How To

How To Plan and Build Your Kubernetes Infrastructure

As the IT industry progresses further into a global digital transformation, the practice of developing containerized applications in the cloud is becoming the norm. However, the sheer volume of applications that a single organization must manage is beyond the scope of what an IT team can manually accomplish, even with container-based technology in place.

The solution is to plan and build a Kubernetes infrastructure that accommodates cloud-native development and will streamline the process well into the future.

Key Takeaways:

A Kubernetes-ready infrastructure provides the orchestration and load-balancing capabilities that are so necessary for a development environment filled with containerized workloads.
The crucial step in planning for Kubernetes is to consider the availability of resources and how to distribute them across physical and cloud-based locations in a hybrid environment.
The components necessary in building an infrastructure for Kubernetes include those pertaining to the cloud, datacenter, network, and virtual machines (VMs), all of which should be scalable and compliant.

What is Kubernetes infrastructure?

Kubernetes is an open-source platform for managing and orchestrating the containerized workloads prevalent in a cloud-native ecosystem. Containerization itself offers flexibility by its packaging software with all the other necessary elements needed to run in a VM. However, the massive amount of containers in a modern datacenter calls for Kubernetes as an orchestration solution.

Kubernetes infrastructure refers to an IT environment tailored to accommodate Kubernetes and maximize its functionality as an orchestrator and load balancer. A Kubernetes-ready infrastructure includes physical servers, cloud platforms, hypervisors, and other elements compatible with Kubernetes.

The key benefits of building Kubernetes-centric infrastructure include load balancing and storage management capabilities across multiple hosts. Additionally, Kubernetes can streamline the deployment, scaling, and maintenance of containerized applications.

Forecasts from Gartner indicate that the global market size for container management software such as Kubernetes will reach $944 million in 2024. Gartner cites the growing use of containers as a catalyst for this change and also estimates that 75% of global organizations are running containerized applications as of 2022, illustrating an urgent need to build Kubernetes infrastructure in order to stay ahead of the trends in an age of containerization.

Plan for resource needs in your chosen infrastructure

Kubernetes is flexible enough to exist on many infrastructure types and to deploy practically any kind of software. This means, however, that there is no one-size-fits-all process for building an infrastructure for it. Instead, the individual enterprise must plan a unique Kubernetes strategy based on its particular circumstances and goals.

This starts with evaluating both the physical and virtual resources available for Kubernetes to use in running containerized applications as well as the specific resource needs of the workloads you intend to manage under Kubernetes. Being aware of these factors can, for example, enable you to keep cloud costs low by ensuring that you do not overpay for more cloud resources than you require.

The possibility of establishing a hybrid cloud Kubernetes environment presents another consideration to keep in mind. Kubernetes possesses the noteworthy capability of extending from the on-premises datacenter to the public cloud, allowing for a truly hybrid experience in an environment comprising both private and public clouds.

The crucial decision in planning out a Kubernetes infrastructure strategy is in opting for a custom-built infrastructure or an existing solution such as that offered by Nutanix. Keep in mind that, because of the broad freedom of choice provided by Kubernetes, a platform like Nutanix that guarantees an equal amount of freedom in configuration as well as simplicity in operation is usually the optimal choice.

Build your infrastructure with a future-proof approach

Many components go into the actual building of a Kubernetes-ready environment. There are Kubernetes services and tools, of course, but also the cloud or datacenter components that provide resources, as well as VMs, service discovery options, and networking features.

When architecting these elements together, it is important to consider how the infrastructure will allow for future scalability. Policy governance, cluster management, and Kubernetes monitoring are all key considerations as well.

Another way to future-proof your infrastructure is by fully embracing cloud-native development. Kubernetes itself is a strong facilitator of cloud-native practices, but being truly cloud-native entails not only the use of containerization and container orchestration but also the effective use of microservice-based architecture for applications and a commitment to DevOps.

Kubernetes is nigh-invaluable to modern business, and yet modern businesses can rarely afford to invest the time and man-hours into navigating the complexity of building Kubernetes infrastructure from scratch. A much more pragmatic approach is to configure an existing solution, such as the Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE), to your own specifications.

Establish your Kubernetes infrastructure on the right platform

Planning and building an effective infrastructure is an intensive process of evaluating resource availability, architecting a hybrid environment, and combining all the necessary components in a way that is functional and future-proof. These tasks can each present considerable difficulties, but they are much more attainable when using the right Kubernetes-ready platform as a foundation.

Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) can be that ideal foundation. With NKE on NCP, you have a complete solution for storage, monitoring, and deploying Kubernetes clusters in a matter of minutes, all without the restriction of vendor lock-in.

Kubernetes and containerization pave the way for the development of modern applications, while NCP provides the freedom to build and deploy those apps any way you choose. The result is a Kubernetes infrastructure that future-proofs your business via modernity and scalability.

Learn more about why businesses need cloud-native computing and how to further optimize these apps in the cloud.

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