A few years ago, Broadcom introduced a new edition of Automic Automation called Automic Automation Kubernetes Edition.
Since then, there have been two ways of installing and runing the automation engine.
| Product |
Description |
| Automic Automation |
Traditional approach.
The software is installed on dedicated physical computers or virtual machines. |
| Automic Automation Kubernetes Edition (AAKE) |
New approach.
The software is installed in a Kubernetes cluster. |
For the first few years, Broadcom maintained separate versions of the documentation for the two different approaches, but about a year ago, Broadcom merged the documentation again. This introduced a new challenge: how to succinctly distinguish instructions specific to traditional installations from instructions specific to Kubernetes installations.
Broadcom evidently elected to use the following potentially confusing terms to distinguish the two approaches:
| Product |
Term in documentation |
| Automic Automation |
"On-Premises Systems" |
| Automic Automation Kubernetes Edition (AAKE) |
"AAKE Systems" |
Why are these terms potentially confusing? Because many customers today, and perhaps a majority of customers, install and run Automic Automation in the traditional way, but not on premises. Specifically, many customers run the Automic Automation systems on VMs hosted by a third-party cloud provider, and not on dedicated machines or VMs on company premises.
Traditionally, the term on-premises has been used to distinguish computers that run on company premises from those that are hosted by a third-party cloud computing provider like Microsoft, Google, or Amazon. With the aforementioned terminology choice, Broadcom is attempting to overload the term on-premises and give it two different meanings:
- On-premises: located within the grounds or buildings of the company - as opposed to off-site.
- On-premises: running on dedicated machines (physical or virtual) - as opposed to in a Kubernetes cluster.
These two meanings are incompatible. This is plainly evident when one considers the following scenarios:
- One can run an AAKE system on-premises.
- One can run a traditional Automic Automation system on VMs hosted by Microsoft, Google, or Amazon - in other words, not on-premises.
I suggest that Broadcom revisit this terminology choice. Some ideas:
- "Traditional systems" vs. "AAKE systems"
- "Traditional systems" vs. "Kubernetes systems"
- "OS-based systems" vs. "Container-based systems"
- "OS-based installations" vs. "Cluster-based installations"
Obviously, any terms like this should be clearly defined on a dedicated terminology page, similar to the SaaS Terms and Concepts page.