Kubernetes is no longer a brand new technology. It has been adopted very well over the last two to three years although it has a long way to go. Gartner states that ‘By 2022, more than 75% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production, which is a significant increase from less than 30% today.’
When you talk to different teams, you come across various assumptions about Kubernetes which might be based on hearsay and not true. These myths need to be debunked to gain an unbiased 360-degree view. This would help companies make the right decisions and avoid common pitfalls of misconceptions.
Kubernetes will make applications easy to code
This is one of the most common myths about Kubernetes. “You start using containers and Kubernetes and–voila! Applications are improved. It’s just as simple as that!”
Let’s debunk it. Both containers and Kubernetes are designed so that developers can focus on coding, instead of worrying about the infrastructure. In the non-container and non-serverless world, developers need to plan for the hardware available, middleware that can be leveraged and finally languages they can code in.
Containers abstract to a point where developers can easily code and things underneath can flex as needed almost automatically. This frees up developer time for more applications or business needs. More languages can also be supported using containers and Kubernetes technologies. Thus, application provisioning and management get simplified. However, developers still need to code their applications and that does not get easy with Kubernetes.
IT is not needed going forward
Here’s another myth: “Through the virtualization journey, as services were abstracted further there had been a growing myth that IT will not be needed to support any applications.”
This myth has grown since Kubernetes helped developers abstract all the way up to the application level. So, now IT services are being consumed in a decentralized way. IT is knowingly de-coupling itself from the day-to-day functions in any organization and helping organizations get more efficient and empower employees through self-service.
However, IT still stays relevant in this new era. IT will be instrumental in deciding which technology would make more sense currently and five to 10 years down the road. IT will also continue securing your information, data, and technology by establishing the high firewalls required. This is true even in the world of public clouds. IT needs to ensure that the right protocols are followed in case of a breach.
Kubernetes is more secure
One thing that we all should realize by now is that nothing is 100% secure. We had heard cloud is secure, using containers is secure or even banking is secure. It is not. It is as secure as you make it. And guess what? Tomorrow there will be some new vulnerability and until then your environment is super-secure.
Similar is the case with Kubernetes. The way Kubernetes is designed, the surface area for exposure is minimized. You can now ensure your key resources are not exposed to the external world.
Many security breaches are caused by some sort of manual errors. Remember to develop a process to ensure everything stays secure. With Kubernetes, it is the same. Keep your eyes open and ears to your ground. Also, things are only secure until a vulnerability is found and exploited. Containers and Kubernetes are no exception.
You have to manage your own Kubernetes environment
This comes up when companies or teams or individuals are just starting to explore containers and Kubernetes space. Kubernetes was an open-source project developed in Google and then teams had to deploy and manage their own Kubernetes environments. However, that is not the case anymore.
Public cloud providers came up with their own fully-managed Kubernetes services that customers can start using from Day One. Some of the examples are Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and if you want to try a managed open-source project RedHat OpenShift can be helpful.
CloudBolt has been helping its customers manage their Kubernetes environments better through a simple self-service catalog.
