Announcements

Announcing Lens 2024

After an intense period of development, involving more than 1,800 commits and changes to over 5,000 files, we are thrilled to announce that the most substantial update to Lens Desktop since its inception is almost here. This update is not just an improvement – it's a transformation. Lens 2024 represents our biggest leap forward yet – cementing Lens's position as the most popular Kubernetes Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for cloud-native development. In addition to announcing Lens 2024, we are excited to introduce a new Lens Enterprise subscription tier to help enterprises and large organizations get the best out of Kubernetes. Also, check out our brand new website!

What's Coming in Lens 2024?

Lens is renowned for its ability to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot Kubernetes and applications in real-time across one or multiple clusters. With the Lens 2024 release, we're introducing groundbreaking features along with a completely redesigned user interface to elevate your Kubernetes experience.

Lens 2024
  • New UI/UX Everywhere: A more streamlined user interface improves productivity and clarity across Lens.
  • The New Navigator: A unified navigator for all your clusters and resources streamlines operations, simplifies context switching, and significantly saves time.
  • Tabbed Navigation: Enhances user efficiency by allowing multiple tabbed views, making it easier to switch between tasks quickly.
  • Improved Details Panel: Reorganization and improved graphic presentation of information to make important details more visible.
  • Improved Metrics View: New flexibility in viewing real-time and historical metrics with detailed time-series data. The new Event Overlay feature permits simultaneous viewing of cluster events enriched with time-series data and other metrics, providing crucial insights for troubleshooting and performance optimization.
  • Built-in AWS EKS Integration: Seamlessly discover and access all your EKS clusters without the hassle. Lens now directly discovers all your EKS clusters, making connections effortless while fully respecting existing security and IAM rules.

Lens 2024 Early Access Version

As we gear up for the general release of Lens 2024, we're excited to offer our community an exclusive opportunity to explore the future of Kubernetes development today. The Early Access version of Lens 2024 is now available to all users eager to dive into the new features and enhancements. Your feedback is invaluable to us, helping ensure the final version is polished, intuitive, and bug-free.

Getting started with the Early Access version of Lens 2024 is straightforward:

  • Download and Install Lens: Begin by downloading and installing the latest version of Lens Desktop if you haven't already.
  • Backup Application Support folder: To ensure that your user and cluster settings are saved, make a copy of the “Application Support” folder ~/Application\ Support/Lens (macOS), %AppData%\Lens (windows), and ~/.config/Lens (linux).
  • Switch to Beta Update Channel: Launch Lens, navigate to “Preferences” > “App”, and change the Update Channel to “Beta”. This allows you to receive early versions of Lens updates. You can always switch back to "Stable" to go back to your previous version.
  • Update to Lens 2024: Keep an eye out for an auto-update notification. Once it appears, it signifies that the Early Access version is ready for you. Click "Update" when prompted and start exploring the new and improved Lens experience.

We Want to Hear From You

The Lens forums host a dedicated discussion channel for Lens 2024 users, serving as a platform for you to share your thoughts, report bugs, and suggest improvements. Your insights directly impact the development process, enabling us to fine-tune Lens 2024 to meet the community's needs and expectations.

The New Lens Enterprise Subscription

The new Lens Enterprise subscription tier provides additional security and management features for large-scale users. The Lens Enterprise Tier offers advanced features such as:

  • Hardened Lens Desktop
  • VDI Support
  • Single Sign-On (SSO)
  • SCIM user provisioning
  • Purchase via Invoicing
  • Security Compliance Assistance
  • Offline / air-gapped mode
  • Priority Enterprise Support

Lens Enterprise subscriptions are priced at $99 per user per month and are available now online through the Lens Store, or through Mirantis enterprise sales agreements for purchases of 50 user subscriptions or more.

Looking Ahead

Kubernetes complexity has long been a hurdle for development teams, impeding progress and reducing efficiency. Lens Desktop addresses this challenge directly, offering a context-aware UI that simplifies cloud-native development and enhances productivity. Diverging from traditional solutions that often increase complexity, Lens provides an intuitive, real-time IDE tailored for Kubernetes users. Trusted by over 1 million users to improve productivity, Lens Desktop is recognized as the leading Kubernetes IDE, enabling seamless management, development, monitoring, and troubleshooting of Kubernetes workloads. Compatible with any certified Kubernetes distribution and available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, Lens is designed for accessibility and efficiency.

As we approach the release of this significant update, our commitment to advancing Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies remains strong. We envision a future where innovation is unimpeded by complexity. Stay updated as we bring this vision to life with the upcoming Lens Desktop release.