Kubernetes — an orchestration tool like no other in the world!  If someone were to ask you to describe this tool in one sentence, the one above would be a good fit. This is something that every IT trailblazer is aware of.

Logically, there are a number of reasons why Kubernetes is so loved. For a start, it provides easy optimization of infrastructural resources since it uses hardware more effectively.

Containers can be orchestrated on multiple hosts, and the tool also enables both vertical and horizontal scaling. Of course, this is just one part of why Kubernetes is useful and widely praised.

Also, it is worth noting that you can actually find a good Kubernetes alternative. Some of those tools can actually work just like Kubernetes and help you achieve your goals.

However, if you are only interested in this tool, take a seat, grab a drink, and get ready to learn some things that will be of great use once you start using Kubernetes.

Kubernetes Statistics

If you are thinking about using Kubernetes but you are still doubting its power, let’s try to convince you with a few compelling numbers.

First of all, public cloud container adoption is slowly shifting to Kubernetes. There is a survey from 2018 that suggested this possibility in the near future. Most users of containers on Google and Azure are using Kubernetes.

Secondly, there is also a shift towards hybrid- and multi-cloud strategies, enabled by cloud-native technologies such as containers and Kubernetes.

Finally, it is also worth mentioning how automation is driving faster container churn. Containers can churn 12 times faster than VMs. Consequently, the average lifetime of an orchestrated container is now just 12 hours.

But what is Kubernetes really?

Google was the company that originally created and owned Kubernetes. This container management system obviously had a lot of potential since it comes from Google’s engineers.

However, even though the project was promising, in 2015, Google released this tool as an open-source project. This was really nice of Google since the community and users now have more influence when it comes to possible improvements.

Few months after that, Kubernetes was donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

How does Kubernetes work?

In short, Kubernetes enables users to use the potential of container technology and operational reality by automating and simplifying the daily container workflow. This tool automates deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications on a cluster of servers (virtual or bare metal).

On top of that, the tool also allows users to automatically handle networking, storage, logs, alerting, and many other things related to containers.

Is deploying Kubernetes a good idea for you?

Nowadays, businesses of almost all sizes rely on container technology and, hence, use Kubernetes.

But this doesn’t mean that the tool might be a good fit for your business needs. In other words, do not adopt this technology just because you see more and more businesses are adopting it. If adopting containerization and Kubernetes is your stand-alone goal, that is not the right way to look at it.

On the contrary, if you implement it, you should see the results. To be precise, this move needs to bring support for your business, operational, and strategic goals.

Below you will find more facts about the whole idea behind containerization technology and, specifically, Kubernetes.

Containerization Benefits

Bear in mind that Docker has to be involved almost whenever Kubernetes is mentioned. That is why we will go through Docker’s main benefits first.

It is rather easy to use

The isolation containers enable users to run their software consistently across environments, оn their laptops, on any public cloud, private cloud, or even bare metal.

It is also possible to copy containers to development, test, integration, and live environments quickly and reliably.

As a result, this considerably simplifies and speeds up the software development and release process, bringing a faster time-to-market.

This advantage can actually offer you more opportunities which are not so obvious at first.

Low costs of resources

Since containers are isolated packages, this means that they have everything the application needs to work well. Multiple containers can share the same internet connection and OS.

This is, obviously, a more efficient resource when it comes to utilization. This is especially true when compared to making a virtual machine with its own OS for each application.

Containers take up fewer resources and are lightweight by design. Therefore, this allows users to save on hardware and data center costs.

Scalability and modularity

As it was mentioned before, containers are lightweight by design. They can be created within a few seconds. In turn, users can scale instantly. This helps them react to unexpected website traffic load with no problem.

Containers also make it easy to break down an application into separate components with their own function.  Some users might want to have their application in one container and their database running in another container.

Docker can link these containers together to create the application, making it easy to update or scale the components independently.

Why Kubernetes is a leading orchestration tool

A lot of IT professionals adore Kubernetes. And that is why there is no surprise that Kubernetes is one of the most widely used tools when it comes to container management.

Here is a list of the most obvious benefits of Kubernetes.

A lot of features

This system has many features, unlike other container management systems.

Kubernetes supports a wide range of workloads, programming languages, and frameworks, enabling stateless, stateful, and data-processing workloads.

Kubernetes is also flexible enough to fulfill the needs of a wide range of users and use cases.

Great industry support and community

This system has been broadly adopted. That is a fact. It also grew quickly, and with it grew its support and popularity.

The project also gained a huge active user and open-source community, along with the support of global enterprises, IT market leaders, and big cloud providers.

Great heritage

You cannot possibly deny that Kubernetes is built on a very mature and proven architecture.

This powerful tool is built on more than ten years of operational experience of Google engineers who helped build and maintain the largest container platform in the world.

Constant development

There are so many contributors to this tool and that is why new features are released regularly.

Thanks to the diverse and huge user community Kubernetes boasts, development is stable and constant. Whenever there is uncertainty regarding Kubernetes, someone will resolve it.

Availability

Kubernetes is designed to fight the availability of both applications and infrastructure. This makes it indispensable when it comes to deploying containers in production.

• Health checks and self-healing

Kubernetes protects containerized applications against failures by constantly checking the health of nodes and containers. Kubernetes also has self-healing and auto-replacement features.

• Traffic routing and load balancing

Traffic routing sends requests to the right containers. Kubernetes also comes with built-in load balancers to distribute the load across multiple pods.

It is designed for deployment

Many IT enthusiasts believe that the key benefit of containerization is the ability to speed up the testing, building, and releasing processes.

Kubernetes was designed for deployment. Also, it offers various features that are quite useful:

1. Auto-rollouts and rollbacks
2. Canary deployments
3. Programming languages and frameworks support

Photo by PLeia2

Originally posted 2020-04-27 18:46:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter