“Too many people focus on building and managing Kubernetes instead of using it.”
Whenever people mention Kubernetes, they’re met with bouts of nervous laughter. In every corner of the internet, memes about the container orchestration platform turn heads and garners sympathy from fellow developers. The fact of the matter is Kubernetes isn’t that bad and you really don’t need to be afraid of it. In a blog post on OpenSource.com, supported by Red Hat, Scott McCarty breaks down the complexity of Kubernetes.
“Kubernetes isn't complex; your business problems are,” McCarty writes. Scott goes on to argue that a simpler orchestration platform isn’t the answer to your problems, so you might as well use what’s now starting to become an industry standard.
The experienced public cloud infrastructure consultants at stack.io share some other reasons why you shouldn’t be afraid of Kubernetes.
Kubernetes can be done by one person
When the development of Kubernetes first started, there were definitely a lot of rough patches. In 2020, the container orchestration platform has grown to the point where industry standards are being set and there is usually one tested and well-documented way to complete most tasks and solve most problems.
As a result, with the support of the community and the documentation available, Kubernetes can be implemented, managed, and run by one person. Nowadays, in order to set up and run a basic Kubernetes cluster, you most likely won’t have to spend hours digging through information. Just on the Kubernetes website itself, the community makes a good effort to keep documentation and tutorials up-to-date with the best solution(s) available.
For example, the recent eksctl tool allows you to create a Kubernetes cluster on AWS using just a single command. A lot of other aspects of Kubernetes has seen similar tools pop up that make it easier for a single person to set up and manage a cluster.
Kubernetes can do (almost) everything for your app
Although Kubernetes has a large learning curve, it has one major advantage: it can do nearly everything for you. Instead of having separate processes and/or software perform different tasks, Kubernetes can run almost all of it in just one place.
The learning curve itself is not far off from switching jobs or learning a new stack; no two companies will ever use the exact same combination of tools. Once you get past the initial stage of relearning how to do everything with Kubernetes, your day-to-day tasks can only get simpler.
Running it can be easy
When it comes to Kubernetes, the bulk of the grunt work comes from setting up a cluster itself. Once your web application is up-and-running, actually deploying via Kubernetes is relatively simple.
As such, you can hire a Kubernetes expert to set up and run your cluster, but in the long run, you likely won’t need an expert to manage it. So then what? One solution is to outsource the setup.
Our team of public cloud infrastructure consultants at stack.io can securely containerize your app and set up a Kubernetes cluster. We’ve already figured out how to efficiently set up a cluster, so why waste time, money, and resources on solving a problem that we’ve already solved? Once we set you up with Kubernetes, we’ll equip you with the tools and knowledge to continue deploying your web application with relative ease.
Do you need help setting up a Kubernetes cluster, so you can focus on developing your app? Send us a message.