Is Kubernetes a Requirement for You?

Kubernetes has gotten a lot more popular in recent years. However, it feels like many companies are moving towards using Kubernetes without the need for it. They have a perfectly workable situation that doesn’t need Kubernetes, but because it is the cool thing to do, they do everything they can to move to this program. The reality is that most companies do not need Kubernetes. It is a great program for running containerized applications, and it forms the foundation of modern DevOps culture. It is also the cool thing in technology, as it was made by Google, which is one of the Halo companies for the software engineering industry. That is to say that people are more willing to adopt the software that Google uses for its own internal purposes. However, the reality is most companies are not Google. Your software engineering needs do not scale to the level that Google’s does.

What Kubernetes Is Responsible For

As we moved to containers to host our applications, we needed a way to manage a growing number of containers in our infrastructure. This is where Kubernetes comes in. It enables you to efficiently manage and route traffic between your containers. It is quite scalable, and it is one of the many reasons why it is so great. It was developed by Google, and they host thousands to even millions of containers. It is a big part of DevOps, as it makes it more efficient to create a streamlined continuous integration and deployment pipeline. However, just because it is cool does not mean that it will fit your specific use case. Most current web users have monolithic applications, and they are still trying to force Kubernetes into that role.

Can’t You Improve What You Already Have?

Your first instinct might be to try to fit Kubernetes into whatever workflow you have, but this would not be a good idea. The first thing you need to do is to focus on improving your already monolithic application. TDD or Test-Driven Development is a great way of achieving that goal. It essentially allows you to test your application as you develop. You can then scale your application using configuration tools like Chef. You can also automate the way you configure servers and other essential functions. The best part about this approach is it allows you to scale the pieces of your application that become bottlenecks. For example, a database server can easily be scaled by adding additional services. You don’t need to abandon your current approach and moved to a complete microservices architecture. It is one of the many reasons why Kubernetes wouldn’t be good in this situation.

Add to Your Monolithic Application First

Eventually, you will reach a point where it is no longer possible to scale your application. At this point, you should try to add different pieces around your application to enable it to scale well. Adding Kubernetes at this point would be difficult, as it doesn’t contain many tools for security, deploying to a multi-cloud environment, and it also adds complexity. You could probably add various functions from cloud providers before trying to adopt the approach that requires Kubernetes.

When to Move to Microservices and Kubernetes

When you get here, it might be tempting to abandon everything and adopt Kubernetes without any other thoughts. However, it is crucial to understand that you would need to dedicate people to running and managing Kubernetes itself before you could adopt it. It is one of the most important reasons that it does not make sense to adopt it unless you have a really big microservices architecture that needs the functionality that Kubernetes provides. Despite Kubernetes being so powerful, it isn’t always the choice, and you can do many other things before moving towards this way of managing your application.