How to build an enterprise Kubernetes strategy

 How to build an enterprise Kubernetes strategy

Two friends, both CIOs in different organizations, are discussing how to build a Kubernetes strategy for their respective enterprises. 

Always late, thought Jason as he finished the last sip of water, waiting for his best friend Will in their favorite bar. The two friends had a ritual for the past 10 years wherein they met every Friday night and shared some beer and some innovative ideas apart from discussing life in general. 

Meanwhile, Jason was reading a quarterly report on Kubernetes by Digital Ocean. The report showed how Kubernetes has emerged as the most popular container orchestration platform.

Reference 

https://dzone.com/articles/quotdocker-swarm-or-kubernetesquot-is-it-the-right 

"Sorry, I am late", said Will as he sprinted toward Jason. I am accustomed to that, came the curt reply from Jason. 

"Come on, man, the CEO wants me to implement a Kubernetes strategy in our enterprise", said Will.

"Ok, so you guys are late in kubernetes implementation too", quipped Jason.

“You mean you have already implemented a kubernetes strategy?” asked will.

"Yes, we have, and I can guide you in your endeavor", said Jason

“Enlighten me”, Will said.

"First, we will look at why your business requires kubernetes", said Jason. 

Why does a business require Kubernetes?

Reference:- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/building-robust-kubernetes-strategy-enterprise-brajesh-de 

Kubernetes is an open-source solution from the house of Google that helps enterprises deploy, scale-up and manage containerized applications. Kubernetes ensures that your organization can get high-performance applications. Fortune 500 companies like Amazon use kubernetes to provide an experience to their customers and reduce the time-to-market of the application.

Kubernetes can run applications on virtual machines or a single or multiple public cloud environments. This versatile nature of kubernetes is the feature that enhances your application's portability. Many large corporations like USA Today have taken advantage of the application portability feature of kubernetes to significantly reduce their investments in IT infrastructure.

Kubernetes allows your developers to achieve seamless migration of containerized workloads. In addition, Kubernetes helps the IT operations team to improve their productivity and help the organization achieve its hybrid cloud goals.

In essence, Kubernetes helps organizations

• Ease application deployment

• Ensure high portability and scalability of the applications

Where can you deploy Kubernetes?

“Ok, I got it, but I am afraid to take the multi-cloud route with kubernetes?” said Will.

"Don't worry, Will, you've got company here", said Jason.

A report by VMWare shows that despite huge strides taken in the cloud deployment arena, most enterprise deployments are on-premise and not on the public cloud. The survey states that 3 out 10 people deploy kubernetes in a multi-cloud environment. The survey by VMWare clearly states that most of the organizations are just starting their kubernetes journey, and you might not be that late if you start with your kubernetes deployment. So like other organizations, you can start with an on-premise kubernetes deployment and slowly explore multi-cloud deployment. 

Reference

https://cldcvr.com/news-and-media/blog/the-comparison-and-growth-trends-of-kubernetes/ 

Build an effective enterprise Kubernetes strategy

"So, how do you build an effective enterprise kubernetes strategy?" asked Will, sipping his favorite beer.

How do you want to implement Kubernetes in your organization?

To implement an effective Kubernetes strategy, you first need to identify your business objectives.  

Do you want to implement a private cloud strategy or a multi-cloud deployment strategy? 

Understand that a private cloud strategy warrants the use of self-managed k8 clusters like RancherRKE and KubeADM. This way, you would be able to reduce the overhead cost for patching and upgrades and can have a faster rollout. 

If your main priority while implementing a Kubernetes strategy is to reduce infrastructure costs, you should focus on building big Kubernetes clusters. 

If your main priority is to accelerate the development process, you will need to take a different approach with your Kubernetes implementation strategy. 

Ideally, you should have a Kubernetes strategy that has a provision to manage many Kubernetes clusters that run on different places like data centers, multiple clouds and edge.

Which team should lead Kubernetes strategy implementation

In an ideal scenario, you should involve all talented members from across the organization to implement a robust Kubernetes strategy. However, in most cases, it has been observed that the Kubernetes strategy implementation responsibility falls on the shoulders of two teams. One is the team responsible for supporting DevOps, and the other is the team handling the central IT functions. 

The two teams are the teams that will be most affected by a Kubernetes strategy. Hence it is essential to include these teams in the Kubernetes implementation. 

The shared services team understands key systems such as CI / CD tools, application monitoring tools, development environments and data services.

The central IT team has a strong understanding of the existing IT infrastructure of your company, multi-tenancy and platform operations. In addition, the Central IT team understands the requirements of many different teams across the organization.

Centralized or decentralized Kubernetes approach?

Another important decision you need to make before you start implementing the Kubernetes strategy is whether to go for a centralized or a decentralized governance model. 

In a centralized approach, you can offer your developer teams shared access to Kubernetes clusters after building large infrastructure clusters using Kubernetes. You can do this by using Kubernetes namespaces. 

Another approach is to give your developer teams the freedom to choose how they want to use Kubernetes. To follow this approach, you may have to deploy multiple Kubernetes clusters across your company's data centers and multiple cloud systems.

With this approach, there is a possibility that friction will develop between your IT teams and other teams over the Kubernetes implementation. This is why most teams prefer to apply the centralized approach.

Ensure robust security

Security of the deployed applications is one of the most critical factors you need to consider while deploying a Kubernetes strategy. While deploying a Kubernetes strategy, you must ensure that the underlying container platform is protected from unauthorized access and malware attacks. 

Ensure a centralized security policy for a Kubernetes cluster that takes care of access control, image security and resource isolation. For platform-level security, some platforms will evaluate your Kubernetes clusters against the Centre for Internet Security(CIS) benchmarks. 

You can also take the help of organizations focusing specifically on container security like NeuVector and Aqua Security. 

Choose an appropriate deployment strategy and train your team

The next step would be to choose an appropriate deployment strategy that helps your company easily release updates and new features. A correct deployment strategy will enhance the customer experience and help you minimize the risks associated with strategy deployment. An effective Kubernetes deployment strategy will also ensure that your IT infrastructure is reliable enough to handle application upgrades.

You can take any of the following approaches to roll out new application updates.

• Blue/green approach

• Canary deployment approach

• Ramped approach

• Rolling approach

• Recreate approach

Without an efficient team, you cannot realize success in Kubernetes deployment. First, identify whether you already have some people in your organization who have expertise with containers or Kubernetes. If you are lucky enough to have such people working for you, try to include them in the Kubernetes deployment team. 

For those who are not aware of administering or using Kubernetes, many online and offline courses can train them. 

A certified Kubernetes application developer certification trains a person to build Kubernetes applications. Another course, the certified Kubernetes administrator certification, trains individuals in managing Kubernetes clusters.

"Ok, I got the process, but what about the other side of the coin? I mean, are there any challenges that I might face while deploying my Kubernetes strategy?" asked Will.

"Yes, there are; we will discuss them now", said Jason.

Challenges around managing Kubernetes at scale

Understand that Kubernetes is still a new technology, and it is hard to find people who are trained in it. Apart from that, it is not necessary that you will find the most appropriate settings and configurations for Kubernetes integration easily.

Here are the key reasons why many enterprises are still wary of Kubernetes adoption.

• Doubts about cluster security

• Lack of available IT resources

• Not ready for change

• Unavailability of the correct technology provider

• Need to update the infrastructure to support Kubernetes

Out of all these challenges, the culture change within the DevOps team continues to be a major one.

Reference https://cldcvr.com/news-and-media/blog/the-comparison-and-growth-trends-of-kubernetes/ 

“I think you'll empty the bar Will”, said Jason as he watched Will gulping down his third glass of beer.

“ My thirst for knowledge regarding Kubernetes is satisfied now, master, but my thirst for beer is still not quenched”, said Jason.

"Not so fast, my friend; here are a few tips that will help you in your kubernetes journey", Jason said.

Recommendations for a successful Kubernetes adoption

Readymade solution

Kubernetes deployment is a very complex process, and hence it is wise to always choose a turnkey solution and not try to reinvent the wheel. When you choose the solution, ensure that your chosen solution has the right mix of what is pre-configured and what you can customize according to your requirements.

Take it step by step

It is not wise to roll out Kubernetes for the entire organization. If anything goes wrong, it can wreak havoc on the established processes. Instead, you should try to introduce Kubernetes in a single team first, and then once you are satisfied with the results, start implementing Kubernetes throughout the organization.

Have a valuable partner

It is always a good idea to have a valuable Kubernetes implementation partner that can come to your aid when the Kubernetes implementation does not go as per plan. Find a Kubernetes implementation partner that can help you understand the complexities of Kubernetes, even if you ultimately intend to train your team in Kubernetes.

Mindset change

As discussed earlier, a mindset change is the single most important roadblock that can derail your Kubernetes strategy. You need to educate all stakeholders and develop a common understanding of how Kubernetes will change their way of working.

“If you want to show the Kubernetes strategy to your co-workers, then this video is a pretty good source”, Jason said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djTFhT33cz0 

Final thoughts

Altho implementing Kubernetes in your organization can prove to be a complex process, the benefits that Kubernetes brings to the organization are definitely worth the hard work. Kubernetes can help push your organization to the next growth orbit by allowing you to manage your workflows more efficiently and accelerate application development.