Blog
Microservices are an industry-wide containership standard for modern app development. Automating large and complex microservices while deploying them on time has become a critical aspect of application development. Kubernetes helps easily manage and run these workloads at scale.
What is Kubernetes(k8s)?
Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source system or container orchestration tool with a dedicated container management functionality. It helps deploy, manage, scale, de-scale, and load-balance containerized applications. Written in the Go language, it derives its name from Greek, meaning helmsman or pilot.
A brief history of Kubernetes (K8s)
Google’s engineers built Kubernetes to manage the tech giant’s exploding workloads. In 2014, Google made Kubernetes open source, spreading its popularity and use. Later, Google donated the maintenance and rights to Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). With Kubernetes, DevOps engineers can group numerous containers into one logical unit for easy management and deployment. It can work smoothly with various cloud providers and types, including hybrid, public, or private. In August 2020, the latest version of Kubernetes v1.19 was released.
How are Kubernetes used?
Containers come with a wide range of workloads. Provisioning and creating operational containers at scale by marrying them with microservices is tedious. In the case of stateful apps that contain a database, it requires extensive planning. That is where experts recommend using orchestration tools like Kubernetes.
Managing containers with Kubernetes helps development teams and enterprises better manage workloads through orchestration, handle networking for internal DNS resolution, handle cloud infrastructures, deliver more availability of resources, etc.
Chief Technology and Product Officer at SUSE Thomas Di Giacomo said, "Kubernetes gets extended by an ecosystem of components and tools that relieve the burden of developing and running applications in public and private clouds."
Features of Kubernetes
Let us take a quick look at the most significant features that Kubernetes delivers to DevOps engineers:
Load balancing and horizontal scaling: With the help of Kubernetes, applications can scale dynamically as per requirement and render load balancing for efficient application workflow.
Self-healing power: When the containers face any trouble or issue, Kubernetes helps in rescheduling, substituting, and restarting them immediately for the smooth functioning of the application.
Auto scheduling: Kubernetes comes with advanced schedulers for automatically launching containers in clusters. Such a technique also helps in resource optimization.
Auto roll-outs and roll-backs: Kubernetes can automatically roll out and roll back to bring its preferred state of containers.
The best ways to secure Kubernetes deployment
Security is another essential factor developers should mind while leveraging various microservices and managing containers. Kubernetes forms a complex platform and requires extensive management and security configuration for a secure workload in the production environment.
Here are some ways to secure Kubernetes deployment:
DevOps engineers can enable the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) feature to determine who has access to Kubernetes API or the privileges they enjoy. By default, it remains enabled on Kubernetes 1.6 and higher versions.
It is essential to leverage encryption for Kubernetes deployment to protect sensitive resources from prying eyes. By default, the encryption remains turned off. We should enable it via the kube-apiserver process and pass the argument –encryption-provider-config.
DevOps engineers should also leverage third-party authentication providers (like GitHub) to integrate it with Kubernetes. It helps in enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) for better security.
Containerized apps often employ a large amount of clustered networks. Enabling Kubernetes network policies and continuous traffic monitoring helps in identifying anomalous communications.
White-listing Kubernetes processes also help DevOps engineers and security professionals identify all the unexpected processes that are getting executed.
Enabling audit login in Kubernetes also helps monitor authentication failures, unusual logins, and unwanted API calls. Also, security engineers recommend using the up-to-date Kubernetes version.
To incorporate more security into Kubernetes-based applications deployment, talk to the team at Packetlabs.
Conclusion
Kubernetes has been the go-to orchestration tool for developers. According to a report, the application container market will surpass US$ 8.2 billion by 2025 while registering a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 26.5%. Lucrative as it is to vie for a slice of the market, security must play a crucial role. To learn more about security measures to safeguard your container deployments, contact Packetlabs today.