The popularity of Docker and Kubernetes has grown in the development communities. They have been compared a lot. Over the last couple of years, software development and deployment changed face thanks to containers. Therefore, those working in the domain of development operations frequently meet the “Kubernetes Vs Docker” discussion. The conversation might be surprising considering the fact that Docker and Kubernetes are not competitors. The discourse should move towards “Kubernetes Vs Docker Swarm”.
Nevertheless, it is of import for any Development Operations practitioner to understand the ins and outs of Kubernetes and Docker since the two technologies are rapidly getting better, altering development operations practices. Having comprehensive information about these two technologies helps in gaining a competitive advantage for a setup.
Containers have all the important components like libraries, runtime, code, system tools and configuration settings that have to be executed consistently. They are executable packages that run as stand-alone software since they are lightweight.
Container platforms have been present since 1970 and Docker is one of them. It is an example of an open platform available for containers however, it is not the pioneer of its kind. Development of container platforms goes way back to the early 2000s during the chroot system call era in Unix. In 2008, FreeBSD Jails and Linus servers were developed leading to the discovery of Linux Containers (LXCs).
Some five years later, Docker came out in the container space and emerged as an instant success because with Docker, it was much simpler to run containers. When utilizing Docker, developers were able to start, stop and destroy containers with ease. The simplicity of Docker upon its execution and the low learning curve made it a staple in the field of software development.
Earlier on, security concerns made the IT operations team lack enthusiasm in the use of containers in production. At that era, most Virtual Machines (VMs) were used. Kernels of the host machine are apportioned among the containers, unlike Virtual Machines. Taking advantage of this vulnerability, hackers easily plunge Denial of Service (DoS) together with various forms of attack. Furthermore, containers are produced from common images which made teams suspicious about using bad images that would probably put at risk the whole production pipeline.
Gradually, Docker gained momentum since developers had their lives improved and made easier. That was despite concerns from production teams. With the maturity of the technology, Docker’s open source community put a lot of emphasis on settling the security concerns. Eventually, Docker containers started showing up in environments of production.
In 2003, Google came up with the Borg System to deal with an increment of problems entailing cluster management. The move marked the start of Kubernetes’s journey which was independent of Docker. The Borg System was an internal tool and in 2014, Google presented Kubernetes storage solutions, an open version of the Borg System. The innovation saw the likes of Docker, Microsoft, IBM, and RedHat joining to support the Kubernetes community.
Kubernetes is a solution in container orchestration. whenever developers have a handful of containers in a development environment to deal with, managing those services never becomes an issue. However, when an application has to be deployed to any production environment with hundreds or thousands of services and containers, directing tasks becomes complex. In such situations, Kubernetes makes container management simple thereby eliminating problems for large-scale deployments.
In the Kubernetes environment, developers come up with the applications using the concept of pods that are deployed to Kubernetes master node together with configuration requirements that include a number of pods and the network settings. Containers working together like single units are called pods. The master node oversees the worker nodes. Following the deployment of pods, the master node has the responsibility of keeping track of the containers. For instance, when a container gets stuck on a worker node, the master node spins up a new container in order to destroy the unwanted one. For the production team, container management and orchestration become easier with the utilization of Kubernetes.
From the discourse above, it is clear that Docker containers are managed by Kubernetes. Therefore, it is unnecessary for any debate on “Docker Vs Kubernetes”. Docker has an additional product called Docker swarm with the purpose of clustering and scheduling. With this tool, there is a lot of similarity to Kubernetes this, therefore, calls for anyone interested in container orchestration tools to research on “Kubernetes Vs. Docker Swarm” comparisons.
In the intersection of Kubernetes and Docker, Docker is more popular and that is why many development teams initiate container orchestration with Docker Swarm. It looks like the easier and natural step to follow since it is easy to learn. Kubernetes, on the contrary, has a steeper learning curve though it has a stronger community than that of Docker Swarm. Kubernetes has the major support of major cloud providers. For example, Microsoft Azure obtained Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Amazon AWS commenced Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (Amazon EKS) and Google cloud has its Kubernetes Engine.
Development operations team managing the environment Kubernetes and Docker are advised to keep an eye on the following major trends utilized by both: increase in multi-cloud environments, use of Micro-services and the increasing support for Docker and Kubernetes.
Kubernetes and Docker have strong backing and are much common in small businesses and large enterprises. Docker Hub contains an active user base which updates images for numerous applications on a regular basis. Kubernetes has its base support from big companies and open source communities like IBM, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.
What is more, micro-service architecture has led to the rise of container use. In this sector, applications are further subdivided into independent services making containers a suitable fit for providing support to these types of applications in a production environment. A lot of micro-services based applications that utilize Kubernetes and Docker are therefore expected to be on the rise.
Development Operations teams are challenged to have the necessary skills to run Kubernetes and Docker in multi-cloud environments. Multi-cloud environments have vast options decreasing dependency on one vendor. A number of enterprises are expressing concerns on single-cloud solutions.
Both Kubernetes and Docker technologies are important in modern software landscape. Kubernetes container orchestration ameliorates deployment processes while Docker containers upgrade the development processes. Development operations teams rein in on the power of both technologies to come up with sturdy continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines that create fast and dependable software development cycles. More information about the differences between Docker and Kubernetes and their pros and cons you can read here.
