Kubernetes — a famous name in the IT world, a great container orchestration tool. That is why all IT experts have heard of it.
Kubernetes can help users simplify the container management process. On top of that, this tool makes the whole management process very efficient.
Now, this is only a part of the whole picture that explains why Kubernetes is so good.
Developers use it for a myriad of things, from containerization all the way to app development (collaboration apps, communication apps, and so on).
If you want to learn more about this special tool and why it is worth investing in it or in a good Kubernetes alternative, take a look below.
All the necessary info is there and you can’t afford to miss out on it.
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes was originally a project brewing at Google. In 2015, Google released Kubernetes as an open-source project. And, a few months later, the tech giant donated this tool to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).
The main features of this tool include container orchestration, app testing, app autocorrection, and easy optimization of infrastructural resources.
Nowadays, this tool is constantly being perfected by the CNCF (started by Google) with the aim of promoting container technology in general.
How does Kubernetes work?
In layman’s words, Kubernetes enables users to utilize the container technology and operational reality to the fullest. This is done through automation and simplification of the daily container workflow.
Kubernetes automates deployment, scaling, and management of the containerized applications on a server cluster (virtual or bare metal).
With this tool, users can also automatically handle networking, storage, logs, alerting, and other things related to containers.
Why should you deploy Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is being utilized by companies of all sizes. Yes, the container technology is that useful.
But, bear in mind that this is not a proper reason for you to start using it. On the contrary, adopting this technology (and Kubernetes) as a stand-alone goal is the wrong way to look at it.
The implementation needs to support your business, operational, and strategic goals.
To better understand why you would need Kubernetes containerization for your own business, it’s best that you learn something about its benefits first.
Containerization benefits
Image by Lukas Bieri from Pixabay
Before we actually list the specific benefits of using Kubernetes, let’s first see why you would want to use containerization tools (e.g. Docker).
Easy to use
Thanks to isolation containers, you can run your software consistently across environments, on your laptop, on any public cloud, private cloud, or even bare metal.
In addition, containers can be quickly and reliably copied to development, test, integration and live environments.
Resource costs
Since containers are isolated packages, everything the application needs in order to work properly is covered.
Containers can share an identical OS and internet connection at the same time.
They are lightweight by design and take up fewer resources. This saves hardware and data center costs.
Scalability and modularity
Containers can be built in seconds. They are light by design.
In turn, users can scale instantly, which helps them react to unexpected website traffic load easily.
Containers make it really easy to break down an app into individual components with their own function.
Docker can link containers together to create your application and that makes it easy to scale the components and update the app whenever you need to update it.
Why Kubernetes is the leader
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
First of all, it is worth noting that Kubernetes has a very mature and proven architecture. This is thanks to its design that is built on over 10 years of operational experience of the Google engineers who helped build and maintain the biggest container platform in the world.
Moreover, the system has an ample set of features, unlike its rivals. It supports a wide spectrum of workloads, programming languages, and frameworks. Consequently, this enables stateless, stateful, and data-processing workloads.
The tool is also flexible enough to meet the needs of a wide variety of users and use cases.
Finally, there are many contributors that constantly develop Kubernetes to make it better and stable. And, since the system has been adopted on a global scale, there are always users who are there to help whenever you stumble upon a problem.
Kubernetes functionalities
Now let’s focus on the features that the vast majority of users claim to be the most important reasons why Kubernetes is so good.
Scalable workload
Kubernetes is very efficient in its use of infrastructure resources. It also offers some useful scaling features.
- Horizontal infrastructure scaling
Kubernetes works at the individual server level to use horizontal scaling.
- Auto-scaling
When there is auto-scaling, you can automatically alter the number of running containers.
- Manual-scaling
A user can manually scale the number of running containers with a command.
- Replication controller
This controller is designed to make sure that a user’s cluster has a specific number of equivalent pods running.
Portability (and open-source)
Kubernetes is adored because it can be deployed on any infrastructure.
A user can run their containers in one or more public cloud environments, on their dedicated virtual machines or on bare metal.
Therefore, you can use the same orchestration tool for different environments. There will be no lock-ins.
Finally, it is completely open-source. This allows for even more flexibility.
High availability
This tool can combat the availability of both applications and infrastructure. This makes it very valuable when it comes to container deployment in production.
Kubernetes protects your containerized application against breakdowns since it checks the health of nodes and containers constantly.
Also, traffic routing sends requests to the appropriate containers. On top of that, Kubernetes has built-in load balancers to distribute load across multiple pods.
Original deployment purpose
A lot of IT enthusiasts believe that the key benefit of containerization is the functionality to speed up the testing, building, and releasing processes.
Actually, Kubernetes was designed for deployment. It even offers certain features that are very useful.
They include automatic rollouts and rollbacks, canary deployments, and programming languages (and framework) support.
Wrap-up
A wise software developer knows that Kubernetes goes a long way.
However, a wise software developer that is also a business owner knows all the business needs and requirements for a successful business.
With that in mind, such a business owner should evaluate all the aspects and then decide if Kubernetes is needed. Make sure that you follow that practice too.
And if you decide to give Kubernetes a chance, rest assured that you won’t be disappointed.