Containers have taken over the IT industry and have become very popular in record time. Today, many IT leaders such as Amazon, VMware, Microsoft, and IBM support Kubernetes, the market-leading open-source container startup and orchestration platform, a system for deploying, scaling, and managing applications.
Kubernetes simplifies infrastructure management and makes it more flexible: applications can be easily moved between different clouds and on-premises environments. The platform requires less IT staff.
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How does it work?
To explain how it works, we first need to understand the nature of virtualization and containerization. Traditional virtualization allows physical servers to be divided into multiple virtual machines for efficient hardware sharing. Container technology provides an even more efficient way to virtualize physical hardware, allowing applications to run in a fully standardized container, in an isolated environment.
Kubernetes makes it easy to manage large numbers of containers. Imagine a giant warehouse. All goods are neatly packed in boxes and isolated from each other. With the huge scale, employees cannot efficiently track the right boxes and manually deliver them to the place of requirement at a specific time. To automatically track, schedule, and organize all these containers you need an orchestration solution.
That’s what Kubernetes is designed for. It automates the management of containers. Containers make applications more flexible and cost-effective. When compared to a warehouse, Kubernetes does for containerized IT environments what autonomous mobile robots do for modern factories.
In short, Kubernetes allows developers to more quickly and reliably deliver applications to users and keep IT systems online 24/7. That’s why today more and more companies are looking to migrate cloud foundry to Kubernetes.
What tasks Kubernetes solves
Companies can use Kubernetes for complete data center outsourcing, mobile and web applications, SaaS support, cloud web hosting, or high-performance computing. Kubernetes provides fault tolerance for business-critical systems and maintains uptime even when individual applications fail.
Kubernetes solves the problem of continuous system updates. The problem is that when upgrading an IT solution, it is important to ensure that it works correctly after being migrated from the development environment to the product platform. Containers combine all software components into one environmentally isolated package, allowing applications to be deployed quickly and reliably on any infrastructure.
Kubernetes can be used to scale web hosting. Mobile applications and sites with complex code can be deployed using Kubernetes on conventional hardware to reduce the cost of preparing a web server for public cloud hosts. Developers appreciate Kubernetes because the platform is application-centric rather than infrastructure-centric and also supports Docker containers. In addition, Kubernetes is convenient for working not only with one data center but also with several, distributed across different offices.
The system can recover itself in case of failures. The IT department doesn’t have to worry about which physical machine a container is running on and where to move it to run a new service.
How Kubernetes helps businesses
Automates processes
All operations take place in Kubernetes automatically. Business saves on hardware solutions and human resources. A maximum of 1-2 people are needed to maintain and customize the system. Companies can rent Kubernetes clusters in the cloud if they want to offload the administration work and only deal with development.
Increases multi-cloud flexibility
Kubernetes makes it much easier to run any application in a public cloud or on a federated platform of public and private clouds. The system allows you to efficiently distribute workloads to the right cloud, avoid vendor lock-in, and thereby increase the return on your IT investment.
Reduces costs
Kubernetes helps businesses reduce IT infrastructure costs. Applications are consolidated with minimal resources while the business maximizes the benefits of cloud and hardware and software investments. Applications that need to expand can be hosted in modules with room to grow.
Instantly scales applications
Kubernetes automates the horizontal scaling of applications by adding and removing containers and automatically increasing or decreasing cluster size based on actual load metrics. Vertical scaling ensures efficient allocation of resources available in the cluster. By scaling the cluster, the system becomes even more productive and fault-tolerant.
Working with Kubernetes
Kubernetes makes it easy to migrate from one infrastructure to another, such as physical to cloud or hybrid with on-premise and cloud container orchestration. But before migrating, you need to think about the configuration and work on the architecture.
Because it is an open-source technology, it has no official support. So, to deploy and manage the system, you need the help of both your engineers and partners who understand how abstraction levels function and are always up-to-date with the latest changes in the world of the Kubernetes tools ecosystem. Grid Dynamics can make modern technologies available even to small businesses.