Kubernetes: What is it, why is it used, and what can it do for me?
Kubernetes and OpenShift are complex products, but there’s no need to be afraid of them.
Discover what Kubernetes can do for you, and how to get started on your containerization journey, as our Container Platform Consultant Jonathan sits down with Darryl from TD SYNNEX to discuss all things Open Source – including why to look at Red Hat OpenShift as the choice Kubernetes flavou
Kubernetes and Containers with Tier 2
Our team of OpenShift Consultants helps organisations exploit containers, and agile and DevOps processes, to modernise their applications, develop new cloud-native applications, and accelerate application delivery.Find out more about Tier 2’s accredited Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform skills, and how we can help you:
- Design, install and configure your OpenShift environment
- Onboard OpenShift Dedicated customers
- Set-up CI/CD pipelines
- Application modernisation to benefit from containers and cloud-native architectures
Open Minds Think Alike: What even is Kubernetes?!
In the video transcript below, we share Jonathan and Darryl’s conversation, as they cover questions including:
- What is Kubernetes?
- What is Containerization?
- What are the main benefits of Kubernetes?
- What are the advantages of using OpenShift?
- What advice would you give someone who’s looking to start their containerization journey?
Video transcript:
Darryl:
Hello, and welcome to what is the first in a series of interviews we’ll be conducting over the next few months with a series of experts from across the open source ecosystem.
I’m joined today by Jonathan Gazeley from Tier 2 who has the very sought after title of being an expert in in all things Kubernetes so welcome, Jonathan. Perhaps you could start by telling us a little bit about yourself and your experience with Kubernetes.
Jonathan:
Sure. I’m from a Linux infrastructure background. So I’ve had pretty much all the job titles you can get. I’ve been a sysdmin, a DevOps engineer, SRE, platform engineer. Over the last couple of years I’ve really specialized in Kubernetes in particular.
I was recently given the opportunity to join Tier 2 as a Container Platform Consultant. I’m quite new in the role, but I’m really keen on pushing Kubernetes.
Darryl:
Amazing, so just to help our listeners and make sure everyone’s all on the same page, can you just help us understand – what Kubernetes is, the different types of containers, etc.
Jonathan:
To understand Kubernetes, you’ve got to take a step back and understand containers first.
Containers are a way of packaging up an application so it can be easily so packaged, deployed, and then just run. You haven’t got to install it or set it up. It just runs and it brings all its dependencies with it. So it’s a really nice neat way of distributing applications.
But that’s only half a solution. To really come into its own, Kubernetes can manage your containers kind of in bulk for you.
You can pool your hardware to build a cluster, put Kubernetes on the cluster to manage it for you, and then you can say to Kubernetes: I would like you to run my application here, please, and I want 3 replicas. They’ll need 8 gigs of memory each. They’ll need some disc. They’ll need a database. They’ll need some file storage.
And it will just go off and do that for you.
So it sets up your application, and it maintains the state of it going forward.
Darryl:
Amazing. So you just kind of tell Kubernetes what you want it to do, and it goes off and manages all of those containers and everything in that way for you.
Jonathan:
So it looks after all of your applications. It really benefits from infrastructure as code as an approach as well, because you can describe the state you want Kubernetes to set up and maintain in a yaml file or a text document.
This is a really simple way of having all of your config all of your infrastructure as config, as code, and keep it in a git repo and just push it out. So it’s. It’s great for CI and that kind of thing as well.
Darryl:
Also that kind of leads into those kind of DevOps processes and everything, absolutely. You mentioned right at the start that you’ve got a particular focus on OpenShift.
Why look at OpenShift as the choice Kubernetes flavour?
Jonathan:
Kubernetes is open source, and, like most open source projects, different people come along. They make their own derivative versions, and each different version is specialized for a certain purpose, ranging from running on a Raspberry Pi all the way up to kind of public cloud infrastructure.
What’s special about the Red Hat version, which is OpenShift, is that it packages standard Kubernetes, but it also provides some extra components on top of that for you to really simplify the deployment process, and offer loads of extra features for you.
It can also run as a hybrid platform in the public cloud, on a private cloud, on your virtualization platform. So it’s really flexible.
Darryl:
So it sounds like OpenShift is taking something as complex as Kubernetes. It takes that complicated thing, and makes it easy for users to get involved with, whether you’re a developer or someone in operations.
Is that why people are using it? What are the business or technical benefits that it’s providing?
Jonathan:
Yes, we have touched on some of the various technical benefits, including built in monitoring, built in automation tools for developers, and automated installers that can run on any kind of platform you can throw at it, and a really handy web interface, which makes it very easy for first time users.
But the technical benefits alone is not the whole picture. There’s also some really good business benefits to running Red Hat OpenShift, and first and foremost, I would say, is that there’s real stability and security, in enterprise software. For Red Hat, the experts, that’s been the primary objective for decades.
They are experts in shipping a reliable and thoroughly tested platform that is safe to trust and run your business applications on, and hand in hand with that kind of high quality of software. It’s the support you can get most open source software. Yeah, there’s forums, and you can look it up. But there’s no actual commercial support. But if you buy commercial software from Red Hat you will get that kind of first tier support with your with your solution.
And so the real benefits of the business benefits and the technical benefits put together can really reduce your complexity of developing and running applications, which reduces costs and can really reduce your time to market once you’ve gone down the DevOps route.
Darryl:
Okay, so you can use OpenShift to really accelerate the time to market and the development of those applications. That’s super interesting.
How do people start with this stuff? What advice would you give someone who’s looking to start their containerization journey?
Jonathan:
Kubernetes and OpenShift are complex products, but there’s no need to be afraid of them. You don’t have to do a complete migration in one go, so it’s absolutely fine to start with a fairly small cluster.
Let’s say you have an application in your business. Maybe you’d want to consider running the front end of that application in OpenShift or Kubernetes, and leave your databases and the back end components as they are. You can do part migrations like that, and then move more into your cluster as and when you’ve tested out the platform and gain confidence.
I think it’s really important to note as well, that you don’t have to do it alone, because Tier 2 Consulting can really help with your Kubernetes experience.
We’ve got a team of consultants and some OpenShift specialists that will help businesses to really reap the benefits of what Red Hat OpenShift can do for you, and implement the processes around that as well. It’s not just the case of ‘Here’s a cluster, off you go’, there’s a lot more to the process of really being successful with that cluster once it’s been set up.
Darryl:
So I guess, you know. Start small. Migrate slowly, and as you’re comfortable with each kind of application, and engage experts.
So it sounds like companies you work for like Tier 2 have trod that path plenty of times before.
That’s amazing. Thanks, Jonathan for sharing your experience around Kubernetes and containers.
I’m sure if any of our listeners or watchers want to have a one on one chat with you, you’d be more than willing to have a conversation with you and one of your colleagues.
Thank you for your time, Jonathan, and we’ll see you all next time.
Looking for more help with Kubernetes?
If you’re looking to start your containerization journey, reap the benefits of what Kubernetes can do for you, or would like to know more about Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, and how Tier 2 may be able to help, our team of experts would be happy to help. Please get in touch today.
