Follow up post – Kubernetes: it’s time to dig underneath the surface.
Four years ago, I wrote a blog post about the state of containers in the IT world. At that time, containerization was gaining speed like a freight train, and it seemed like everywhere I turned, there was another company or project jumping on board. Fast forward to today, and the narrative around containers has changed significantly. The new cargo on that same freight train is Kubernetes. In my previous role working at a cloud provider, I started looking into offering containers as a service shortly after writing that 2015 post. At the time, there wasn’t much to work with, but I dabbled a bit in Docker and even played around with VMware’s AppCatalyst to deploy basic Docker images on my MacBook (which I still have installed).
However, looking back, I realize that I should have started looking into Kubernetes more seriously earlier. Not because it’s crucial for my career path or because I feel like I was lagging technically but because there has been an increase in the field of customers and partners asking how they can backup containers and Kubernetes. As stated earlier, the initial stateless nature of containers is making way for more stateful persistent workloads, and it’s no longer enough to just back up the management plane. Protecting the data that sits within the persistent volumes has become essential.
My intention is to create a series of blog posts that describe my experiences with different Kubernetes platforms to ultimately deploy a simple web application with persistent storage. These posts will not be how-to’s on setting up a Kubernetes cluster, etc. Instead, I’ll look at general configuration, application deployment, usability, cost, and whatever else becomes relevant as I go through the process of getting the web application online.
I plan to work with various platforms, including the major public cloud providers and Platform 9, which offers managed OpenStack and Kubernetes. They recently announced Managed Applications through the platform, which I’ve been playing with today.
In conclusion, this follow-up post isn’t about the state of containers today or my thoughts on their use in IT. The reality is that we live in a hybrid world and workloads are created as needed for specific platforms. Kubernetes seems to have come to the fore and reached some level of maturity that makes it a viable option. It’s time for me (and maybe you) to dig underneath the surface and learn more about what makes it tick.
Link: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/what-is-kubernetes/.
The link provided is an official Kubernetes document that provides an overview of what Kubernetes is and how it works, and serves as a starting point for anyone looking to learn more about the platform.