At this week’s Kubecon EMEA 2025, Portworx announced significant updates to its Enterprise 3.3 and Portworx Backup solutions, focused on enabling virtualization administrators to run virtual machines natively in Kubernetes environments.
The updates address key operational gaps between traditional virtualization platforms and container-native infrastructure, introducing features that align with established enterprise VM management expectations.
Key Capabilities
Portworx’s updates focus on three critical functional areas that bridge traditional VM operations with the Kubernetes environment: live migration, disaster recovery, and file-level recovery for VM backups.
Live Migration with RWX Block Volumes
New shared block volume support is specifically optimized for VM live migration in Kubernetes:
- Implementation: Raw block devices are shared between source and target nodes during migration
- Access Pattern: Limited to two nodes simultaneously (migration source and target)
- Performance Benefits:
- Direct VM operation on Portworx-backed virtual block devices
- Elimination of I/O overhead from stacked filesystems
- Removal of NFS-related network performance penalties
Synchronous Disaster Recovery for VMs
Portworx is extending its Metro-DR synchronous replication solution to support KubeVirt-managed virtual machines:
- Replication Type: Real-time block-level synchronous replication
- Infrastructure Requirements: Two geographically distributed locations/zones
- Performance Metrics:
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO) = 0 (no data loss)
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO) = near-zero
- Operational Model: KubeVirt reschedules VMs to the remote site with pre-synchronized storage
File-Level Recovery for VM Backups
The upcoming Portworx Backup release introduces granular restore capabilities for virtual machine backups:
- Backup Navigation: File system browsing within backed-up VM images
- Restore Granularity: Individual files or folders
- Destination Options: Original location or alternate target
- Integration: Fully compatible with KubeVirt environments
Impact To IT Practitioners
The updates address several critical pain points for IT teams transitioning to Kubernetes-based infrastructure:
| Feature | Current Practitioner Challenges | Portworx Solution Impact |
| Live Migration | Performance degradation with NFS-based solutions, complexity in maintaining migration capabilities | Simplified architecture with direct block-level access, familiar operational model for VM administrators |
| Disaster Recovery | Meeting enterprise RPO/RTO requirements in Kubernetes environments | Zero data loss with minimal recovery time, seamless failover across zones |
| Backup Recovery | Time-consuming full VM restores when only specific files are needed | Efficient file-level recovery reduces incident resolution time |
These features significantly lower the operational barriers to Kubernetes adoption for virtualization administrators by maintaining familiar VM management capabilities. The enhancements provide enterprise-grade VM support for Kubernetes administrators without compromising container-native architecture principles.
Analysis
Portworx’s enhancements to Enterprise 3.3 and Portworx Backup address the operational challenges faced when transitioning VM workloads to Kubernetes environments. The focus on three core enterprise VM capabilities—live migration, synchronous DR, and granular backup recovery—addresses specific gaps in the Kubernetes ecosystem.
For IT organizations actively moving VM workloads to Kubernetes or planning hybrid infrastructure, these enhancements provide a path to maintain operational consistency while embracing container-native architectures. The solutions will most appeal to enterprises with significant VM investments that need to preserve operational models during their Kubernetes transition.
Competitive Outlook & Advice to IT Buyers
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