Kubernetes vs. Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes

K8s should be avoided - If your application works well without being converted into microservices-based architecture & fits correctly in a VM, needs less scaling, have a fixed traffic pattern then it is better to keep away from Kubernetes. Otherwise, the operational challenges & technical expertise will add a lot to the OPEX. Also, if you're the one who thinks that containers consume fewer resources as compared to VMs then this is not true. As soon as you convert your application to a microservice-based architecture, a lot of components will add up, shooting your resource consumption even higher than VMs so, please beware. Kubernetes is a good choice - When the application needs quick scaling, is already in microservice-based architecture, has no fixed traffic pattern, most of the employees already have desired skills.

Incentivized

Well suited for - Large-scale Edge deployments of OpenShift instances. Policy-based consistency for all workloads is Less appropriate for - Small-scale deployments. Stand-alone deployments of K8s clusters. Deployments in the same data center.

• Complex cluster management can be done with simple commands with strong authentication and authorization schemes
• Exhaustive documentation and open community smoothens the learning process
• As a user a few concepts like pod, deployment and service are sufficient to go a long way

Incentivized

• Continuous deployment of other OpenShift instances.
• Controls clusters and applications from a single console.
• Built-in Security & compliance.

• Local development, Kubernetes does tend to be a bit complicated and unnecessary in environments where all development is done locally.
• The need for add-ons, Helm is almost required when running Kubernetes. This brings a whole new tool to manage and learn before a developer can really start to use Kubernetes effectively.
• Finicy configmap schemes. Kubernetes configmaps often have environment breaking hangups. The fail safes surrounding configmaps are sadly lacking.

Incentivized

• Initial deployment of the ACM itself needs to be made easy.
• Dependency on the Software versions of underlying open shift workloads during upgrades.
• LCM of ACM itself.

Most of the required features for any orchestration tool or framework, which is provided by Kubernetes. After understanding all modules and features of the K8S, it is the best fit for us as compared with others out there.

Incentivized

I have also used TNA by Google Cloud, but that is not mature enough as ACM. Right now, ACM is the best choice as a cluster manager for private cloud data centers.

• Because of microservices, Kubernetes makes it easy to find the cost of each application easily.
• Like every new technology, initially, it took more resources to educate ourselves but over a period of time, I believe it's going to be worth it.

Incentivized

• Reduced the deployment duration of individual nodes by 50%.
• Acts as a central manager for all the clusters.
• Provides a lot of infrastructure options (storage, networking, etc) to build instances of your choice.