The Podlets - A Cloud Native Podcast The Podlets: A Cloud Native Podcast

Due to its vast array of capabilities and applications, it can be challenging to pinpoint the exact essence of what Kubernetes does. Today we are asking questions about orchestration and runtimes and trying to see if we can agree on whether Kubernetes primarily does one or the other, or even something else. Kubernetes may rather be described as a platform for instance! In order to answer these questions, we look at what constitutes an orchestrator, thinking about management, workflow, and security across a network of machines. We also get into the nitty-gritty of runtimes and how Kubernetes can fit into this model too. The short answer to our initial question is that defining a platform, orchestrator or a runtime depends on your perspective and tasks and Kubernetes can fulfill any one of these buckets. We also look at other platforms, either past or present that might be compared to Kubernetes in certain areas and see what this might tell us about the definitions. Ultimately, we come away with the message that the exact way you slice what Kubernetes does, is not all-important. Rigid definitions might not serve us so well and rather our focus should be on an evolving understanding of these terms and the broadening horizon of what Kubernetes can achieve. For a really interesting meditation on how far we can take the Kube, be sure to join us today!

Follow us: https://twitter.com/thepodlets

Website: https://thepodlets.io

Feeback:

info@thepodlets.io

https://www.notion.so/thepodlets/The-Podlets-Guest-Central-9cec18726e924863b559ef278cf695c9

Hosts:

https://twitter.com/mauilion

https://twitter.com/joshrosso

https://twitter.com/embano1

https://twitter.com/opowero

Key Points From This Episode:


What defines an orchestrator? Different kinds of management, workflow, and security.
Considerations in a big company that go into licensing, security and desktop content.
Can we actually call Kubernetes and orchestrator or a runtime?
How managing things at scale increases the need for orchestration.
An argument for Kubernetes being considered an orchestrator and a runtime.
Understanding runtimes as part of the execution environment and not the entire environment.
How platforms, orchestration, and runtimes change positions according to perspective.
Remembering the 'container orchestration wars' between Mezos, Swarm, Nomad, and Kubernetes.
The effect of containerization and faster release cycles on the application of updates.
Instances that Kubernetes might not be used for orchestration currently.
The increasingly lower levels at which you can view orchestration and containers.
The great job that Kubetenes is able to do in the orchestration and automation layer.
How Kubernetes removes the need to reinvent everything over and over again.
Breaking down rigid definitions and allowing some space for movement.

Quotes:

“Obviously, orchestrator is a very big word, it means lots of things but as we’ve already described, it’s hard to fully encapsulate what orchestration means at a lower level.” — @mauilion [0:16:30]

“I wonder if there is any guidance or experiences we have with determining when you might need an orchestrator.” — @joshrosso [0:28:32]

“Sometimes there is an elemental over-automation some people don’t want all of these automation happening in the background.” — @opowero [0:29:19]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Apache Airflow — https://airflow.apache.org/

SSCM — https://www.lynda.com/Microsoft-365-tutorials/SSCM-Office-Deployment-Tool/5030992/2805770-4.html

Ansible — https://www.ansible.com/

Docker — https://www.docker.com/

Joe Beda — https://www.vmware.com/latam/company/leadership/joe-beda.html

Jazz Improvisation over Orchestration — https://blog.heptio.com/core-kubernetes-jazz-improv-over-orchestration-a7903ea92ca?gi=5c729e924f6c

containerd — https://containerd.io/

AWS — https://aws.amazon.com/

Fleet — https://coreos.com/fleet/docs/latest/launching-containers-fle

We are joined by Ellen Körbes for this episode, where we focus on Kubernetes and its tooling. Ellen has a position at Tilt where they work in developer relations. Before Tilt, they were doing closely related kinds of work at Garden, a similar company! Both companies are directly related to working with Kubernetes and Ellen is here to talk to us about why Kubernetes does not have to be the difficult thing that it is made out to be. According to her, this mostly comes down to tooling. Ellen believes that with the right set of tools at your disposal it is not actually necessary to completely understand all of Kubernetes or even be familiar with a lot of its functions. You do not have to start from the bottom every time you start a new project and developers who are new to Kubernetes need not becomes experts in it in order to take advantage of its benefits.The major goal for Ellen and Tilt is to get developers code up, running and live in as quick a time as possible. When the system is standing in the way this process can take much longer, whereas, with Tilt, Ellen believes the process should be around two seconds! Ellen comments on who should be using Kubernetes and who it would most benefit. We also discuss where Kubernetes should be run, either locally or externally, for best results and Tilt's part in the process of unit testing and feedback. We finish off peering into the future of Kubernetes, so make sure to join us for this highly informative and empowering chat!

Follow us: https://twitter.com/thepodlets

Website: https://thepodlets.io

Feeback:

info@thepodlets.io

https://www.notion.so/thepodlets/The-Podlets-Guest-Central-9cec18726e924863b559ef278cf695c9

Guest:


Ellen Körbes https://twitter.com/ellenkorbes

Hosts:


Carlisia Campos
Bryan Liles
Olive Power

Key Points From This Episode:


Ellen's work at Tilt and the jumping-off point for today's discussion.
The projects and companies that Ellen and Tilt work with, that they are allowed to mention!
Who Ellen is referring to when they say 'developers' in this context.
Tilt's goal of getting all developers' code up and running in the two seconds range.
Who should be using Kubernetes? Is it necessary in development if it is used in production?
Operating and deploying Kubernetes — who is it that does this?
Where developers seem to be running Kubernetes; considerations around space and speed.
Possible security concerns using Tilt; avoiding damage through Kubernetes options.
Allowing greater possibilities for developers through useful shortcuts.
VS Code extensions and IDE integrations that are possible with Kubernetes at present.
Where to start with Kubernetes and getting a handle on the tooling like Tilt.
Using unit testing for feedback and Tilt's part in this process.
The future of Kubernetes tooling and looking across possible developments in the space.

Quotes:

“You're not meant to edit Kubernetes YAML by hand.” — @ellenkorbes [0:07:43]

“I think from the point of view of a developer, you should try and stay away from Kubernetes for as long as you can.” — @ellenkorbes [0:11:50]

“I've heard from many companies that the main reason they decided to use Kubernetes in development is that they wanted to mimic production as closely as possible.” — @ellenkorbes [0:13:21]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Ellen Körbes — http://ellenkorbes.com/

Ellen Körbes on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ellenkorbes?lang=en

Tilt — https://tilt.dev/

Garden — https://garden.io/

Cluster API — https://cluster-api.sigs.k8s.io/

Lyft — https://www.lyft.com/

KubeCon — https://events19.linuxfoundation.org/events/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2019/

Unu Motors — https://unumotors.com/en

Mindspace — https://www.mindspace.me/

Docker — https://www.docker.com/

Netflix — https://www.netflix.com/

GCP — https://cloud.google.com/

Azure — https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/

AWS — https://aws.amazon.com/

ksonnet — https://ksonnet.io/

Ruby

Running Kubernetes on conventional operating systems is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Today’s guests Andrew Rynhard and Timothy Gerla have engineered a product that attempts to provide a solution to this problem.

Our guests help companies to update their systems and move into more up-to-date setups through the Swift methodology and our conversation focusses on this journey from legacy code to a more manageable solution. We lay the groundwork for the conversation, defining a few of the key terms and concerns that arise for typical clients and then Shaun and Chris share a bit about their approach to moving things forward.

The question of diving into Kubernetes is something that faces us all in different ways. Whether you are already on the platform, are considering transitioning, or are thinking about what is best for your team moving forward, the possibilities and the learning-curve make it a somewhat difficult question to answer. In this episode, we discuss the topic and ultimately believe that an individual is the only one who can answer that question well. That being said, the capabilities of Kubernetes can be quite persuasive and if you are tempted then it is most definitely worth considering very seriously, at least.

If you work in Kubernetes, cloud native, or any other fast-moving ecosystem, you might have found that keeping up to date with new developments can be incredibly challenging. We think this as well, and so we decided to make today’s episode a tribute to that challenge, as well as a space for sharing the best resources and practices we can think of to help manage it.