Kubernetes is our platform of choice for running things in production, applications, and the like. Everything we build runs on Kubernetes, it's our platform of choice. I'm the principal devs engineer.
Principal DevOps Engineer at Guavus
Great container orchestration feature; enables running in an automated fashion across nodes
Pros and Cons
- "The most important feature is container orchestration."
- "Currently has a very minimal UI for certain things."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Kubernetes has improved our time to market because it's quite lightweight and easy to install.
What is most valuable?
The most important feature is container orchestration. Kubernetes provides us with a mechanism to deploy or run in an automated fashion across nodes. I don't need to worry if it's running on node one or node two, it's all taken care of by Kubernetes.
What needs improvement?
They have a very minimal interface to do certain things and that could be enhanced so that someone who is not as comfortable on CLI can also use the interface and play around with the cluster. Commercial offerings like Red Hat OpenShift offer it, but the open-source community edition from CNCF doesn't. I'd like to see an incubating project there. It's not one organization that is contributing to Kubernetes, it's a CNCF project, i.e. an open-source contributing forum.
They could possibly promote some data APIs to the production stage. They have a lot of APIs which are in beta stage which they continue to test. Perhaps it's time to upgrade them to a more product-release stage. I think it would offer peace of mind to customers in terms of stability.
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For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable product if you are on a long-term support release. It's quite widely tested and used.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Kubernetes is highly scalable. We have around 150 users and it's used daily, mainly by developers and engineers.
How are customer service and support?
Kubernetes has a very active and vibrant community forum and people can join Slack Workspace and ask questions there. They announce new releases there too and people help out. If there are issues, you can open tickets, open GitHub issues and things like that.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously worked with Apache Hadoop but it was becoming somewhat cumbersome and complex to install.
How was the initial setup?
Deployment complexity depends on the use case. I can install it on my laptop and it's easy but if it's being installed on production it needs to be set up in a cluster formation. That kind of deployment is moderately complex, and that's where we come into the picture, providing the automation for that. For someone without any knowledge in the area, deployment might require a third-party consultant or an integrator to help with that.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have some basic experience with Rancher and Red Hat OpenShift, which has a very nice graphical interface. An administrator, developer, or even a user can do a lot of stuff other than just seeing what applications are running. It's something that separates the commercial offerings from the community version of Kubernetes. If there were something like that in the open-source version, it would be a game changer. Of course, the commercial version also comes with hours of tech support and guides.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Cloud Operations Center Analyst at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
Provides great auto rollback and scale-up, scale-down functionalities
Pros and Cons
- "Provides auto rollback and scale-up and scale-down functionalities."
- "The solution lacks some flexibility."
What is our primary use case?
We use Kubernetes for deployment of TIBCO software analyst. We then use Rancher to deploy the Kubernetes cluster.
What is most valuable?
Kubernetes is POD technology so you can run the number of containers you need to host one by one and use similar microservices for the containers. This is a great feature of Kubernetes. The product provides auto rollback functionality and a scale-up and scale-down functionality. These are the main features that we didn't previously have. For scaling or restarting PODs or any services is very easy. We can configure the commands to easily scale up and scale down, based on the load requirement. If some business servers added more load, then we increase the POD, and increase the services.
What needs improvement?
Kubernetes lacks some flexibility compared to other products such as OpenShift.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. We have our own Terraform script to deploy the Ansible. It provisions the orchestration and deploys Kubernetes and we install Rancher over Kubernetes and deploy the entire orchestration. We don't use any third parties. We carry out our own maintenance because we don't want to be dependent on third parties.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We use the open source solution and only move to the commercial platform for the purpose of node vulnerability. We use Instana and Qualys agents for security monitoring vulnerability purposes.
What other advice do I have?
For anyone wanting to use this solution, it's important to know the basics of Linux. In addition, Docker plays an important role and it's worth checking the YAML files before moving to Kubernetes.
I rate this solution nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Kubernetes
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Solutions Architect at Rapyder Cloud Solutions Pvt Ltd
It's effortless to use for scaling deployment components, CI/CD, etc.
Pros and Cons
- "The best feature is autoscaling. It's effortless to use for scaling deployment parts, CI/CD, etc."
- "Kubernetes should improve its consistency across different types of deployments. My customers tell me that they get much better performance when Kubernetes is deployed on VM versus PaaS services from Azure."
What is our primary use case?
We are an IT services company, and I am part of a team of DevOps engineers deploying Kubernetes for customers. We deploy it on a virtual machine, so you can deploy it anywhere.
The use case depends on the customer's deployment. For example, if the customer has microservices for lots of applications, they can use Kubernetes to segregate new microservices into different segments. They're not using a monolithic application. The same application has different components.
What is most valuable?
The best feature is autoscaling. It's effortless to use for scaling deployment parts, CI/CD, etc.
What needs improvement?
Kubernetes should improve its consistency across different types of deployments. My customers tell me that they get much better performance when Kubernetes is deployed on VM versus PaaS services from Azure.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Kubernetes for about two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Kubernetes is highly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is an excellent aspect of Kubernetes. It can scale up horizontally and vertically. You can scale by cluster and node. Scalabiity is the best part of Kubernetes.
How are customer service and support?
We have never contacted Kubernetes support. If have a problem, we raise a ticket to Microsoft, and their engineers will help us.
How was the initial setup?
Deploying Kubernetes is straightforward. The total deployment time depends on the number of applications and repositories we have on that day. If you are only setting up Kubernetes, it takes about five to 10 minutes, excluding the front-end IP, etc.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Kubernetes is an open-source tool, so you only need to pay for your infrastructure. If you have your own data center, you can install Kubernetes and containerize the server, but if you're using PaaS services from Azure, so you must pay Azure for your utilizing their services. The total cost of ownership depends on your configuration.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Kubernetes eight out of 10. If your team has experience with containerization, they should work on Kubernetes. It will make development and deployment easier.
I recommend first containerizing your application and running it in a dev environment to test it and get some experience before implementing it in a production environment.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
A flexible solution that needs to improve its UI
Pros and Cons
- "I am impressed with the product's coupling of resources and flexibility."
- "The tool needs to improve its UI. The tool is very complex and basic."
What is our primary use case?
I use the product for microservices.
What is most valuable?
I am impressed with the product's coupling of resources and flexibility.
What needs improvement?
The tool needs to improve its UI. The tool is very complex and basic.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven't encountered any issues with the product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the product's scalability an eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's setup is difficult and we need to write a lot of commands. It takes one day to complete the setup. We require two people for the solution's deployment and five people for its maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am using the solution's open-source version.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the product a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Database Infrastructure Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Efficiently hosts databases and applications
Pros and Cons
- "The best thing about Kubernetes is that most of the containerized applications are centralized."
- "There are several areas where Kubernetes could improve."
What is our primary use case?
At my company, we use Kubernetes to host our databases and applications. We work in the telecom domain, and our products use database technologies like Oracle, Postgres, and Cloudgres. We use Kubernetes to host NoSQL databases like Couchbase and Postgres and for some of our containerized applications. We are involved in multiple projects, not just a single one.
What is most valuable?
Kubernetes is a microservice. So, the best thing about Kubernetes is that most of the containerized applications are centralized. You don't need to develop specific company applications on top of container images. Kubernetes also provides flexibility in maintenance. It takes away most of the maintenance part, such as if a port crashes, it comes up automatically, making deployment very easy. We just need to run a few commands to deploy the application, and maintenance is taken care of by Kubernetes. Upgrading applications becomes smooth, requiring less effort and time.
Resource utilization, cost savings, and portability are additional advantages of Kubernetes. It is available in the public clouds, and portability becomes very easy. When it comes to networking, Kubernetes offers very flexible containerization with the added benefit of CSI.
What needs improvement?
There are several areas where Kubernetes could improve. For example, in one of our database projects, we needed a storage layer that would work on safer sites. Our application is a permanent one that requires low latency and is intensive in terms of networking. It works on every single URL and needs access to the database. After researching several solutions available in the market, we went with Portworx for the database back-end storage layer. However, we encountered an issue when we brought down one of the worker nodes in a cluster of three nodes. The pod that was hosted around that worker node was not responding on other worker nodes, even though it was responding. We found out that there was a feature in the alpha stages in the stable site that could have solved this issue, but we don't enable alpha features in our production environment. Therefore, we increased the replication factor in the storage layer from one to two to avoid this issue. Our application is latency-sensitive and demands low latency in terms of network and response time.
So, increasing a replica of the storage level will also cause double the I/O, which has additional costs involved. We did extensive research on that and found that the feature needs to be stabilized; certain improvements are required.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Kubernetes for around two years now, and I'm familiar with it. I worked closely with both the implementation team and the engineering team as well as the research and development team.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scaling up and down is easy in Kubernetes, so adding or removing worker nodes is simple and straightforward.
The engineering team uses it the most. We started with three projects, and now I can see around 150 to 200 people using it.
How are customer service and support?
There is a good support community available.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's free and open-source; anyone can use it. So there are no hidden fees or anything regarding Kubernetes.
What other advice do I have?
I would encourage you to start with Docker containers first, get the hang of it, and then move on to Kubernetes.
Understand the Docker concepts, software, container networking, and how container images are built. Once that's done, it becomes easy to enter into the Kubernetes world. Kubernetes is an orchestration tool that builds on top of Docker containerization.
I would rate it as excellent because it is very easy to deploy applications, manage ports, and expose applications both within and outside the cluster. Kubernetes also has a good reach and can be used in both private and public clouds, and there is plenty of support in terms of documentation and online forums to help users who run into any issues.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Allows developers to provide trolling updates and zero downtime with harmonic features
Pros and Cons
- "All the current features are quite harmonic."
- "It increases developers' overhead."
What is our primary use case?
This solution is used for serving DevOps.
How has it helped my organization?
Kubernetes is quite controversial. It increases developers' overhead and allows them to provide trolling updates and zero downtime. In addition, it has increased the possibility of delivery of new features without training downtime of the application.
What is most valuable?
All the current features are quite harmonic, and they require each other.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for about two years, and it is deployed on the public cloud.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. It is infinitely scalable, and no feature can scale like Kubernetes. How much we use the solution depends on the company's business needs.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use other solutions and have only used Kubernetes.
How was the initial setup?
I rate the initial setup a four out of ten. It requires call writing come, YAML files and help to chart things done. You need to add something new to improve the solution and handle the traffic. The deployment was completed in-house, and one person was enough to complete the deployment.
What was our ROI?
We have not seen a return on investments. It's saved the possibility of rollout and zero downtime from projects. It's like the biggest advantage of the human ordinate.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is an open-source solution, so it is free to use. People on the internet always advocate for cheaper options. If you want to use a managed solution, you'll have to pay for it, and it can be expensive if you manage it on your own.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution an eight out of ten. Regarding advice, if you have a small infrastructure, do not go with full Kubernetes. Instead, use smaller solutions like K3s or Rancher and full Kubernetes if you have a vast infrastructure.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Kubernetes Consultant, Cloud Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Container management solution that is cost effective and offers fast performance
Pros and Cons
- "This solution is cost effective and fast. We are able to use Kubernetes to orchestrate hundreds of container images which has been a major benefit."
- "There is a feature called Terraform and, based on the reviews I have read, it could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
This is a container orchestration platform used to organize our containers. Most of our applications are developed containers. We need Kubernetes to manage the network and volumes. We had approximately 50 tech team members using this solution.
What is most valuable?
This solution is cost effective and fast. We are able to use Kubernetes to orchestrate hundreds of container images which has been a major benefit.
What needs improvement?
There is a feature called Terraform and, based on the reviews I have read, it could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
You can scale Kubernetes up and down easily.
How are customer service and support?
When it comes to support, we have mostly used the documentation provided for the solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward but you do need to know the basics. The speed and ease of the set up depends on how fast you want the application to be and the amount of traffic your application generates.
When I first started using Kubernetes, it was quite challenging. I would rate the set up a two and a half out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Kubernetes is open source and is an orchestration platform. It is a cost effective solution and its pricing depends on your company and how you use it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated solutions like OpenShift and Rancher. The great thing about Openshift is that it is ready to use out of the box. When using Kubernetes, you have to set everything up on your own. Besides that, there are not many differences between Kubernetes and the other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
This is a very good registration platform. It saves costs and is fast. You can deploy thousands of replicas of your application all at once, as long as you have enough resources.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
System Administrator at Confidential
The solution can easily scale an application and continuously monitor all components for proper function
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has many valuable features but the most impressive is the ability to scale an application and continuously monitor if all the components of the application are functioning correctly."
- "The security of the solution is in its infancy and needs a lot of work."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the solution to deploy applications that are based on the microservices architecture.
What is most valuable?
The solution has many valuable features but the most impressive is the ability to scale an application and continuously monitor if all the components of the application are functioning correctly. If one part fails, it will recreate that component only, without disrupting the application. Another valuable feature, unlike other solutions that use the imperative way of programming this solution uses the declarative way, so you only need to describe the end result and it will do everything to arrive at that state.
What needs improvement?
The solution can be improved by adding a management console that will allow the use of a graphical interface to do what is usually done using command line instructions. I would like to have a simplification of the update process, which is currently not straightforward and time-consuming. The security of the solution is in its infancy and needs a lot of work.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for over a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable as long as you don't touch the configuration and you know what you are doing otherwise, it will crash easily.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable, but it is difficult to do as a standalone solution. Most organizations use paid solutions, such as Rancher, or OpenShift that are similar to operating systems that embedded the solution in them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. I am able to have a fully working cluster within half an hour. There are tools available that can help automate the deployment and reduce the time to under 15 minutes.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is open source and has no fees.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution eight out of ten.
I suggest anyone who would like to use this solution first get the certification. You must be knowledgeable with Linux and comfortable with the command line interface.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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