Struggling with Kubernetes? You need K8sOps. Posted on : Sep 25 - 2020

In 2016 Kubernetes (K8s) went mainstream with version 1.2, finally heralded as ready for the enterprise – instead of just a science project for software development teams. Fast-forward to 2020, and Kubernetes has gone from enterprise deployable to enterprise standard, as organizations confidently build capabilities and align strategies based on the Kubernetes framework. 

Over the years. substantial engineering work has gone into the solution to ease the development, deployment, management, and monitoring of applications using Kubernetes. Yet, as I speak to organizations with significant experience using the framework, I hear a common refrain: “It feels like we have a brand-new framework, but we’re doing things the same old way, which isn’t making anything better.”

Modern frameworks require modern processes

What’s happening to Kubernetes deployments that make people feel this way?

The problem is we are attempting to use an ultra-modern framework like Kubernetes to streamline and optimize the development and deployment of applications, but without changing our operational processes. This problem has doomed organizations to K8s sprawl, or even worse – failure.

What those organizations need is K8sOps – an operational approach that builds on the best practices of other major Ops initiatives and takes into account the unique requirements of running a Kubernetes platform.

Before we dig in, let’s take a quick look at those other Ops I am referring to.

DevOps

The original Ops practice brings agile development and infrastructure as code into the mainstream to accelerate the velocity of software development by focusing on high-quality code and automation of the environment.

GitOps

Builds on DevOps but allows deployments that are orders of magnitude larger and more complex due to microservices-based applications. It also takes an approach that uses a single source of truth for building environments and deploying applications.

DevSecOps

Makes security a first-class citizen in the development process, sharing the responsibility of building and deploying secure applications across the entire software development lifecycle. View More