How Can Kubernetes Help Your Business?

Kubernetes (sometimes known as K8) is an open source platform for orchestrating containers which automatizes and schedules deployment, management, and scaling of containers (microservices). Kubernetes is a platform for managing and scaling microservices. The Kubernetes platform is about optimization, which includes automating many of the DevOps processes that had previously been done manually while simplifying the work of software developers.

What’s the secret behind this platform’s popularity? Kubernetes services provide load balancing and simplify container management on multiple hosts. They also make it easier to be more efficient.

In actual fact, Kubernetes is the fastest expanding programme in open source software history, just behind Linux. According to a study in 2021 by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), between the years 2020 and 2021, the number of Kubernetes engineers increased by 67%, reaching 3.9 million. This represents 31% of all backend developers, a 4% increase year on year.

The increasing usage of Kubernetes in DevOps teams means that businesses will have a low learning curve when starting with the container orchestration platform. However, the benefits don’t end at that point. This is a review of the reasons why businesses are opting for Kubernetes DevOps tools for all sorts of applications.

Here are a few of the most important benefits that come with the use of Kubernetes in order to control your microservice structure.

1. Savings on container orchestration.

   Different sizes and types of businesses—both small and large—that utilise Kubernetes services realise savings in the management of their ecosystem and manual processes that are automated. Kubernetes automatically configures and integrates containers into nodes to ensure optimal utilisation of resources. Certain cloud providers charge fees for managing each cluster, which means that having fewer clusters will mean fewer API servers and redundancies, which can also help lower costs.

   Once Kubernetes clusters are set up, the apps will run with a minimum of downtime and run well with less support needed when a pod or node fails and has to be fixed manually. Kubernetes’s container orchestration allows an easier workflow, requiring less time to duplicate the same process. That means not just the use of fewer servers, but also a reduced requirement for cumbersome, inefficient administration.

2. Microservices architecture has improved its DevOps efficiency.

   Integration of storage containers and the ability to access them through various cloud providers makes development, testing, and deployment much easier. The creation of containers—that contain all the components needed for an application to run—can be simpler to create and is more productive than developing virtual machines (VM) images. This results in quicker development and improved release and deployment times.The sooner developers implement Kubernetes during the development cycle, the better, as they will be able to test their code early and avoid costly errors later on.

   Applications built on the microservices architecture are functional units that have separate functions that communicate with one another via APIs. Thus, development teams could be smaller in size, each one focusing on a particular feature that IT teams can perform more effectively. Namespaces—the method of establishing multiple virtual sub-clusters inside one physical Kubernetes cluster—allow access control within the cluster to improve efficiency.

3. Multicloud deployment of workloads

   It was common practise to install applications on a virtual machine and then point to a DNS (DNS) server on it. Now, among the other benefits of Kubernetes, workloads can exist in a single cloud or be spread easily across multiple cloud services. Kubernetes clusters enable the simple and rapid migration of containers from an on-premises environment to hybrid deployments on any cloud provider’s public as well as private cloud, without losing any of the application’s capabilities or performance. It allows you to move your applications to a private or closed system with no lock-in.

   Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure all offer straightforward integrations with Kubernetes-based software.There are many ways to move apps into the cloud. The terms “lift” and “shift” mean the same thing as “shifting” an application without altering its code. Replatforming requires the bare minimum of changes that allow the application to work in a new environment. Refactoring may be more complex and requires rewriting the application’s structure and functions.

4. More flexibility and less risk of lock-in by the vendor

   Containers for your application allow for a more lightweight and flexible way to manage virtualization than using virtual machines (VMs). Since containers contain only the components an application requires (i.e. the application’s installation, code, and dependents), they utilise the capabilities provided by the hosting operating system (OS), which makes them smaller, quicker, and more mobile. For example, hosting four apps using four different virtual machines will typically necessitate four instances of the guest OS to run on the server. The four apps are running in containers, but this means that they are all contained in them inside one container, where they are all running the same edition of the host OS.

   The Kubernetes platform is not only adaptable enough to manage containers across various kinds of IT infrastructure (public cloud or private cloud, as well as on-premises servers, so long as your host operating system is an edition of Linux or Windows), it can also be used with almost any kind of container runtime (the software that executes containers). The majority of orchestrators are tied to specific cloud runtimes or cloud infrastructures that can result in lock-in. Kubernetes services allow you to grow without having to redesign your infrastructure.

5. Automatization of deployment and scaling

   Kubernetes manages and automatizes the deployment of containers across multiple compute nodes, whether they are in the cloud or onsite VMs and physical machines located on premises. The automatic scaling feature allows teams to scale up or down to respond to demand more quickly. Autoscaling creates new containers when needed to handle large volumes or spikes depending on CPU usage, memory thresholds or any other custom metrics, for example when an online event starts and there is a sudden rise in the number of requests.After the demand is satisfied, Kubernetes automatically scales down resources to minimise consumption. It is not just able to allow infrastructure resources to be scaled in a downward and upward direction as needed, it also allows simple scaling vertically and horizontally. Another advantage of Kubernetes is the ability to rollback changes to an application when something goes wrong.

6. Stability and accessibility of apps in a cloud-based environment

   Kubernetes allows you to run your containerized applications with ease. It automatically balances and places containerized workloads and scales clusters accordingly to meet the demands of growing demand, ensuring that the system is running. If one of the nodes in the cluster fails, its resources will be redistributed to the other nodes without affecting access to users. The system also supports self-healing and can restart, reschedule, or even replace the container in case it fails or when nodes fail. It also allows regular updates to your software with no interruptions. High-availability applications can also be created using Kubernetes with one or more cloud service providers in such a manner that ensures a high level of uptime. One example of this is Amazon, which made use of Kubernetes to switch from a monolithic system to a microservices architecture.

7. The benefits of open-source in Kubernetes

   Kubernetes is a community-driven project and is completely open-source software (at times, the fastest-growing open-source software ever), which means there’s an extensive ecosystem of open-source software that can be used in conjunction with it. Kubernetes’s support is strong, which means that there will be constant innovation and enhancements to Kubernetes that protect any investment made in it. This means there is no commitment to technology that will soon become obsolete. Additionally, it offers the support and transferability of the top cloud providers, which include IBM, AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. There is a common misconception that Kubernetes services are directly competing with Docker. However, this isn’t the reality. Kubernetes is a tool to containerize, as is Docker. Kubernetes is an orchestration platform for containers that is often utilised to manage several Docker clusters.

Kubernetes, and Impressico

Containers are a great way to modernise your applications while improving and enhancing your IT infrastructure. Built on Kubernetes and other tools of the open source Kubernetes ecosystem, the container services provided by Impressico can facilitate and accelerate your progress towards cloud-native app development and towards an open hybrid cloud strategy that combines the most effective capabilities and features of cloud services, including public cloud, private cloud, and on-premise IT infrastructure.