The COVID-19 pandemic caused a surge in remote work with many opting to continue working from home even after the release of vaccinations and better mitigation measures. The need for enterprise Kubernetes is projected to continue to increase throughout the upcoming 2022 new year with customers wanting containers-as-a-service. Managed service providers (MPS) will need to scramble to meet the demands to provide the necessary secure services.

Kubernetes acts as a container orchestration platform that lets users seamlessly build, scale, and manage applications and their life cycles. Developers can pay attention to code instead of ops due to the impressive cluster scheduler capabilities. The future-proof Kubernetes infrastructure can be conducted on-premises or (most common) in the cloud. Best of all, there is no cloud provider or vendor lock-in required. 

Understanding Enterprise Kubernetes

The name ‘Kubernetes’ has a Greek origin which translates to ‘sailing master’ or ‘helmsman.’  Kubernetes (often called simply K8s) are open-source platforms that work by automating Linux container operations. It helps eliminate time-consuming manual processes that have historically been used to deploy and scale applications. With Kubernetes you can cluster groups of hosts running Linux into containers for effective management of the clusters. 

Enterprise applications continue to become more complex. DevOps teams require a tool that gives them the ability to orchestrate that complexity and navigate the waters with ease. When they need to launch all-services that depend on applications then they need to ensure that the application and services are healthy, and all connect together. Containers have become extremely popular to meet that need with impressive efficiency.

Packaging code and dependency into containers, the development team can use standard code units that start and terminate quickly to allow applications to scale to any size. The success enables the use of containers to package entire applications so a team can move them to the cloud without needing to undergo code changes. 

With containers workflows are easier to build for applications that run between on-premises and cloud environments. Kubernetes act as an orchestrated platform to let large numbers of containers work harmoniously together and reduce operational burdens. 

Google first developed Kubernetes. They are now managed by Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). They have become the standard for cloud container orchestration by providing a successful platform for the automation, deployment, scaling and operations of containers across many host clusters. 

Speed is the name of the game with Kubernetes which makes IT pros deploy more containers which is a great asset for time-pressed developers. Kubernetes helps modernize traditional applications to multi-cloud or hybrid cloud implementations for agility and speed. 

The Future of Kubernetes 

As the world’s enterprises move to the cloud mode and embrace cloud agnostics to gain efficiency, agility and flexibility while reducing complexity and infrastructure cost, the popularity of Kubernetes is not going to wane any time soon. The rapid move to the cloud has only accelerated the adoption across the spectrum of automation which has pushed companies to also adopt related technologies like containers to better orchestrate ability. 

Today’s enterprises have hundreds, or in some cases, thousands of containers. Their operations teams have to schedule and automate the deployment of containers, networking availability and scalability. Container orchestration is not a luxury but a necessity in any competitive IT infrastructure and it is within such a realm that Kubernetes excel and prove invaluable to any enterprise IT organization. 

Kubernetes are designed as a cluster of containers made up from virtual machines. They are a way to take machines, networks, and storage away from physical implementation to create an agnostic realm that is completely portable between clouds. Using a comprehensive Kubernetes platform implementation, you can manage IT and amalgam services with greater flexibility and agility than ever before. 

The Growth and Popularity of Kubernetes 

The emerging ecosystem that surrounds Kubernetes is expanding rapidly within a multitude of organizations. Kubernetes have rapidly moved from the development and testing to production and environment throughout a multitude of enterprises in a noticeably brief time span.

In 2018, CNCF carried out a global survey examining the container management marketplace. They found that 40 percent of the survey’s respondents were using Kubernetes. Fast forward to 2021 when 83 percent of the latest CNCF users are now using Kubernetes which is a dramatic  increase from the previous survey. 

Why are Kubernetes So Popular? 

Kubernetes helps automate, deploy, scale, and manage containerized applications. They have quickly become the most widely adopted and fastest growing containerization platform in open-source software. The breadth of functionality and the growing ecosystem of support tools and its portability across the many cloud providers and services is the reason why so many are turning to container systems.

Let’s look at the top reasons why so many are sitting up and taking notice of Kubernetes: 

• When implemented and properly maintained, Kubernetes meets the needs of business owners, IT operations, and developers. They can effectively be run on either a local machine or span multiple clusters throughout widespread availability zones. You can horizontally scale your cluster or scale it back whenever necessary to meet your particular needs. 
• Run Kubernetes on-premises within a datacenter or in the public cloud. You can also go with a hybrid cloud configuration. Also, you can deploy the containers the exact same way each time. Work portability has never been easier! A container is an executable software unit with an applicant stand-alone packaged so it can be effortlessly run anywhere from laptop to the cloud. 
• Stability and speed are both valid and Kubernetes offer a solution, so businesses are free to better focus on important things like growth and innovation. They have a significant reduction in code errors and bugs. 
• Containerization helps IT teams save time by letting techs bundle software code coupled with its relevant libraries and dependencies into a unified package to create a consistent environment whether the code is deployed or developed. It has gained a great deal of traction because it is a viable alternative to the more traditionalized virtualization. A container includes only the software code needed to run which means less overhead and improvised platform optimized efficiency. Software and libraries that are within the container applications are easily upgraded or updated and can have rapid deployment of fixes and security patches. 
• Kubernetes uses numerous cloud providers so an organization can grow rapidly if needed without requiring any re-architecture of the infrastructure, so you save time and money.
• Containerized applications bundle all dependencies together which abstracts them from underlying OS. OS can then be patched or upgraded with confidence and only minimal impact on the containerized application so faster patching is achieved for the OS.

The above benefits are quickly realized with enterprise Kubernetes due to its ability to effectively orchestrate the various versions of containers (such as patched or unpatched). Containers can quickly be moved between hosts. With Kubernetes, you achieve stability and consistency across a multitude of cloud environments. 

Predictions About Enterprise Kubernetes

Moving forward, experts are predicting several Kubernetes trends that are hard to ignore. With the use of multiple clusters increasing, the popularity will only grow.

Continued Growth 

Kubernetes will continue to grow in popularity to improve workflow with the ease of building, testing and deployment. The growing adoption of Kubernetes by global tech companies is projected to only increase. It’s become a main choice by organizations to effectively manage software delivery. Software developers can quickly and seamlessly share various apps and software with their entire IT team in real time which improves productivity. 

The use of container management systems reduces the need for excessive human interaction and increases the ability to become fully automatic. The pipeline architecture helps developers use ML and AI tools to effectively examine, predict, and automate the work process and records. 

The support of Kubernetes is only forecast to grow. Software providers like VMWare and RedHat are staunch supporters of Kubernetes. The most commonly cited reason for the popularity is its competition to reform container heavy cloud-based apps. 

Simplification of AI/ML 

Artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to grow. Kubernetes pair well with AI/ML and the growth potential will burgeon. The potential to build a software development lifecycle using Kubernetes as the foundation lets businesses quickly extract value from the data. 

One of the challenges for IT organizations is to achieve coordination between infrastructure and data owners to gain better integration in the near future for greater simplification. 

Improved Overall Experience 

With Kubernetes being the predominant premier orchestration solution for cloud environments, the maturity and stability has reached a point of being considered stable and dependable so where does the future go from there? Virtually all software platform vendors and cloud providers offer some form of Kubernetes. Now the focus is going to be on offering an improved experience through simplification for both the developer and the operator. 

Leading vendors are creating ecosystems with the operational model of serverless (NoOps platforms). Its goal is to simplify building and servicing with the cloud-native applications. The line between containers and serverless has blurred even more. The objective is to reduce the amount of interaction with any underlying infrastructure.

Automation Leads the Way

The main goal of Kubernetes is to automate the manual container deployment tasks. Automation is going to continue to grow with installation and upgrades that focus on improved management and greater self-healing environments. End-to-end application automation that bridges that gap between tech and teams to accelerate scalability, management, and deployment. Automation will also help further secure the environment as Kubernetes take things to the next level. 

Kubernetes and the Edge

Kubernetes have become an important part of edge computing. Using Kubernetes, an organization can run containers at the edge to maximize resources, make testing more streamlined and create greater speeds to better consume and analyze data in the field. Edge computing depends on Kubernetes as a vital component of an effective platform where DevOps engineers can quickly deploy services and applications from anywhere such as the edge. They can further simplify their DevOps practices and save time integrating using heterogeneous operating environments. 

Stateful Applications

Stateful applications are now turning to Kubernetes. There are a great deal of advantages to developing and running applications using container clusters.

o   Immutability: Updates, rollbacks that help eliminate errors, optimized patching. 

o   Resilience: Error recovery by restarting nodes elsewhere. 

o   Portability: Easily runs in other environments with independence from infrastructure layers and operating systems.

o   Automation: A combination of self-healing and scaling. 

Stateful (conditional) apps contain data that is critical for behavior. Big data applications are also supported due to their larger and more critical workloads. In the near future, stateful apps will more than likely account for a much bigger share of application growth within cloud-native environments even though they are complex.

The Future of Kubernetes

Kubernetes are not a passing phase and they have not been exhausted by any means. In fact, their prevalence is likely to expand dramatically as the need increases due to software complexity. 

Organizations who want to build a successful Kubernetes strategy need to understand where within their organization Kubernetes are running and then use foresight to see where things are going to change in the next two years, five years, or ten years. 

Hands down, Kubernetes have gotten easier in just two years. Using open-source takes have made provisioning and upgrading Kubernetes clusters a breeze. Teams using Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or Google Platform can rest assured that it will take only minutes to provision a Kubernetes cluster. 

Major cloud providers have made it remarkably easy to deploy Kubernetes clusters in just minutes. Teams are constantly building new applications which they deploy to different clouds and then rely on Kubernetes to effectively run them. Predictions have virtually all well-organized companies running dozens of Kubernetes in the near future. 

Currently, Kubernetes are a tool used for the operation of data center and cloud workloads, but experts forecast that within a few years executive Kubernetes will be used to run applications across all infrastructures. Single node devices like medical devices, cars, point of sale terminals and communication equipment will have the ability to deploy and run applications by relying on microservices. This means there is the potential for thousands of edge deployments all running as Kubernetes clusters.

With clusters running in data centers, different clouds, and the edge, your organization will soon be running more than a single enterprise Kubernetes cluster. 

At Lyrid, we are a Kubernetes first company. We can deliver cloud agnostics by utilizing standard Kubernetes API, which works on any cloud vendor and assists in driving our user’s co-execution. Rest assured, all of our underlying technology runs efficiently on Kubernetes.

Contact Lyrid to learn more about taking your organization to the next level.