In the past few years, we’ve seen a rapid increase in container adoption as the go-to strategy for accelerating software development. After all, why wouldn’t you move towards containerization considering its advantages? Benefits such as application portability, IT resource efficiency, and increased agility would make any infrastructure or operations leader interested in adopting containers with Kubernetes.
Kubernetes indeed has much to offer, but let’s look at some key Kubernetes myths, as well as how you can adapt best practices to reduce long-term Kubernetes management complexities.
Myth #1: Kubernetes is easy to deploy
What amount of time and effort are you willing to have your teams spend on building and deploying DIY Kubernetes?
For the development team, containers offer the most favored path to modernizing monolithic applications. However, executives should get ready for the operations team to run headlong into complexity. Kubernetes does address automation of containers, but Kubernetes itself is complex to manage. While your Kubernetes profile may start off simple, Kubernetes estates can quickly grow out of control, so you need to consider long-term personnel needs as you scale your Kubernetes clusters. Challenges around scaling will impact monitoring, management, worker fatigue, and data complexity.
Myth #2: Kubernetes native security is sufficient
Can chief information security officers (CISOs) rely on the default security offered by Kubernetes?
Containerization means that your attack surface area can greatly increase over time. CISOs will need to balance security configurations with performance needs, as well as establish real-time security monitoring systems. Without the right tools, shared resources can develop into manual, complex configurations that will only grow over time. This complexity can lead to errors that could expose your organization. Again, challenges with scale can quickly become a problem and security leaders need to ensure that they can remain compliant.
Myth #3: Kubernetes skillsets are easy to hire
How will you find workers with the right skillsets that align to the unique needs of your business?
Despite wide adoption, demand for Kubernetes skills outpaces supply, and so you’ll need to consider training, hiring, and retaining talent. According to VMware’s 2022 State of Kubernetes report, the number one challenge noted by respondents remains inadequate internal experience and expertise (51%).
Similarly, 37% of respondents stated that Kubernetes expertise was hard to hire. Add to this the uptick in employee churn and burnout and you may be limited in what you can deliver with your available staff. Technology leaders will need to consider enterprise-ready solutions to help them bridge the skills gap to a Kubernetes future.
What you need is Kubernetes best practices
When you are evaluating Kubernetes solutions, you need to consider how that solution facilitates best practices so that you don’t fall into the trap of Kubernetes disillusionment.
To reduce Kubernetes management complexity, your solution needs to help your teams:
- Rapidly provision and manage distributed Kubernetes clusters through a uniform toolset across multiple teams.
- Achieve better security by isolating via multi-cluster deployments and then layering on more security to protect those distributed clusters.
- Use pre-built, centralized policy management to streamline frequent redeployments and Day 2 operations.
- Simplify Kubernetes management through task optimization and automation.
To learn more about how you can accelerate the adoption of Kubernetes while reducing container complexity and time to value, read our white paper “Best Practices for Kubernetes Management.”
