kubernetes

Back-end & Platform Engineering Technology Enabler

Kubernetes, the world’s most popular container orchestrator, has revolutionized the way applications are developed and deployed. Also known as K8s, it is an open source system that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. The open source project is hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Kubernetes was born from 15 years of experience in running production workloads at Google, combining the best ideas and practices from the community, to become one of the most widespread open source projects in the world. Over the years, Bitrock has developed a deep knowledge of related tools. This expertise allows us to assist our customers in adopting Kubernetes, offering customized solutions to automate cluster management and application deployment.

OVERVIEW

Kubernetes has become the standard for orchestrating and managing containerized applications of different types, from stateless to stateful. Its growing popularity is due to a number of advantages that make it the best choice for modern companies that want to improve the agility, efficiency and scalability of their infrastructures.

aDVANTAGES

Automatic and horizontal scalability: Kubernetes can distribute an application over multiple nodes, automatically increasing or decreasing the number of replicas of a service based on the load
Flexibility: Kubernetes can be run on any cloud infrastructure (public, private or hybrid) but also on-premises.
Simplified Management and Automation: Many processes, such as deployment, scaling and updating, can be automated
Open source: Kubernetes has a large community of developers who actively contribute to the project
Rich ecosystem: There are numerous third-party tools and services that integrate with Kubernetes, expanding its functionality.
Continuous Delivery: Supports CI/CD workflows, facilitating the frequent distribution of new software versions.
Advanced Networking: Offers sophisticated networking features, such as service discovery and load balancing.
Security: Integrates security features such as authentication, authorization and encryption.

solution

Kubernetes manages every phase of the container life cycle, offering a stable and reliable environment and utilizing a series of specific functions:

Automated rollout and rollback: Kubernetes progressively rolls out changes to the application or its configuration, while monitoring the health of the application to ensure that all instances are not removed at the same time. In case of malfunction, Kubernetes automatically rolls back the change.
Service discovery and load balancing: It is not necessary to modify the application to use the native service discovery mechanism. Kubernetes provides Pods with their own IP addresses and a single DNS name for a set of Pods, allowing load balancing between them.
Storage orchestration: By using controllers it is possible to integrate with local storage, a public cloud provider or a network storage system such as iSCSI or NFS.
Self-healing: Restarts containers that fail, replaces and reschedules containers when nodes fail, eliminates containers that do not respond to the health check defined by the user and does not advertise them to clients until they are ready to be served.
Configuration and secrets management: Distribute and update secrets and application configuration without rebuilding the image and without making secrets visible in the stack configuration.
Automatic Bin Packing: Containers are automatically placed based on their resource requirements and other constraints, without compromising availability.
Batch Execution: In addition to always-on services, Kubernetes can handle batch workloads.
Horizontal Scaling: You can scale your application up and down with a simple command, through the user interface, or automatically based on the usage of CPU or other resources.
IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack: Assignment of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to Pods and services
Designed for extensibility: It is also possible to add functionality to the Kubernetes cluster without having to modify the upstream source code.

use cases

Kubernetes has proven to be a versatile technology capable of meeting the needs of a wide range of sectors. Its ability to orchestrate containers and manage distributed systems efficiently makes it an indispensable tool for companies that want to remain competitive in the digital market.

Management and Distribution of Microservices

Companies use Kubernetes to manage thousands of microservices, allowing for the independent distribution and updating of the various components. In e-commerce platforms, for example, separate services for authentication, product catalog and payments can be managed autonomously, improving the speed of deployment and fault isolation.

High Availability and Auto-scaling

Streaming services can implement Kubernetes to automatically scale according to demand. The platform adjusts resource allocation during peak hours and reduces it during periods of inactivity, optimizing resource utilization.

CI/CD Pipeline Automation

The declarative nature of Kubernetes simplifies deployment pipelines. Code pushes automatically trigger container creation, testing and staging deployments, with successful tests leading to downtime-free production rollouts.

Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Deployment

Kubernetes can be used to manage workloads on different cloud providers and on-premises infrastructures, avoiding vendor lock-in while maintaining consistent deployment practices.