What is Kubernetes and why is the new Armour Core server-side platform based on it.
When IT pros start talking about containers, the term Kubernetes, or K8s, is often mentioned. Initially released in 2015, Kubernetes has only recently become more mainstream, and the latest tech speak buzz word.
But what is Kubernetes? Why does it matter and more importantly what benefit can it deliver to your business? Here we go under the covers of Kubernetes and explain why this platform is one of the fastest moving projects in the history of open source.
Building blocks
To understand why we need Kubernetes, we must first understand containers. A container is a unit of software that can be isolated for security or scalability, usually performing a specific task, with control over its access to the underlying OS and hardware resource. Multiple containers can be combined to build an application and because containers can be reused across different applications, new functionality can be developed more quickly.
Containers are lightweight and virtualise CPU, memory, storage and network resources at the operating system (OS) level, rather than hardware level. As containers are virtual environments that share the kernel of the host operating system, they can more easily be ported to run on a range of hardware platforms that support containerisation (compared to more traditional virtualization technologies such as Virtual Machines).
Scale and Management
Kubernetes was first developed by a team at Google and later donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). It is an open-source platform to manage containerised workloads and services. As Kubernetes is open-source, it has a vast ecosystem of contributors that find and fix bugs and vulnerabilities as well as improving and adding features and functionality.
In a nutshell, Kubernetes delivers a framework to run distributed systems. It automates the deployment, scaling and management of containers. In the case of Armour Mobile, we can define how we need the platform to operate; for example if hardware fails, or if traffic load is high, Kubernetes is configured to ensure resilience without the need for manual intervention. Additionally, Kubernetes is self-healing, restarting containers that fail and killing and replacing containers that fail to respond to defined health checks.
Security by design is the ethos by which we develop all Armour solutions. Security is achieved by the way in which we use Kubernetes and processes incorporated within Armour solutions. Kubernetes allows us to set policies at a cluster-level to prevent or restrict things which we might consider a security risk.
Resilience and reliability
Kubernetes is a proven technology that allows Armour to deliver in Armour Core v5.0 a platform that is more powerful, robust, and extensible. We can deliver features such as monitoring, load balancing, and failover, high availability and much more. This makes the provision of Armour Mobile more flexible, more resilient and more reliable for our customers. Even when under load from a high volume of concurrent users or high network traffic, Kubernetes can load balance and distribute the network traffic so that the deployment is stable.
Delivered to suit your needs
Armour customers will benefit from our use of Kubernetes, whatever their current choice of deployment, be it on premises, cloud, or hybrid. Using Kubernetes has delivered an array of improvements to our existing development cycle which will benefit our on premises customers.
Kubernetes also allows for a hybrid cloud approach for customers who require it. The Armour Mobile solution can be managed using Kubernetes tools, both in-house on bare metal and in the cloud.
For more information about how Armour Comms can help your organisation to adopt a more secure approach to communications and collaborative working, contact us today.
