How to Choose a Kubernetes Management Platform?

Kubernetes is one of the most popular open-source platforms for DevOps. Google developed it, and it has since become a standard for container orchestration.

Kubernetes is an open-source platform with several components that work together to create a complete system. You might think of these components as layers of a cake: they’re all essential, but they don’t taste good on their own!

Kubernetes core layer consists of the API server, which provides a RESTful API for interacting with the rest of the system. This layer is responsible for defining objects such as pods (i.e., groups of containers), services (i.e., load balancing), and deployments (i.e., how to deploy new versions).

How has Kubernetes enhanced the world of DevOps?

Kubernetes has given developers more freedom to code without worrying about configuring servers or setting up tools. Now they can focus on their workflows and product development. The DevOps automation platform also allows IT teams to delegate specific tasks to developers so they may focus on more critical tasks.

It handles scheduling onto the  nodes in a compute cluster and manages workloads to ensure that their state correlates with the user’s declared intentions. It also allows users to easily and reliably deploy their application on any infrastructure, public or private.

Kubernetes enhances DevOps with its ability to manage containers at scale by providing:

• Automatic load balancing and failure handling.
• Service discovery and load balancing across multiple hosts (replication controllers).
• Ability to roll out new versions of your application without downtime (deployment configuration) and roll back if needed (rollback).

Why Kubernetes success lies in choosing the right Kb8 management platform

Kubernetes is a powerful tool, but it’s also complex and hard to use in production environments. To get the most out of Docker and Kubernetes, you need a dedicated tool that makes managing your containers easier. This is where Kubernetes management platform comes in:

Kubernetes automation platforms accelerate common operations, like deployments and scaling, so you don’t have to write scripts or manage them manually.

They make security easier by providing strong authentication, access control, and auditing mechanisms. Only authorized users can access sensitive data or perform sensitive actions like terminating running containers or deleting resources from your cluster.

Features to consider in the Kubernetes management platform:

• The system should accelerate your production rate.

The Kubernetes management platform should accelerate your production rate by providing automated deployment and management of containers across clusters with multi-cloud support. The system should also provide a secure environment where you can deploy multiple applications on your Kubernetes cluster without compromising security or performance.

• Support for Multi/Hybrid Cloud.

It is important to have access to multiple cloud providers in today’s world. This allows enterprises to use different services at different times and provides greater flexibility when deploying applications.

If you have more than one cloud provider, your Kubernetes management platform must support multi-cloud environments. This means that all platform components can be deployed across different clouds without any issues or compatibility problems. 

With a multi-cloud Kubernetes management platform, you can easily manage applications across different cloud providers and save money by using only those resources required by your workloads at any given time.

• Agility and reliability of the Kubernetes management platform.

The performance of a Kubernetes management platform is very important as it will affect how quickly applications can be deployed, scaled up or down, and managed overall.

The agility and reliability of your Kubernetes hybrid management platform should not be compromised when scaling up or down your workloads in an environment with high availability requirements, such as enterprises. 

The system should be able to support high scalability requirements with minimal impact on the performance and stability of applications running on it.

• Community support for the enterprise Kubernetes management platform.

The Kubernetes management platform must have community support from other vendors to add more features and benefits quickly. This ensures that you can take advantage of new features as soon as they become available without waiting for your vendor to add them to their own schedule.

How to Choose the Best Kubernetes Management Platform?

There are many Kubernetes management platforms available on the market that meet different needs, but only a few can provide all the features required by production-ready clusters.

Here are some of the criteria you should consider when choosing one:

• Production-readiness.

A production-ready Kubernetes hybrid management platform should be able to monitor your cluster and notify you about any issues that might occur during runtime. It should also have built-in support for third-party monitoring tools like Prometheus or Stackdriver to integrate them with your cluster easily.

• Future-readiness.

As your business grows, your Kubernetes cluster needs to be updated to handle the increased load or new requirements such as additional functionality or security patches. A future-ready Kubernetes management platform will allow you to upgrade its components without disrupting service easily.

• Easy Management.

A good Kubernetes management platform will make it easy to configure the cluster and manage your applications in an automated fashion. You should be able to add new nodes or scale up when needed easily. Also, you should have access to monitoring tools that provide insight into how your applications are running.

• Expert Support/Training.

The popularity of Kubernetes means that many companies offer support or training services for Kubernetes users. Some companies provide expert support, while others focus on training courses on how to use Kubernetes effectively within your organization. Choose a vendor that offers both support and training options so you can get hands-on experience before deploying your first application on the platform.

• Cloudify.

Kubernetes is a powerful platform that requires significant effort to configure and operate. Setting up networks, storage, and load balancing requires much work. You also need to keep track of all these resources, which can be challenging when they are spread across multiple components in your infrastructure.

The Kubernetes complexities and management overhead are eliminated when you use Cloudify as your Kubernetes management platform. Cloudify is a production-ready, enterprise-class Kubernetes management platform. It offers support and training for multiple clouds, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure. It also provides a single view of your entire infrastructure, whether on-premises or in the cloud.

In addition, the multi cluster management platform has an integrated DevOps toolchain that allows you to build, deploy and manage applications at scale easily. You can also use the same tools to automate your containerized workloads across multiple clouds without learning new tools. Cloudify also offers security features such as role-based access control (RBAC) to limit access to resources within the Kubernetes cluster. RBAC policies are updated automatically when changes are made in your organization’s LDAP server, so there is no need for manual updates.

Other Kubernetes management platforms in the market include:

• Rancher
• K9s
• Kubespray 
• Helm

Kubernetes has been adopted by several companies, including large enterprises. But it’s also a tool that can be used in your own company to automate the deployment and management of containers, which means that it offers numerous benefits to your business. The right Kubernetes management platform maximizes the business value of this great invention.

You may be interested in:

deployment strategy for Kubernetes

Kubernetes pitfalls and errors

Kubernetes hybrid cloud