Is Kubernetes really a game changer or just a hype?
It’s not even a decade that kubernetes was launched, people are going mad over this technology. It is spreading like a wild fire and everyone wants to jump in to this. This blog tries to answer some FAQ on kubernetes. So what is Kubernetes ? Why it is even called as K8S ? How even it came into the picture? and many more!
So, What is Kubernetes ?
Kubernetes is an Container Orchestration Tool widely used to scale, manage, Monitor, load-balance and heal the container (in one word orchestrate) automatically based on the CPU, Memory or the Custom Metrics. In shorts, It schedules, runs, starts, stops, deletes, scales or manages isolated containers running in Virtual or Physical or Cloud Machines.
Kubernetes or k8s ?
Back in 80s or 90s there was a trend to use numeronyms for the naming conventions. A numeronym is a number-based word. Most commonly, a numeronym is a word where a number is used to form an abbreviation. Kubernetes to K8S transformation was also a result of numeronyms. I have create one image as follow for better understanding.
Why K8S ?
Previously there was Monolithic Architecture. That created problem in moduled (Part by part enhancement) upgrade. There was a need of Loosely Coupled Architecture. The Microservices were introduced. That still had a problem of not sharing resources based on the need, further resulting in Under/Over Utilization of CPU, Memory or Other Computing Resources.
So, The Containers came into the picture. They could share the resources as and when needed. They were isolated from each other and they were easily portable. It empowered the Microservices. But how do you manage 1000+ containers ? how to scale up and scale down these based on demand ? How to start, stop or delete them ? It was a superb headache and quite impossible to manage the huge number of container for a complex production grade microservice architecture.
Finally to solve the problem The open source Container Orchestration tool was introduced which could scale, manage, Monitor, load-balance and heal the container automatically based on the CPU, Memory or the Custom Metrics. That is why Wheel of Ship logo is used.
What are the alternatives of K8S ?
The Docker Swarm is known to be a widely popular alternatives. However, K8S is getting more and more powerful to becoming the buzz of the field. Besides there are also other alternatives getting popularity as follow.
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
SaltStack
Portainer
Rancher
However K8S remains in the most demanding Container Orchestration Tool and people are happy with its feature to move their production grade workload in K8S Engine.
Who Developed K8S ?
Google developed an internal system called “Borg” (Later named it as Omega) to deploy and manage thousands of Google Application and services on their cluster. In, 2014 Google introduced K8S as an open Source platform written in “GO” Language and donated to Cloud Native Computing Foundation.
What are some popular Cloud based K8S Engine?
GKE : Google Kubernetes Engine
AKE : Azure Kubernetes Engine
EKS : Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service
What are the Features of K8S ?
- Orchestration ( Clustering of any number of containers running on different networks)
- Auto-Healing
- Auto-Scaling
- Platform Independence (Cloud/Virtual/Physical)
- Load Balancing
- Fault Tolerance (Node / Pod Failure)
- Rollback
- Health Monitoring of Containers
- Batch Execution (One time , Sequential, Parallel )
These features indeed helps to manage your n number of containers in one go and have your application in a healthy state beating the load around it. Now, You can understand why K8S has become the game changer and what is going to be next. Do share your views and comment if you have a say on this.
