Containers play a vital role in software development for getting the software to run reliably in various computing environments; from a developer’s computer to a test environment, and staging and production. In addition to this, container technology is mostly adopted at present by companies to achieve developer efficiency.
When it comes to container technology, Docker is still the most popular choice. However, Kubernetes isn’t that far behind either. The open source project continues to be a reliable choice for container orchestration and management. The most recent version of the container cluster manager includes a plethora of beneficial features that will help teams optimize container usage in organizations.
Brian Gracely, Red Hat’s Director of Product Strategy, says the present state of containers has hit a tipping point, prompting the need for businesses to be faster and more responsive as to what’s going on in the market. Companies end up relying on individuals to keep the systems secure, update, and scale them appropriately. Kubernetes aims to automate this according to Gracely.
He also added that after leveraging out of big global web-scale cloud providers, Kubernetes has become applicable to lots of vertical industries and businesses. Companies can either apply Kubernetes to a new project or find a way to add it to their portfolios.
Key features of Kubernetes 1.5
According to the Kubernetes team, version 1.5 will benefit those who want to run a distributed database on Kubernetes. It will include solutions that could help guarantee application disruption service-level objectives (SLO) for stateful and stateless applications. Kubernetes 1.5 is also unique because PodDisruptionBudget and StatefulSet moved into beta.
The Kubernetes team mentioned that these features will make it easier to deploy and scale stateful applications, and perform cluster operations like node upgrade without violating application disruption service-level objectives.
Basically, with StatefulSet, organizations can use applications in a Kubernetes environment and run them in containers, while customers will have a consistent platform without compromise in functionality. In addition, users will not be forced to rewrite applications while using containers.
The PodDisruptionBudget beta is simply an API object that’s meant to specify the minimum percentage (or number) of replicas of a collection of pods that must be up. It basically allows the application deployer to make sure that the cluster operations don’t voluntarily evict too many pods simultaneously so as to cause data loss or service degradation.
Another promising feature is ‘Federation’ which essentially allows the user to pair an individual Kubernetes environment with another (or multiple) Kubernetes environment making them appear as a single pool of resources. This allows organizations to enable their data centers to make use of additional public cloud resources, also allowing them to explore environments beyond their data centers while having control and visibility over what those environments should look like.
Limitations of Kubernetes 1.5
Certain features including StatefulSet are still in beta, though development is progressing rapidly. The company also doesn’t want to trouble users by releasing upgrades every three months, and is currently figuring out a reliable upgrade process.
