Unlock a world of possibilities! Login now and discover the exclusive benefits awaiting you.
READ ME FIRST:
Qlik Sense Enterprise for Elastic is Qlik's multi-cloud environment, that you set up and maintain. Currently, to get a hold of the software and to use Qlik Sense Enterprise for Elastic, it is necessary to contact your Qlik representative or Qlik Support to request the appropriate license and instructions. You must install Qlik Sense Enterprise for Elastic, and then enable multi-cloud with your Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows. I expect more self-service instructions and installation options to be available in the future.
Hi guys - this forum is dedicated to those interested in learning more about Qlik's Multi-Cloud solution. If you have stumbled across this post without seeing our other content, the best way to get started is to check out this blog along with its companion data sheet and videos available here: Introducing Multi-Cloud Deployment for Qlik Sense Enterprise.
Some things you need to know
I'd like to take a few minutes of your time to share some of the things I've learned when working with our multi-cloud solution specifically around some of the technical architecture and terminology that supports Qlik Sense Enterprise for Elastic (QSEFE). My hope is that it answers some of your burning questions. There will be an official, more formal FAQ available shortly along with many other assets we are creating, so please stay tuned to this section in the community as we will post more when available.
QSEFE IS a new capability / feature - NOT a product
When we talk about QSEFE - we are referring about a new capability that gives Qlik Sense Enterprise customers, choices and flexibility on where they can host and deploy their analytics and do so at cloud scale.
Phase 1 - focuses on Qlik Sense Consume use cases - more to come!
As stated in the blog and video, Phase 1 allows you to publish apps from your Qlik Sense Enterprise environment that runs on Windows to Qlik Sense Enterprise for Elastic running on your choice of platform - on premise, or in public or private clouds - hosted by others or even Qlik when subscribed to Qlik Cloud Services. The published apps currently can be consumed only, in other words - edit, reload, create capabilities will be available in the future phases.
This is not Qlik Sense for Linux!
One thing I need to address immediately is that QSEFE is NOT about a LINUX version of Qlik Sense. Yes, our Qlik Sense Enterprise for Elastic (QSEFE) software - runs within "containers" that can run on Linux - but understand the keyword here is "containers".
Ugh!! Now you want to know, - "But wait, what are containers?" First here is a great resource to start with: https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/16/wtf-is-a-container/ - and yes, yes the title is "WTF is a container."
In short, think of a container as a mini virtual machine (VM).
It runs in Containers - Docker
Containers simply make it easier for developers to know that their software will run, no matter where it is deployed. They also enable what’s often called “microservices.” Instead of having one large monolithic application, microservices break down applications into multiple small parts that can talk to each other.
Containers have been around for a long time and used within Linux, but they were difficult to use - so a software company, Docker, https://www.docker.com/ - has promised to revolutionize this and make containers easier to use and the development community welcomed it with open arms. So now you ask - Docker who? To keep it short and sweet, it is explained very succinctly here: https://www.docker.com/what-docker - Docker provides a container platform for building software that can run and scale in the cloud. This platform can run on many operating systems and environments which mostly consists of Windows and various flavors of Linux. SO you can very well install QSEFE on Windows using a flavor of Docker that is for Windows such as: https://www.docker.com/docker-windows so hopefully that is clear. (but who would want to!) - In turn we have have built a "Docker Image" of QSEFE. This image is available in a "repository" - in which one uses command line shell syntax to pull down the image and set it up in your Docker environment. Can you run containers without Docker? You can - but that is not how we chose to implement QSEFE.
Container Orchestration - Kubernetes (K8s)
So now that you have a bit about containers under your belt - you need a way to orchestrate and manage your containers - to do this we bring in Kubernetes - - Kuuba what now? - Kubernetes - pronounced - koo-ber-ne-tes - NOT koo-ber-knee-tees - as I learned. Originally designed and used by Google for many years for their cloud computing and then was opened sourced in 2014. (Oh and yes Docker has its own management / orchestration mode know as Docker Swarm or running the Docker engine in swarm mode, but we are not going that deep here.) In short Kubernetes "orchestrates" your Docker containers. "Orchestrates" WTH does that mean? - Other than sounding cool, like I know what I am talking about in a sales situation - Kubernetes / orchestration provides a platform for automating deployment, scaling, monitoring of operations of application containers across clusters of hosts -- ooooh techy. Another great resource that explains it: What does Kubernetes actually do and why use it? | DevelopIntelligence Blog - so basically Kubernetes helps with keeping track of your containers, starts and stops services - automatically scaling when needed as it adjusts CPU and memory to meet demand. <phew I'm sweating> 
- I would recommend reading this information here to learn more. In that document you will see that K8s is more than just orchestration software.
Without rehashing the aforementioned blogs and getting too markety - I'd like to conclude by asking you to comment and post questions here. I am still new to this technology (Docker / Kubernetes) and would also love to learn more from many of you. If you feel I forgot something or if you wish I provided more detail on a particular area, please let me know. My goal is to share as much information that I learned that made it easier for me to understand this new capability that we are providing.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Mike Tarallo
Qlik
Resources:
