When Kubernetes Isn’t the Best Alternative

When Kubernetes Isn’t the Right Choice

Kubernetes isn’t always the best pick for your business, despite common belief. Not every company needs Kubernetes or any container orchestration technology. Containerization isn’t something that everyone needs to be skilled at, use, or even understand. Because Kubernetes isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for every problem, it might not be the best choice for your company.

I’d want to offer some insights that have become pretty standard among Kubernetes users and others working in a similar containerized architecture now that we’ve gotten past the naked sophistry of arguing that no technology is a perfect solution for everything. According to the consensus, the orchestration tool is a massive answer to specific problems, especially for smaller firms. Thus it may not make sense to invest in it in some circumstances.

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Kubernetes Is Expensive

You won’t have to pay license costs for open source tools, and operating your container orchestration means you won’t have to pay a cloud provider for the service. Isn’t that to say Kubernetes is free or very cheap?

A recent Twitter debate centered on whether Kubernetes was worth a million dollars. Some low estimates were in the $80,000 range, while others were slightly higher. I won’t give you a particular figure, but suffice it to say that, in addition to the expense of hosting your cluster, Kubernetes is very expensive because it requires specialist maintenance. In today’s labor market, both time and expertise are relatively costly.

One serious issue is that these costs are frequently kept hidden from top executives. The stress and extra labor that your SREs, Ops engineers, and Security engineers are putting in to maintain your new cluster aren’t necessarily reflected in red on this quarter’s financial sheet. Without forthright and well-informed management telling CEOs the upfront cost of such a team, the focus may remain on the software’s “free” price tag.

Indeed, with all this automation, there would be relatively little maintenance required in the future, lowering costs—right? Specific teams may not have to do much to keep their cluster running, but based on a ‘troubleshooting flowchart’ that several people shared earlier this year, Kubernetes doesn’t eliminate complexity.

It isn’t to argue that Kubernetes is more expensive than other alternatives! Simply put, it isn’t free, and much of the cost is incurred upfront. Unlike a container service like Heroku or a serverless function on any cloud platform, you can’t start with Kubernetes for $75 a month and gradually scale up. Experts are required to execute it well, and they cost both time and money.

Experts in Kubernetes are required.

“DevOps Ninja needed: 10 years Kubernetes experience essential,” we’ve all seen the adverts.

While recruitment teams may have high expectations about our capacity to utilize a tool for longer than it has been around, many organizations attempting to embrace Kubernetes may have unrealistic expectations as well. “How will we construct the team we’ll need?” is the first question for anyone adopting Kubernetes.

In the last part, I discussed how teams fail to calculate the cost of adoption in terms of hours and training. Those who manage Kubernetes will indeed need to specialize in Kubernetes, just as it’s true that running a cluster without taking extra time out of your day isn’t possible. Kubernetes isn’t a cloud service you can learn all about in a weekend course and then keep up with by filing support tickets. To maintain functioning and enhance what Kubernetes can achieve for your team, you’ll need experts within your business.

While it’s true that finding Kubernetes experts is currently tough, I would argue that this is a cost rather than a barrier because you can and should develop this expertise inside your team. Kubernetes resources are plentiful, and you should devote the time and resources necessary to assemble your required team. Great groups aren’t fired; they’re grown, as Sheen Brisals described it in a recent essay.

Do you want to be the best server in the world?

Kubernetes could be a part of the solution if you want to stand out in terms of uptime, dependability, and cost savings. Expertise in container orchestration is generally not part of the solution if you’re more focused on solving a business challenge uniquely.

It’s improbable that “we deliver more 99.999 percent availability than Amazon Web Services” is a crucial component of your strategy if you’re a shoe firm that caters to tweens. Everyone is trying to buy virtual versions of your shoes in Fortnite.

Trying to be the greatest at everything is tempting, especially when you’re a group of engineers. However, as a member of an engineering team, your objective is to assist your company in becoming the best at solving specific problems. Nobody expects you to create the best email server, e-commerce platform, or online chatroom for shot-putters.

Kubernetes is a part of the solution or a part of the near future for many teams for various reasons. Cloud-hosted clusters solve some of the challenges associated with self-hosting, making adoption easier. Users of all types of services have incredibly high-performance expectations. Hence in-house knowledge may be required. And while Kubernetes attracts some of the brightest engineers, choosing older technologies may make hiring more difficult.

But the reality is that no tool, even Kubernetes, is suitable for every team.

About Enteros

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