If you’re not familiar with Kubernetes, let me get you up to speed.
Kubernetes is an open-source container automation framework that builds upon 15 years of experience of running production workloads at Google. Once you declare a desired state, Kubernetes works to drive your system toward that state. As a developer this means less time handling trivial tasks that a computer can automate and more time focusing on developing applications that provide value to users.
Additionally, Kubernetes aims to be a framework that you can operate at planetary scale, run anywhere, and never outgrow.
With the release of Kubernetes 1.3, Kubernetes is closer than ever to meeting those goals; the 1.3 release adds exciting features such as:
- cross cluster federation allowing for production deployments to be spread across zones, regions, or even different cloud providers
- local development support with the minikube tool
- performance upgrades with up to 2,000 nodes with 60,000 containers running
- better support for stateful applications
- and much more
Aside from features, the coolest part about working with Kubernetes is hearing user stories. I’ll soon be publishing an interview with Joseph Jacks, co-founder of Kismatic, the enterprise Kubernetes company, on the Kubernetes blog.
Joseph is very active in the Kubernetes community and has extensive experience with Kubernetes in production. In the interview I ask him why he bet his business on Kubernetes, what could be better, and how he sees Kubernetes growing in the near future.
Kubernetes has many, many features to offer that I didn’t get to cover in this short write-up. If you know anyone that needs to ramp up on Kubernetes, the easiest way is the free course I created with Kelsey Hightower, Scalable Microservices with Kubernetes. The course covers the basic features of Kubernetes. If you want an overview of what’s new in Kubernetes 1.3, feel free to look at the “What’s new in Kubernetes 1.3” video or slides.
Finally for a more in-depth look at the 1.3 release, make sure to check out: 5 days of Kubernetes 1.3 blog series.
Want to learn more about container orchestration and cloud native platforms? Here’s some recommended reading to follow up with:
By Carter Morgan, Developer Programs Engineer
