7 Reasons Kubernetes Is Important for DevOps

DevOps implementation relies on a process called ‘containerization.’ In this process, the software component, its environment, and its dependencies are placed in an isolated container. Containerization improves the speed of deployment, patching, and scaling.

These days, virtual machines and cloud computing have greatly reduced downtime and broken programs. But running guest operating systems on them requires a lot of computational resources. Containers use ‘runtime engines’ that share the host operating system of machines that they are deployed onto.

Runtime engines offer faster start-up times, improved server efficiencies, and smaller storage sizes. Most runtime engines are a few megabytes, while virtual machines need 4-8 gigabytes of storage space. Thus, containers are portable, highly scalable, secure, support multiple cloud platforms, and are DevOps-friendly.

Kubernetes for DevOps: Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system for managing, scaling, and automating software deployment. Kubernetes helps organizations with DevOps, as it combines the development and maintenance phase of software systems to improve agility. Through the Kubernetes user interface, developers can view, access, deploy, update, and optimize container ecosystems. 

Essentially, containerization is an efficient and effective way to implement DevOps than a monolithic application. Kubernetes creates and manages containers on the cloud-based server systems. Kubernetes helps DevOps teams to reduce the burden of infrastructure by letting containers operate on different machines/environments without breakdowns.

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Some of the main components of Kubernetes are:

1. Master: The master runs the API for the entire cluster of the cloud application.
2. Nodes: Nodes are physical or virtual machines within the cluster that host the application.
3. Pods: Pods are the basic building blocks of Kubernetes that can run a set of containers simultaneously.
4. Replication controller: The replication controller ensures that the expected number of pods are running all the time.
5. Services: Services host a dynamic load balancer for a given number of pods

Kubernetes offers the following benefits for DevOps:

1. No downtime for deployment

Kubernetes allows developers to deploy updates to their cloud-based applications without experiencing any downtime. The rolling updates and automated rollback features serve as a fail-safe for deploying updates. Kubernetes can be used to transfer traffic to the remaining available services, as it updates one cluster at a time. 

2. Scalability

As an autonomous and continuous ecosystem for containerization, Kubernetes allows for effortless scaling of applications. Depending on the demand, burden, and resources, Kubernetes can scale an application up and down. The Horizontal Pod Autoscaler automates this process to ensure proper utilization and save resources.

3. Infrastructure and configuration as Code

Kubernetes helps developers build the ‘infrastructure as code’ and also helps them manage coding environment configurations as code. Thus, when deploying a new environment, scripts need not be executed continuously. Developers can link the source repository with its configuration files to Kubernetes.

4. Cross-functional collaboration

With role-based access controls, Kubernetes makes collaboration easy while ensuring that resources and configurations remain steady. For eg. Kubernetes can restrict testers to access only the builds and pending approvals. On the other hand, customers can be restricted to reviewing processes and deployment. 

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Kubernetes is popular due to its scalability, agility, streamlined approach, and its open-source nature. Some of the other reasons for the popularity of Kubernetes are:

1. Flexibility and portability

Kubernetes can work effectively in all scenarios, regardless of the type of container runtime or underlying infrastructure. Kubernetes runs perfectly on the on-site servers, private cloud, and public cloud infrastructure. Additionally, it is highly portable, as Kubernetes can be deployed on various infrastructures and environment configurations.

2. Infrastructure abstraction

Kubernetes, also known as K8s, can handle the storage, networking, and computational aspects of cloud applications on its own. So, once Kubernetes is installed, developers do not need to worry about the environment and can focus on the application development.

3. Automated operations

Kubernetes hosts a lot of built-in commands for automating many daily operations. Thus, it streamlines the application management process by automating a majority of the heavy-duty operations.

As the demand for cloud systems, DevOps, and virtual machines continues to grow, the demand for Kubernetes developers will be on the rise. Hiring experienced and capable Kubernetes developers will ensure that your cloud-based applications perform well under any circumstances. 

So if you wish to hire Kubernetes developers, who are experienced and pre-vetted, visit Turing.com. 

Turing’s AI-backed Intelligent Talent Cloud helps companies source, vet, match, and manage the world’s best software developers remotely in just 3-5 days. Hire from the talent pool of over 3 million developers around the world, with Turing.com

1. How can developers prepare when applying for a Kubernetes job?
Developers should learn about Kubernetes in detail, with the official Kubernetes documentation. They should practice locally using Minikube or Kind. Trying to set up multiple services with API servers will also help developers prepare for Kubernetes jobs. 

2. How is Kubernetes different from Docker?
Both Docker and Kubernetes are open-source cloud-native technologies. The main difference between the two is that Docker is useful for packaging containerized applications on a single node. Kubernetes is used to run applications in containers across a cluster.