SEARCH (ENTER TO SEE ALL RESULTS)
Cancel Search
POPULAR TOPICS
Contributed
sponsored-post-contributed
News
Analysis
The New Stack Makers
Tutorial
Podcast
Feature
Research
Profile
The New Stack Logo
Skip to content
  • Podcasts
  • Events
  • Ebooks
    • DevOps
    • DevSecOps
    • Docker Ecosystem
    • Kubernetes Ecosystem
    • Microservices
    • Observability
    • Security
    • Serverless
    • Storage
    • All Ebooks
  • Newsletter
  • Sponsorship
  • • • •
    • Podcasts
      • TNS @Scale Series
      • TNS Analysts Round Table
      • TNS Context Weekly News
      • TNS Makers Interviews
      • All Podcasts
    • Events
    • Ebooks
      • DevOps
      • DevSecOps
      • Docker Ecosystem
      • Kubernetes Ecosystem
      • Microservices
      • Observability
      • Security
      • Serverless
      • Storage
      • All Ebooks
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsorship
Skip to content
  • Architecture
    • Cloud Native
    • Containers
    • Edge/IoT
    • Microservices
    • Networking
    • Serverless
    • Storage
  • Development
    • Development
    • Cloud Services
    • Data
    • Machine Learning
    • Security
  • Operations
    • CI/CD
    • Culture
    • DevOps
    • Kubernetes
    • Monitoring
    • Service Mesh
    • Tools
Search The New Stack
 

Kubernetes

▾ 4 MINUTE READ — CLOSE

Although technically best described as a container orchestration engine, Kubernetes is rapidly becoming the infrastructure platform for cloud-native computing, an approach to flexibly using public or private clouds.

What Is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is a portable open-source platform — with a rapidly growing ecosystem — for managing containerized workloads and services. Kubernetes aids declarative configuration, automates deployment, and manages cloud-native applications with on-premise systems or public cloud infrastructure.

What Is a Kubernetes Cluster?

A Kubernetes cluster is a set of nodes for running containerized applications. A node is a device or data point in a network. With a Kubernetes cluster, teams can run containers in multiple environments such as public clouds, on-premise, virtual, or physical environments.

Clusters often comprise a control plane — which manages the cluster’s desired state — and some worker nodes, which could be virtual machines or physical computers depending on the cluster. Each Kubernetes cluster’s desired state determines elements such as applications or running workloads, corresponding images, and configuration details.

Benefits of Kubernetes Architecture

The idea behind the cloud-native computing approach is to put your applications within containers and then manage them against available resources using Kubernetes.

Beyond orchestration, Kubernetes as a platform solves many enterprises’ IT issues. Some of the benefits of Kubernetes architecture include:

Service discovery. Service discovery is the process of automatically locating devices on a network. Kubernetes has labels and annotations for additional metadata to identify and group objects with similar attributes. These labels and annotations make it easy to associate a service with a group of pods in service discovery.

Storage orchestration. Kubernetes allows teams to mount chosen storage systems into pods, such as public cloud providers and local storage.

Flexibility. A container runtime or engine is a program that runs containers. Kubernetes supports several types of container runtime and infrastructure as long as they have some version of Linux or Windows. K8s portability makes it easy for development teams to switch engines, servers, or environmental configurations.

Can You Live without Kubernetes? We don’t think you should. Discover more about Kubernetes.

Multi-cloud operations. Many organizations believe that cloud computing is the best way to handle IT operations. Each cloud provider offers unique interfaces, posing a danger that a customer’s operations may be “locked” into that specific provider. This risk makes many companies adopt a multi-cloud strategy. Kubernetes supports multi-cloud infrastructure and quickly scales its environment from one cloud to another.

Developer productivity. Kubernetes has an operations-friendly approach that enables development and operations (DevOps) teams to innovate, scale, and deploy faster than they previously could.

Bin packing. Kubernetes fits containers into nodes based on defined resources such as CPU, RAM, and the cluster of nodes developers provide for containerized risks.

Using Kubernetes for Containers Eases Application Deployment

Containers allow organizations to streamline the development process to transition between the developer and the production deployment automatically. Containers free up developers to use whatever languages and frameworks they prefer, given the ability to package all the dependencies for these specific choices within the container itself.

On the operations side, Kubernetes allows operators to use available resources best by moving containers or having them automatically moved around to best match the optimal performance and price.

Major Cloud Providers Now Support K8s Deployment

Google first created Kubernetes based on its software for managing containers, called The Borg. The company was already using containers in its operations for well over a decade. Company engineers had plenty of expertise and best practices when designing this new software, which was released as open-source in 2014 and is now hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Many major cloud vendors now offer Kubernetes as a service since K8s provides an abstraction through a set of APIs that potentially allows users to mix and match cloud services.

How Organizations Can Improve Kubernetes Deployment

Efficient deployment greatly impacts the development process, resource management, and user experience. There needs to be structure in central organizational governance to ensure that teams efficiently deploy code.

Here are some areas development teams need to consider to avoid governance challenges in Kubernetes deployment:

Visibility and Management. As clusters grow, managing and tracking them becomes a complex task. Troubleshooting problems are time-consuming if different software is used because one solution may not work for all programs. Centralized governance and updates on application performance are essential for successful deployments. To prevent visibility issues, operators must actively and consistently obtain insights about their systems.

Operational Complexity. Having multiple Kubernetes clusters in different business units leads to difficulties in user identity tracking. When users onboard, offboard or change teams, operators may lose the ability to define user responsibilities and roles. This process ensures that the right user performs their tasks within the environment. Teams should also set structures to detect role violations, conduct adequate compliance checks, and assess management risks. When there are fewer potential risks, efficiency is possible.

Developer and operator empowerment. Although Kubernetes supports the DevOps approach, there is a need to balance developers’ freedom and operators’ ability to manage policies and ensure the environment’s security. Organizations must define the extent of developers’ innovative independence so that necessary procedures are not compromised.

Get the Latest Kubernetes Updates at The New Stack

At The New Stack, we monitor how enterprise Kubernetes adoption impacts business outcomes. We’re also watching how Kubernetes advancements will accommodate artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) workload in production. And we keep a close eye on how the Kubernetes community prioritizes cloud-native security improvements.

Discover more about Kubernetes:

What Does Kubernetes Cost You?

Identifying a Kube-Native Approach to Data Protection

Six Key Ways for Reining in Kubernetes Chaos as You Scale


The New Stack Newsletter Sign-Up
A newsletter digest of the week’s most important stories & analyses.
Do you also want to be notified of the following?
We don’t sell or share your email. By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Cloud Native Ecosystem / Kubernetes / Contributed
The Cloud Native Landscape: Platforms Explained
17 Mar 2021 12:08pm, by Catherine Paganini and Jason Morgan
Kubernetes / Microservices / Sponsored / Contributed
How Puppet Replatformed Its Fastest-Growing Product to Run Via Kubernetes
17 Mar 2021 7:00am, by Abby Kearns
Kubernetes / Service Mesh / Software Development / Sponsored / Contributed
Innovation and Changes in the Service Mesh Landscape — an Invitation to SoloCon
16 Mar 2021 1:17pm, by Idit Levine
DevOps / Kubernetes / Contributed
Kubernetes Lifecycle Management! So Important! (What Does It Mean?)
15 Mar 2021 9:36am, by Tina Nolte
Containers / Kubernetes / Machine Learning
Accelerating Development with Container Run Times, Kubernetes and GPUs
12 Mar 2021 9:16am, by Alex Williams
Cloud Native Ecosystem / Data Science / Kubernetes
NetApp Astra Brings a Data-First Approach to Kubernetes Deployments
11 Mar 2021 10:30am, by B. Cameron Gain
Infrastructure - The Inner Dev Loop
DevOps Tools / Kubernetes / Software Development / Contributed
Kubernetes Infrastructure: Know the Inner Dev Loop
9 Mar 2021 1:38pm, by Vignesh T.V.
API Management / Kubernetes / Sponsored / Contributed
Kubernetes Is Not Just About Containers — It’s About the API
9 Mar 2021 12:02pm, by Viktor Farcic
CI/CD / Kubernetes / Security / Contributed
4 Best Practice Steps for Kubernetes Policy Enforcement
8 Mar 2021 12:40pm, by Robert Brennan
Cloud Services / Data Science / Kubernetes / Machine Learning
Hybrid Cloud Machine Learning on Kubernetes with Azure Arc
8 Mar 2021 9:38am, by Mary Branscombe
Culture / Kubernetes / Software Development
USENIX SREcon: Have We Gone too Far with the Abstractions?
5 Mar 2021 3:55pm, by Joab Jackson
Kubernetes / Serverless / Sponsored / Contributed
Avoid the Serverless Speed Trap
5 Mar 2021 11:56am, by Mark Hinkle
Kubernetes / Observability / Sponsored / Contributed
Using Grafana to Monitor Cloud Foundry Objects and Apps Running on Kubernetes
5 Mar 2021 9:15am, by Ram Iyengar
DevOps / Kubernetes / Sponsored / Contributed
Deploying Your Own Kubernetes Cluster in the Enterprise Is Anti-DevOps
4 Mar 2021 12:00pm, by Nigel Kersten
Kubernetes / Networking / Service Mesh / Contributed
5 Key Takeaways from IstioCon 2021
4 Mar 2021 11:43am, by Lin Sun
Cloud Services / Kubernetes / Security
Google’s New ‘Autopilot’ for Kubernetes
1 Mar 2021 11:20am, by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Data Science / Kubernetes / Machine Learning / Sponsored / Contributed
How Open Data Hub Speeds AI Development and Fixed a Kubernetes Bottleneck
25 Feb 2021 7:21am, by Alex Handy
Cloud Native Ecosystem / Cloud Services / Kubernetes / Contributed
Design a Better Kubernetes Experience for Developers
23 Feb 2021 3:00pm, by Matthew Clarke
Kubernetes / Software Development / Sponsored / Contributed
Achieving Production Parity and Local Development Workflows on Cloud Foundry with Kubernetes
23 Feb 2021 7:52am, by Ram Iyengar
Kubernetes / Linux / Security
Project Calico: Kubernetes Security as SaaS
22 Feb 2021 12:11pm, by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Kubernetes / Networking / Security / Sponsored / Contributed
Why You Should Choose NGAC as Your Access Control Model
18 Feb 2021 12:00pm, by Jimmy Song and Ignasi Barrera
Kubernetes / Software Development / Technology / Contributed
Protecting Kubernetes Data: The Stateful Application Edition
17 Feb 2021 2:04pm, by Cyril Plisko
DevOps / Kubernetes / Sponsored / Contributed
Cloud Drift Detection: How to Resolve Out-of-State Changes
16 Feb 2021 12:00pm, by Guy Eisenkot
CI/CD / DevOps / Kubernetes / Sponsored / Contributed
Understanding GitOps: The Latest Tools and Philosophies
16 Feb 2021 8:45am, by Anaïs Urlichs
DevOps / Kubernetes / Software Development / Contributed
KubeStack: Towards Full-Stack GitOps
15 Feb 2021 3:00am, by Philipp Strube
Kubernetes / Machine Learning
Kubeflow: Where Machine Learning Meets the Modern Infrastructure
12 Feb 2021 6:00am, by Janakiram MSV
Pagination Previous Button
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Pagination Next Button
Architecture
  • Cloud Native
  • Containers
  • Edge/IoT
  • Microservices
  • Networking
  • Serverless
  • Storage
Development
  • Cloud Services
  • Data
  • Development
  • Machine Learning
  • Security
Operations
  • CI/CD
  • Culture
  • DevOps
  • Kubernetes
  • Monitoring
  • Service Mesh
  • Tools
The New Stack
  • Ebooks
  • Podcasts
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • About / Contact
  • Sponsors
  • Sponsorship
  • Disclosures
  • Contributions

© 2022 The New Stack. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy. Terms of Use.