloud computing, facilitating new methodologies and optimized data processing and storage within distributed networks.

.
The use cases for these applications and services should be diverse and unrestricted, catering to end-users, other applications and services, IoT scenarios, and beyond.

The ApeiroRA Platform Mesh defines an environment that allows service providers

A service provider offers services to consumers.

to offer services of any kind and service consumers

An organization or individual that orders, utilizes, and manages the lifecycle of a service.

to discover those services, order capabilities

A concrete incarnation of a service that has been created and configured for a specific application or service.

, and control their lifecycle.

The Apeiro Reference Architecture defines and implements the "Platform Mesh

Enables diverse application development across the cloud-edge continuum by allowing service selection without vendor lock-in.

" that enables developers to select and utilize the needed and preferred services from various service marketplaces

A place where service providers offer various services, and consumers can discover these services.

. It does not make any assumptions about these services or the marketplaces, nor does it mandate the use of any specific services.
Instead, it offers a mesh and the essential contracts that allows service providers

A service provider offers services to consumers.

to offer their services freely and enables service consumers

An organization or individual that orders, utilizes, and manages the lifecycle of a service.

to discover, order, and use these services.

This framework aims to transcend the traditional layered approach of strictly separating IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS in past infrastructures. Both higher-level and lower-level services are provided and managed through the same mechanism.

The reference architecture includes several common, but optional services. For a comprehensive list of these projects, visit the Apeiro Reference Architecture website.
For example, ApeiroRA offers a Kubernetes environment through the Gardener

Gardener

The Gardener is an open source project that provides Kubernetes-based cluster management and automation at scale.

project, but its use is not mandatory for applications. Other Kubernetes providers can also offer their services within the mesh. This flexibility gives developers more choices and helps prevent lock-in to a particular service supplier.