What is Kubernetes?
According to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation glossary definition, Kubernetes, often abbreviated as K8s, is an open-source container orchestrator. It automates the lifecycle of containerized applications on modern infrastructures, functioning as a "data center operating system" that manages applications across a distributed system.
Kubernetes, among other cloud-native technology, is hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), a non-profit organization that promotes the development of cloud-native technology. The CNCF, as part of the non-profit Linux Foundation, was created in 2015 to drive the adoption and growth of cloud-native computing and provide a neutral home for many popular open-source projects in the cloud-native space.
Why Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is a system that helps manage and deploy distributed systems. It has become increasingly popular in recent years and is seen as a standardization move for the industry.
The idea behind Kubernetes is to raise the level of abstraction:
- On the one hand, the developers refocus and dedicate more of their efforts to developing the applications rather than worrying about the complexity of distributing and running the application in multiple data centers or edges. This shift in focus allows them to become more efficient and creative in their development process, allowing them to create better applications more quickly. By taking the complexity of distribution and running the application out of the equation, developers can more easily experiment and iterate on new features and functionality, leading to increased innovation and better end-user experiences.
- On the other hand, with Kubernetes, the infrastructure/operations teams are saving time and reducing errors, enabling them to refocus their efforts on more critical tasks, such as host sizing, cluster creation and destruction, updating versions, and isolating environments and applications, clusters, and other related components. This allows for more efficient and reliable operations, ensuring that the infrastructure can keep up with the organization's and its customer's demands. Furthermore, Kubernetes can be used to quickly launch new services, reducing the time required for testing and deployment, thus reducing the time to market for new products and services.
Kubernetes simplifies the process of deploying, scaling, and managing applications, freeing up developers and infrastructure/operations teams to concentrate on their objectives. It handles the intricate details and complexities of the deployment process, allowing them to focus on the bigger picture. This provides a more efficient workflow and greater flexibility, making it easier to achieve desired outcomes. Moreover, Kubernetes offers the potential to reduce costs associated with deploying, scaling, and managing applications, which is an added benefit for any organization.
Kubernetes is not a product
Kubernetes is not a product; it's a cloud-native foundation for building platforms.
A platform is a technology infrastructure or standardized components used to develop, run, and manage applications, products, or services. So, it refers to the underlying hardware, operating system, and software technologies that support and enable the development and delivery of applications. A platform provides a standard environment for the development and deployment of applications, allowing developers to focus on building the functionalities and features of their applications rather than managing the underlying infrastructure.
Kubernetes, in and of itself, generally lacks a sufficient level of abstraction as a platform. Instead, it is the combination of a range of intricate modules that allow users to meet the desired objectives of a platform. The certified Kubernetes distributions listed on the CNCF Cloud Native Interactive Landscape are not only providing the Kubernetes technology but also adding other cloud-native technologies and services on top, in addition to Kubernetes, with a set of standardized practices. These services, in conjunction with Kubernetes, allow for creation of a comprehensive platform that can be used to manage and deploy applications in a cloud-native environment. By taking advantage of these certified Kubernetes distributions, the platform team can ensure that their platform is built using reliable, secure, and well-tested components.
Applications needs to be modernized
Migrating and modernizing an application to run efficiently in a Kubernetes cluster requires careful planning and architecting of software and infrastructure changes.
Once implemented, these changes enable product owners to continuously deploy new versions of their applications and easily scale them as needed, with minimal manual intervention.
Therefore, externalizing configuration from the application, setting up proper logging and metrics publishing, and configuring health checks are all essential steps to take advantage of the cloud-native paradigm that Kubernetes has been designed around. Doing so facilitates the building of portable containers and managing such containers using Kubernetes so that available compute infrastructure and development resources can be fully utilized.
Additionally, these changes pave the way for improved operational efficiencies, helping to reduce the overall cost of ownership associated with running applications in a Kubernetes cluster.
Conclusion
Kubernetes has a large and growing community, and many organizations are finding success with it as a platform for managing containers. So, Kelsey Hightower, a contributor to Kubernetes, explains that Kubernetes has reached a "sweet spot" where it has become stable, much like Linux.
Kubernetes is a compelling platform that enables teams to collaborate and work on a standard foundation, dramatically increasing efficiency and streamlining their workflow. By standardizing the development environment, Kubernetes allows developers to focus more on their core tasks and less on the details of setting up and configuring the environment. This makes it much easier for everyone to work together in a more productive and organized way, ensuring that projects can be completed more quickly and with a higher degree of quality.
Accelerate your Kubernetes journey with ITQ Managed Modern Apps Services and VMware Tanzu
With our Managed Kubernetes service, your organization and especially your developers, can focus on what matters most; Creating value for your business. By doing so, you take advantage of the following:
- Decrease your Total Cost of Ownership
- Fix your skill-gap and add our skills to your team
- We take care of the platform engineering, lifecycle management of Kubernetes, tooling and integration of the stack and its components.
Do you want to know more about our ITQ Managed Modern Apps Services? Download the productsheet now!
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