Eliminate Dual Infrastructure Overhead with Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise to Unify VM and Container Management

We’re excited to announce the latest release of Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise, featuring Kubernetes-native virtualization — enabling unified management of cloud-native applications and traditional virtualized workloads. As IT estates become increasingly complex, this empowers enterprises to run virtual machines (VMs), containers, and AI workloads side-by-side on a single, open Kubernetes-based platform.

As our CTO Shaun O’Meara puts it: “Innovative IT teams are looking for virtualization alternatives, and as AI transforms enterprise IT requirements, now is a critical time to modernize infrastructure. Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise now converges VMs, containers, and AI with a single modern infrastructure platform. By eliminating operational silos through unified management and orchestration, enterprises can reduce operational complexity and infrastructure costs.”

Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise Powers Modern Virtualization

Legacy virtualization platforms come with high licensing costs and inflexible, proprietary architectures. As the pace of innovation accelerates, traditional virtualization platforms simply can’t deliver the speed, flexibility, and scale modern enterprises require, especially for AI/ML and other high-performance use cases. 

With the virtualization capabilities of Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise, organizations can:

• Unify VM and Container Operations: Consolidate workloads on one Kubernetes-native platform to eliminate tool sprawl and simplify maintenance

• Simplify VM Management: Use an intuitive web interface to launch and manage VMs without needing CLI or YAML expertise

• Optimize Performance for AI/ML Workloads: Maximize efficiency for AI and data-intensive workloads through NUMA topology preservation, CPU pinning, and GPU passthrough 

• Ensure Consistent Performance and Consistency Across Environments: Run workloads reliably on bare metal, cloud, or edge with automated reconciliation to prevent drift

• Strengthen Security and Compliance: Enforce policies centrally using RBAC, signed templates, and SBOMs for full software supply chain integrity

• Accelerate Migration from Legacy Platforms:  Modernize faster with expert guidance from Mirantis, reducing friction and time-to-value

• Improve Resource Efficiency: Gain observability into performance and utilization with the Mirantis StackLight OSS toolchain 

All of this uses open source k0rdent, a composable Kubernetes management platform that enables platform engineers to define, deploy, and operate consistent, policy-enforced Kubernetes-native infrastructure using declarative automation, GitOps workflows, and validated templates from the Mirantis ecosystem. Leveraging the minimal, self-contained open sourcek0s, CNCF sandbox Kubernetes distribution, k0rdent simplifies infrastructure management and accelerates digital transformation initiatives.

Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise’s new ability to run VMs also extends to Mirantis Kubernetes Engine for k0rdent (MKE 4k), which can now run virtual machines in addition to its existing capability to run containers.

The new Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise release, and MKE 4k provide alternatives to proprietary virtualization solutions. By supporting legacy infrastructure, Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise and MKE 4k are particularly suited for enterprises modernizing application portfolios and expanding edge infrastructure with AI and cloud-native workloads.

What’s New in the Latest Release

The new Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise release delivers several enhancements that improve scalability, performance, and AI-readiness.

Key new features include:

• Automated Distributed Resource Balancer (DRB) for virtual machines to provide resource awareness to identify servers with sufficient available CPU and RAM and perform node balancing to ensure optimal performance without manual intervention.

• Significant updates for AI enablement in alignment with the Mirantis AI Factory Reference Architecture, including:

  • NUMA topology preservation that supports NUMA and PCIe topology-aware VM configuration needed for GPU passthrough to deliver optimal performance;

  • Hugepages and CPU-pinning to improve performance through efficient memory management and dedicated processor resources;

• Support for the latest KubeVirt 1.6.

• Support for the latest Ceph storage 19.2.3 Squid

For more information, view the release notes.

See it for Yourself!

We are showcasing Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise and its virtualization and AI integration capabilities this week at KubeCon North America 2025 in Atlanta, November 11-13 at booth 820.

Can’t join us in person? No worries! Reach out to our team to learn more about how Mirantis k0rdent Enterprise can unify your virtualization and container operations.