Item: Kubernetes
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Kubernetes

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Kubernetes allows to create a unified compute and scheduling substrate across many potentially disparate providers and vendors. Even more importantly, this substrate can then be used to provide developers an abstracted platform to use. That, of course, requires layers of automations and services, but that's where the unified approach of using standardized Kubernetes-based APIs and concepts pays off. Everything else is just side effects and depends on how well you execute.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Standardized APIs
Scheduling workloads
Managing resources

Cons

Complexity
Overhead
OOTB mechanisms sometimes not efficient enough (mitigated by using DIY tooling or something that is not a core k8s offering but exists in the rather rich ecosystem). HPA would be an example

Return on Investment

The primary impact in appropriate use cases is streamlining and unifying your computing substrate
If leveraged properly, it *can* lead to cost savings and resourse usage efficiencies, however, it is very important to emphasize that Kubernetes by itself does NOT guarantee any of those. Use wisely!

Usability

It is an eminently usable platform. However, its popularity is overshadowed by its complexity. To properly leverage the capabilities and possibilities of Kubernetes as a platform, you need to have excellent understanding of your use case, even better understanding of whether you even need Kubernetes, and if yes - be ready to invest in good engineering support for the platform itself.

Alternatives Considered

HashiCorp Nomad

Nomad is a simpler, more down-to-earth alternative to Kubernetes. In some sense, it is more similar to Amazon's ECS, but with more bells and whistles. For use cases not requiring the whole complexity of Kubernetes platform, Nomad can provide a much simpler and at the same time no less powerful orchestration engine

Key Insights

Do you think Kubernetes delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Kubernetes's feature set?

Yes

Did Kubernetes live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Kubernetes go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Kubernetes again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Here's the thing - Kubernetes is a carrier grade platform. It is most definitely not for everyone. If you only need to manage a dozen computing nodes (or a couple dozen, for that matter), for a relatively small number of workloads, if your usage patterns are relatively static - it is very likely you do not *need* Kubernetes. Its complexity costs - in learning, in maintenance, in overhead. Simpler tools like docker-compose, Hashicorp Nomad or Amazon ECS might fit your use case more efficiently.

However, at certain scale of things - nodes, workloads, services, number of developer teams, Kubernetes starts to become a viable platform that can enable efficiencies of said scale, both operationally and conceptually.

Kubernetes Feature Ratings

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